messaging users Google Messages you might have noticed increased battery consumption and increased smartphone usage in the past few days. In fact, the fault lies with a bug in Messenger, which is not so easy to spot at first glance: Messenger forgetto close the camera and check your live image all the time, also in the background.

Google Messages has camera integration, as is the case with many messengers. With this integrated mode, you can take a photo directly in Messenger, which can be sent immediately and does not have to be saved in the gallery beforehand. This can be very useful and usually works without much trouble. But for some, this feature has had a bug that makes the app simply forget to close the camera.

After taking a photo or video, the camera image disappears, but the app continues to search for it. This means that the camera is active non-stop and therefore some algorithms to improve the camera image are doing their job all the time. This was noted by higher battery consumption and a significantly warmer device. However, it was only discovered by the security feature in Android 12, which provides information about Messenger’s use of the camera.

Google has yet to comment on the issue, but there are two simple solutions: Quit the app entirely via Task Manager, or completely revoke access permissions to the camera when not in use. An update will probably not be long in coming.

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[9to5Google]