For a long time, I have had GrapheneOS on my Google Pixel 7 - which I don’t use anymore as my main phone, but it’s almost always on. It has some apps, but mainly, a constant connection to my email. No SIM card, connected via Wi-Fi.

I’ve always noticed a battery drain of about 4-5% overnight, sometimes even more, despite not having notifications and not using it.

Last night, I decided to remove Google Services. In 24 hours (and a few minutes of usage), it consumed 2% of the battery.

I’m trying to understand how much I need Google Services for my needs. The main messaging systems I currently use are bridged with Matrix, and on Element, I have notifications via ntfy (unified push).

In the coming days, I will try to see if it’s possible for me to do without them.

#GooglePixel #Pixel7 #Android #GrapheneOS #OwnYourData #MobileExperience

  • BearOfaTime
    2·
    7 days ago

    Yea, it’s been known forever that GServices is problematic, and it’s supposed to help battery life by being a single comm channel for notifications (so apps don’t run their own).

    Every phone I’ve rooted and disabled GServices has had much better battery life, like down from 10%+ per hour to as little as 2%, and this was 10 years ago.

    It’s gotten better since then, but on a recently flashed phone with no GServices I’m seeing a few percent consumption, per day. Latest check, 0.7% per hour over the last 24 hours, with MicroG services and a handful of apps (including Syncthing keeping some stuff in sync), a Jabber/XMPP client, Telegram, Google Maps and a couple other apps.