We were excited to see Google Now finally make its way to iOS, but it didn't come without problems. Many users report excessive battery drain due to location reporting. Fortunately, Cult of Mac offers a solution.
Hopefully the excessive battery drain be fixed sooner rather than later, then, but you don’t need to stop using Google Now completely until that time comes. Instead, you can turn off location reporting from within the Privacy section of the app’s settings — just hit the little cog in the top right corner. This will disable the features that rely on location information, such as live traffic reporting, but it won’t kill Google Now completely.
While this solution requires compromise, we'll hopefully see an update to the app in the near future that will allow Google Now to function fully without siphoning the life from your iDevice's battery.
UPDATE: Google contacted us to let us know that they believe the battery drain reports in the iOS Google Now app are incorrect:
Reports that Google Now drains battery life are incorrect. We understand people’s concern about seeing the Location Services icon stay on when they use Google Now. Many apps that keep the icon on actually do drain the phone’s battery because they require very accurate location. (For example a navigation app has to run your GPS all the time to keep you from missing your turn.) Google Now is built very differently: it uses cell towers and wifi hot spots for much lower battery impact.
We extensively tested Google Now on iOS for months and didn’t see reports of significant battery impact — we would encourage you to try it in the Google Search app for a few days and we don’t expect you to see significant impact on your battery. If you are seeing a problem, please do tell us (just tap feedback in the app settings). We take user feedback very seriously.
So, if you haven't actually experienced any significant battery don't go and turn off location services for Google Now as a preventative measure. If you do experience an issue, however, let them know.
Hopefully the excessive battery drain be fixed sooner rather than later, then, but you don’t need to stop using Google Now completely until that time comes. Instead, you can turn off location reporting from within the Privacy section of the app’s settings — just hit the little cog in the top right corner. This will disable the features that rely on location information, such as live traffic reporting, but it won’t kill Google Now completely.
While this solution requires compromise, we'll hopefully see an update to the app in the near future that will allow Google Now to function fully without siphoning the life from your iDevice's battery.
UPDATE: Google contacted us to let us know that they believe the battery drain reports in the iOS Google Now app are incorrect:
Reports that Google Now drains battery life are incorrect. We understand people’s concern about seeing the Location Services icon stay on when they use Google Now. Many apps that keep the icon on actually do drain the phone’s battery because they require very accurate location. (For example a navigation app has to run your GPS all the time to keep you from missing your turn.) Google Now is built very differently: it uses cell towers and wifi hot spots for much lower battery impact.
We extensively tested Google Now on iOS for months and didn’t see reports of significant battery impact — we would encourage you to try it in the Google Search app for a few days and we don’t expect you to see significant impact on your battery. If you are seeing a problem, please do tell us (just tap feedback in the app settings). We take user feedback very seriously.
So, if you haven't actually experienced any significant battery don't go and turn off location services for Google Now as a preventative measure. If you do experience an issue, however, let them know.
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