An all-day battery life on a phone is a great thing to have, especially if you don"t always have the facility to charge your device when it"s low on battery. One way to conserve battery life is also to limit background apps and take advantage of the bundled battery saving capabilities present in most modern handsets today. However, it doesn"t help when a messaging app starts consuming more battery than needed, and that"s exactly what"s been going on with Google Messages.
9to5Google reports that a bug in the Google Messages app on Android phones left the camera running in the background, leading to excessive battery drainage and heating of the phone. This can happen when you open your camera directly from the app and use it to send a photo and then the app continues to use camera services in the background even when you don"t have Google Messages open.
The issue was reportedly introduced in a recent update for Google Messages but does not appear to affect all phones and does not happen each time. It"s unclear what causes the bug to reproduce.
According to The Verge, citing Google"s communication manager Scott Westover, the good news is that Google has identified the issue and a fix is now rolling out. However, until the update becomes available on your phone, it"s probably advisable to head over to your phone"s settings and disallow Google Messages from using camera services.
Source: 9to5Google via The Verge