Google Play Services app causing device overheating and extreme battery drain for lot of users

After iOS, the device overheating and heavy battery drain issue has now infected Android devices as well, just that the culprit app is different. For the past couple of weeks, a large number of Android phone users have been reporting – on the official Pixel help forum, XDA, and Reddit – about the Google Play Services app draining their device’s battery.

Following is a screenshot shared by one those facing the issue, revealing that the Play Services app is consuming battery as high as 56%.

The following comment from an affected user on Reddit should give you an idea about the magnitude of the problem:

I’ve seen some bad Play Services behavior / battery drain on other devices, but this is insane. It’s even worse when you consider how big the battery is on the Pixel 2 XL and how good battery life on it is supposed to be. From 100% to 17% with 16 minutes of screen on time? #WTF

Here are some other screenshots shared by users:

Users are chiming about the same on Twitter as well.

https://twitter.com/thagwhistle/status/927739182918746112
https://twitter.com/LiveMatt/status/931454667812409344
https://twitter.com/jaypwright/status/931787646724136960

Some say that the app eats up battery only when the device is on Wi-Fi. It’s also worth mentioning that a significant number of users are saying that the problem came to light after (if not introduced by) the November security update. A few of those affected are also noting that their devices are getting hot, presumably due to this issue.

We would also like to stress that the issue is not limited to devices from any single company, as users owning phones from Google, Samsung, OnePlus and even Blackberry are complaining about it.

For its part, Google has swung into action, and is asking for bug reports to investigate the matter in detail. Here’s what Google employee Orrin (who is also the Community Manager at Pixel User Community) said while addressing the complainants:

We’d like to dig into this more, and I’ll be reaching out for bug reports. Stay tuned

Though the company hasn’t said much about this battery drainage issue officially, at-least it looks like they have started actively investigating it. With Google jumping into the picture, we are hoping the root cause will soon be figured out. And if it’s indeed an issue on their part, it should be fixed sooner than later. Till then keep a tab here for all related developments.

Pixel User Community | Reddit 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | XDA

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