Exessive battery drain on Google Pixel with stock Android and Google services

[johschmitz]

• [x] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [x] I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• [x] I have read https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports
• [x] This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

---

Bug description

Let me first start by describing the results of the the search for duplicate issues. There are multiple open issues regarding excessive battery consumption:

• https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/9729
• https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/10336
• https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/issues/12341

However, it seems that all of them are related to the non-usage of Google services and are therefore not being resolved with high priority. For this reason I would like to explicitly open another issue for the case that Google services are being used which is currently the case for me.

I am on stock Android 14 on a Google Pixel 8 and experiencing very high battery consumption as shown in the screenshot below ("Hintergrund" means "Background").

Steps to reproduce

• Run Signal on a Pixel 8 without any system modifications

Actual result: Very high battery consumption of up to 50 percent only from Signal Expected result: Low battery consumption during background usage bellow 10 percent

Screenshots

Device info

Device: Google Pixel 8 Android version: 14 Signal version: 7.15.4

Link to debug log

https://debuglogs.org/android/7.15.4/99f1dbc35ebced1dff68fd07896388d1669c09c202add3bdc63a2792308e40cc

[BurkusCat]

I noticed my battery has been draining abnormally fast over the past couple of weeks. I checked my usage and was surprised to see it was Signal by a significant margin.

Device: Pixel 6A Android version: 14 Signal version: 7.20.2

[HasBert]

I have the same Problem on my Pixel8a and had the same on my old Pixel4a, both with GrapheneOS. Signal basically drains more than half of my battery in background. @SignalFoundation is this the price we have pay for privacy?

Ty for nor even answering one of the 4 battery tickets which are older than 2 years. I want to help, so please just pick it up and tell us where we can help!

[johschmitz]

Yeah, eventually some official comment would be great, at least for official Google supported Android. Feels a bit abandoned otherwise. I'm regularly making some small donations but I'm starting to question if that still makes sense if the basics are never being fixed. It would be cool if we could at least sketch out a possible fix such that some volunteer can come up with a PR.

[ashemedai]

Pixel 9 Pro here, running Android 15, where the background drain of Signal is just around 45% of my battery when I checked today.

For now I stopped background usage (Settings > Battery Usage > Signal > Allow background usage: disabled), forced stopped the app and restarted it, and my battery has not dropped below 100% yet after ~5 hours. Need to fully evaluate how badly it affects message reception.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[johschmitz]

I still have this with the latest Android and Signal update.

[HasBert]

@johschmitz I switched to Molly, because they applied the websocket fix there and it works perfect. DK what Signal does right now. Maybe we should ask their CEO, which is probably counting your donation. I'm done with Signal as long as Molly exists.

[johschmitz]

Great to hear that there is hope.

I am currently also sceptical regarding the donations since this is such a no go. For years we are putting our reputation on the line as Signal "evangelists" and it is being harmed by this very basic (energy efficiency) not properly working for a long time. I will continue donating after this isssue is resolved.

@HasBert do you have a link to the PR with the bugfix on the Molly side you can add here?

[xx-5]

it is like that for years it is never going to be fixed, just use whatapps it dont have the battery issue with websocket

[johschmitz]

If it is not going to be fixed it would be good to at least clearly document the architectural reasons behind this.

[iasdeoupxe]

Not sure if relevant but a comment in #13337 is linking to:

• 93d18c176320ad3ba0fc9f0c317b6505ec9ff6b9
• 323697dfc902ca4bd986bcd9f3393d94ee11a0cb
• 5a0def739080d1ead117170b935638b12da5ea95

and another mentions:

However the behavior has been added to the latest beta, 7.38.x

[barszcz]

Not sure if relevant but a comment in #13337 is linking to:

* [93d18c1](https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/commit/93d18c176320ad3ba0fc9f0c317b6505ec9ff6b9)

* [323697d](https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/commit/323697dfc902ca4bd986bcd9f3393d94ee11a0cb)

* [5a0def7](https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/commit/5a0def739080d1ead117170b935638b12da5ea95)

and another mentions:

However the behavior has been added to the latest beta, 7.38.x

I'm on a Pixel 8 running stock Android 15 with Google Play Services installed, and I'm still having this issue on Signal 7.40.2. If anything, the issue has gotten worse with recent updates; as of the last few weeks I now have to charge my phone multiple times a day to get through the day. I've gone back and forth toggling background usage and it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Let me know any way I can help diagnose the issue; I'm heavily reliant on Signal so uninstalling it isn't an option and I'd prefer not to install a fork.

[flyingcakes85]

Same here, Android 15, Signal 7.40.2. New Motrola device and battery barely lasted a day even with conservative usage. No amount of battery settings fixed this drain, and sadly I had to resort to uninstalling Signal. Battery now lasts a day and half easily.

Funny enough, the battery issue isn't there on my older Redmi (Android 10), so I've re-installed signal on older phone and using it there. But its not a fix, right? I bought the new phone to use it.

Either way, I have 2 devices, one affected, one not. If that can help debug anything, I'm more than willing to extend help.

Debug logs from affected Motorola device: https://files.snehit.dev/signal-log-1745951026137.zip

I reported it separately, since its not a Pixel device and I didn't find a recent thread for Motorola: #14116

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[dataprolet]

Issue is not stale, devs just don't care.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[flyingcakes85]

Issue is still relevant.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[johschmitz]

I still have this issue with Signal version 7.61.3 and Android 16 on Pixel 8. It became worse again after the latest Android 16 Update as far as I can tell.