16 Pro, have made all the known battery saving settings, and typical use for me is surfing and listening to a podcast for three hours and my battery is then below 50%.
I think that’s terrible, personally.
Can I assume others have similar issues?
iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 26
Not sure why the focus is on Podcasts. According the battery monitor Podcasts is only using a small amount compared to Chrome and mostly in the background. Chrome use is foreground so the screen being on will have significant impact on battery use. My suggestion would be to try using Safari for a while instead of Chrome and see if that makes a difference. If it were me I'd uninstall Chrome completely for this test since if Chrome is causing a problem it's more likely due to the telemetry and other tracking stuff that Chrome is no doubt sending back and forth during browsing and there's no gurarantee that it's not doing that all the time. You could also try dimming the screen a bit if you're not using auto-dimming.
Not sure why the focus is on Podcasts. According the battery monitor Podcasts is only using a small amount compared to Chrome and mostly in the background. Chrome use is foreground so the screen being on will have significant impact on battery use. My suggestion would be to try using Safari for a while instead of Chrome and see if that makes a difference. If it were me I'd uninstall Chrome completely for this test since if Chrome is causing a problem it's more likely due to the telemetry and other tracking stuff that Chrome is no doubt sending back and forth during browsing and there's no gurarantee that it's not doing that all the time. You could also try dimming the screen a bit if you're not using auto-dimming.
Referring to the "Your battery's maximum capacity" section of the support article: https://support.apple.com/HT208387 - "A normal battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles when operating under normal conditions." Apple apparently only considers it unusual (and covered by warranty) if a battery drops below 80% maximum capacity in less than a year after you receive it. Ergo, some storage loss as you use it is anticipated and acceptable. A possible 20% drop over the first 12 months equates to 1-2% drop per month being within the range of what Apple finds acceptable. "The one-year warranty includes service coverage for a defective battery. If it is out of warranty, Apple offers battery service for a charge." In other words, if maximum capacity is below 80%, the battery is below normal performance and worth replacing. A notification will appear about this. You can still use a device with a lower health percentage than 80% but for optimal usage you may wish to consider having it changed when it reaches 80% battery health.
What this basically means:
- If battery health drops a few percentage per month that is normal.
- If battery health drops below 80% before the end of the first year, contact Apple about a warranty replacement. (Apple will test it to determine its actual eligibility.)
- If battery health drops below 80% (you will see a warning message) after the first year, consider getting the battery replaced but anticipate paying for it.
Go to this web site for information about how to request battery service for your iPhone: https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-replacement
For cost and availability, enter your model information in the "Get an estimate" box at the bottom. (It is best that you do this since sometimes contributors here forget this is an international forum and not everybody asking questions lives in the contributor’s country.)
For instructions on how to get your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch ready for service click here --> https://support.apple.com/HT201557
He was using an older copy of Chrome and some popular social media apps were consuming a lot of battery capacity. He updated Chrome and deleted TikTok and maybe others. He had low power mode on all the time and that was causing issues with necessary background activity, updates etc. I think that was mostly it.
I have an IPhone 16 Pro, Software version 26.3.1.
As of March 2nd My Battery Idle time shot up from average of 2 hours to 5 hrs and on 3/4/2026 my battery screen idle time shot up to 9hrs. The biggest user was the Chrome App and Tik Tok second highest. I uninstalled The Chrome App and battery usage has dropped down to 12 min idle. I haven’t used TT today yet so I do not know how much battery it will use since I’m using Safari. I really do not like the user interface on Safari. I don’t know why as of Monday chrome started using so much battery. I really wasn’t doing anything that would cause major amounts of synching between iPhone and google. I was an android user up until 2018 so I still use a lot of Google products. Any ideas why chrome started taking so much more battery all of the sudden?
Every issue I had pretty much was my fault. Using low power mode all the time. I didn’t know that uninstalling 2 big apps uses a lot of battery. I uninstalled chrome yesterday and tik tok today and then powered off and on phone. So I’m just going to watch device for a few days and try to keep it off low power mode. Also google community could not tell me what is going on with chrome. I used Safari the same amount of time that i used chrome and it used 5% less battery than chrome. I’m going to try to use Safari for a little while.
Web kit may be updated in periodic iOS updates. Third party apps including Chrome must be updated by their developers and then updated versions installed by the end user. If you haven’t updated your iOS version or Chrome version, that’s the first thing to do. Troubleshooting out of date apps and iOS versions is useless. The fix is waiting to be installed.
I appreciate all your help. I’m just gonna leave the TikTok app off, because obviously it sounds like I have a TT problem and it is a battery drain. I also don’t like Oracle so I shouldn’t be using their app. Thanks again.
They uninstalled Chrome. "Recently Deleted Apps" was the biggest battery user - presumably Chrome. Battery consumption reduced when Chrome was deleted.
Hi, I’d agree that your daily battery usage is subpar. But if you’d like to diagnose the issue, please read on!
What iOS version are you using currently? A podcast could easily deplete the battery substantially in just 3 hours if on cellular or using a VPN.
Please share a screenshot or list of what apps are consuming your daily battery capacity. This will help us determine what’s going on.
Your thoughts?
Yes, podcast is definitely indicating an issue. Please check settings and insure it’s not using cellular data. Lock Screen issues frequently indicate an issue with Widgets. Make sure all your apps and operating systems are updated to latest version.
Interesting, a lot to digest there. I went to Apple and they said I should do a restore as new to see if there’s something that I keep carrying over from phone to phone that’s causing this.
I haven’t deleted chrome and tried it without that I guess I could try, that would be very easy to do and then add back on and sign into etc., maybe I’ll do that before I go to this drastic step because I have so many things to log back into and I have hearing aids connected and shortcuts for them and all kinds of stuff like that.
You’re not the only one. Please give me a little time to review this. I’ve got to admit this isn’t my area of expertise. I’ll review this, but in the interim, please feel free to reach out to Apple support.
If you’re in the US, please call 1-800-MY-APPLE, or outside the US, consult the support articles below. In Canada, call 1-800-263-3394.
Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support
If you set up your new phone by transferring directly from your current phone at the time then you could’ve easily carried something over, if your phone is your first iPhone or you created it using your computer, that might be different but if you transferred one iPhone to another then yes you could’ve transferred some problems.
Let’s stop with the screenshot for a while. Do you use any Widgets on your lock screen or Home Screen?
He prefers Chrome and for some reason it was not updated recently. So, it appears Auto Updates was off for a while.
I know, I know, not another battery thread.
