MyRoute-app Mobile drains battery

Rob Verhoeff

First of all I have to say that I'm really going to appreciate the app now. Thanks to this built-in functionality, I no longer have to rely on a bicycle navigation app from a third party. Kudos!

That being said, I notice that the capacity of my battery drops from 100% to 50% in a bike ride of 15 kilometers and 37 minutes. If you're going to use the app for "line navigation" (let me call it that way), you'll need a good battery or enough spare battery packs to make it to the end of your walking or cycling trip.

I appreciate it if some attention can be given to this.

Nick Carthew

@rob-verhoeff I think you'll find that all Smartphone navigation apps consume battery power.

Rob Verhoeff

@nick-carthew I agree, but 50% in less then 40 minutes is very much. On the motorbike I constantly use USB. But when putting this app (also) in the market for cyclists and hikers, they must have a bagpack with sufficient batterypacks!
For example: if I ride the same route with BikeGPX, I can navigate longer on the battery.
Perhaps there is still some benefit to be gained in the code?

Corjan Meijerink

@rob-verhoeff Thanks for reporting this! We actually took this into account during the development so we are really interested in way your battery drains. Some quick questions:

Is your screen on? This obviously increases the battery usage a lot
Are you tracking?
When the app asked for access to your motion permissions, did you grant or deny these? If you are not sure, feel free to share a screenshot of the permissions the app has.
Are you using iOS or Android?
If your phone supports details battery usage statistics, please share these too

Happy to help!

Hans van de Ven MR.MRA

@rob-verhoeff

It is already a bit improved, the first test version was worse, 1H23M tracking and the battery went from 100% to 38%.
The team is working on that.

Rob Verhoeff

@corjan-meijerink said in MyRoute-app Mobile drains battery:

@rob-verhoeff Thanks for reporting this! We actually took this into account during the development so we are really interested in way your battery drains. Some quick questions:

Is your screen on? This obviously increases the battery usage a lot

Yes, but when navigating (follow the line) the screen must be on. Espacially when tracking and navigate the same time on the bike

Are you tracking?

Yes and navigate at the same time

When the app asked for access to your motion permissions, did you grant or deny these? If you are not sure, feel free to share a screenshot of the permissions the app has.

Also a yes. I granted the permissions

Are you using iOS or Android?

iOS 15.5 on a iPhone 8

If your phone supports details battery usage statistics, please share these too

Max capacity 82%

Happy to help!

Thanks! Next week I try the same route on a Android Samsung A8.

Rob Verhoeff

@corjan-meijerink I did a comparative test this morning while walking. Both on the iPhone and on the Samsung now only a drop in battery capacity of 14% on both devices (navigation time 45 minutes). That is of course also logical. In contrast to navigating on a vehicle (bicycle, motorcycle or car), as a walker you do not have your screen on all the time.

Corjan Meijerink

@rob-verhoeff Cool! Thanks for the info.
Must admit that the fact that it is an older iPhone with that remaining capacity while having the screen on is a reasonable cause for the rather quick battery drain.

I will however see if there is anything we can change. Out of curiosity: if you use Google maps with your screen on in the same way you use the Mobile app, is battery drain the same?

Rob Verhoeff

@corjan-meijerink I will give it a try and wil report back (probably next week). Why does anybody want to use Google maps with an app like MRA?

Corjan Meijerink

@rob-verhoeff Hahaha no clue

Steve Lynch

@rob-verhoeff

It can be costly to completely discard the use of the Google Maps Overlay, particularly when looking for Hotels.

Take the screenshot below where the MRA POI’s only shows one Hotel but Google Maps shows 3 hotels including the one that MRA shows.
I think MRA Hotel POI’s are affiliated to Booking.Com only but I may be wrong.

Nick Carthew

@steve-lynch The POIs in the MRA POI library are supplied by OpenStreetMap. It is planned at some point to create a new library of POIs.

Steve Lynch

@nick-carthew
Thanks for the clarification Nick.

Update.
My info above was incorrect regarding Booking.Com, there is the option to book through them if you click the bed icon.

Rob Verhoeff

@corjan-meijerink said in MyRoute-app Mobile drains battery:

I will however see if there is anything we can change. Out of curiosity: if you use Google maps with your screen on in the same way you use the Mobile app, is battery drain the same?

Today I used the Samsung Android. Batterydrain is less then the iPhone. Probably due to the slightly older battery from the iPhone!
Also navigated with Google maps (who still want to use Google maps after the launch of the new app...) shows a slightly bigger batterydrain on Samsung and iPhone.
So if there is some improvement to get in the code, then that would be appriciated. For now I'll start looking for a big powerbank to hook on the iPhone while navigating!