Why GPS-dependent apps deplete your smartphone battery

Have you ever turned on location services and noticed your smartphone battery drain in a matter of minutes? People have come up with theories of why that’s happening: maybe you forgot to quit an app that keeps tracking your location, or your phone’s too busy searching for connections to cell towers and satellites. But which is it? Why do smartphone batteries drain so much faster when it’s using GPS?

Here’s what’s really happening when you turn on location services. First, your GPS receiver — a small chip and antennae located inside your smartphone — is always listening to cell towers, which give it a rough estimate of where you are at all times. Without cellular data or Wi-Fi, the GPS receiver guesses your location. “Without Wi-Fi... you...

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