Do opening apps with a shortcut drain battery?
I’ve been customising my Home Screen with custom icons using the shortcuts “open app”, does it drain more battery than just opening the app normally?
iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 18
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Let me clarify a few things with the best of my knowledge and experince:
- Opening an App and Battery Consumption: Opening an app consumes battery because the device has to load the app into memory and initialize its processes. Apps frequently used and kept open in the background (not force-closed) may consume slightly less energy when reopened since they are often cached in memory. However, keeping too many apps open can consume additional battery if these apps use background resources, such as refreshing data or running tasks.
- Using Shortcuts: Using a shortcut to open an app does not significantly affect battery consumption compared to opening the app directly. A shortcut simply acts as a pointer to the app and doesn’t introduce extra processes or resource consumption. The battery usage in both cases (opening via shortcut or directly) depends on the app itself and the tasks it performs.
- Best Practice:
- Keep apps open that you frequently use to minimize the energy used to relaunch them.
- Avoid force-closing apps unless they are misbehaving, as reopening a force-closed app can consume more battery.
- Manage background app activity to prevent excessive battery usage from apps running in the background unnecessarily.
In summary, the use of shortcuts for opening apps is efficient and has no significant impact on battery consumption compared to the direct method.