Is YouTube draining your battery? Google makes big changes to Android app and users say ‘it consumes a lot of power’

GOOGLE recently offered a huge YouTube performance boost to Android owners – but users say it’s draining their battery.

The increase meant playback performance was shown at higher resolutions, while power consumption was reduced on selected Android devices.

Sounds like a win-win situation, right?

Well, not exactly.

Collectively, this represents a ton of battery life – and therefore electricity – to be wasted at Google’s hands.

Reddit user u/Phascinate

Some YouTube users say the software update — called dav1d — has reduced battery performance since Google enabled it in the YouTube app, Forbes reported.

Dav1d arrived in the March 2024 Google Play system update.

In a post on LinkedIn, software development manager at Google Arif Dikici said: “Most devices can decode 720p30 in software using dav1d.

“Applications need to opt-in to dav1d to benefit for now, but it will soon become the default av1 software decoder.”

Android devices eligible for the update are devices that do not have built-in hardware support for the increasingly popular AV1 video format.

Currently, only the latest devices have built-in support.

This causes many older devices to have difficulty using YouTube without draining the battery.

“Some YouTube videos now go blank and pause if I’m doing things in another window/screen until I go back and press play again on my desktop,” wrote one user in a thread on Reddit.

Another wrote: “Did this change happen today? I noticed my phone was draining abnormally fast while watching YouTube over the last few days, so that probably explains the problem if not.”

While a third viewer wrote: “It would be nice to just have the option in Settings to turn it off again.

“Collectively, this represents a ton of battery life – and therefore electricity – to be wasted at Google’s hands.”

Android Battery Tricks

It is unclear whether the issue will be resolved.

But there are other built-in settings you can enable to prevent rapid battery drain.

Google has revealed eight different settings you should check to “use less battery.”

The list of eight settings is:

• Let your screen turn off early.
• Reduce screen brightness.
• Set the brightness to change automatically.
• Turn off keyboard sounds or vibrations.
• Restrict apps with high battery usage.
• Turn on the adaptive battery.
• Delete unused accounts.
• Activate the dark theme.

Must-Know Android Tips to Boost Your Phone

Make the most of your Android smartphone with these little-known hacks: