Pokemon GO is Draining Cell Phone Batteries Fast

Pokemon GO is apparently hell on your phone’s battery life – but Niantic is working on a solution.

Pokemon Go is now live in certain regions – not North America, unless of course you use a workaround – and reports are already indicating that it is destroying cell phone batteries. Not destroying as in making them randomly explode, but rather it is very quickly draining batteries. Unless you want to walk around with a charging pack or a few spare batteries, it’s making actually playing the game rather difficult, save for in short bursts – according to some reports, a fully charged device can be drained in under three hours of gameplay.

The official known issues page for Pokemon GO lists “Heavy Battery Use” as an acknowledged issue, and states that Niantic Labs is working on a solution.

“Some devices may experience battery drain while playing Pokemon GO for prolonged periods of time. We are working on a solution.”

Users have reported that, while the game does include a “battery saver” option, it isn’t very effective. However, this is the internet, and people are already posting tips on how to help with the issue until an official fix is available – including manually adjusting your phone’s screen brightness, turning the sound off, and of course, carrying an extra battery or power bank.