WidgetCraftGet the appGuide
Do widgets drain your battery?
A few well-made widgets use very little power. Widgets that fetch data from the internet often, or that keep the app awake, use more.
Where the power goes
Drawing a widget on screen costs almost nothing. The cost comes from what feeds it:
- Network requests: waking the radio to fetch data is the largest cost.
- Location: widgets that follow your position use GPS or network location.
- Wake-ups: each refresh briefly wakes the phone. Many widgets refreshing often add up.
Cheap and expensive widgets
| Widget | Cost | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Clock, date | Very low | Uses the system clock |
| Battery, tasks, notes | Very low | Local data, updates on change |
| Calendar, music | Low | Reads data already on the phone |
| Step counter | Low | Reads totals another app recorded |
| Web data every few minutes | Higher | Frequent network requests |
Keeping usage low
- Remove widgets you no longer look at.
- Prefer local data such as time, date, battery and tasks.
- For web data, choose the longest refresh interval you can live with.
- On OLED screens, dark widgets use slightly less power than bright ones because black pixels are off.
How to check
Open Settings → Battery → Battery usage and look at the list by app. If a widget app appears near the top without you using it much, reduce its refresh rate or remove its busiest widget.
Questions
Is it bad to have many widgets?
Not if they use local data. Ten clocks cost less than one widget that reloads web data every minute.
Should I restrict battery use for widget apps?
No. Restricting them stops updates. Leave them unrestricted and reduce refreshes instead.