Tech influencer Marques Brownlee recently shared his experience of overheating on the iPhone 15 Pro while using the Instagram app and listening to music. He described how the phone gets extremely hot for about five minutes, draining the battery by around 5%, before returning to normal. Another tech reviewer, @iPhonedo, also blamed Instagram for the overheating issue, which started after updating to iOS 17. Both Brownlee and @iPhonedo noticed a significant decline in battery life while their devices were overheating.
In a YouTube video, @iPhonedo demonstrated how the temperature of the iPhone 15 Pro Max increased from 80°F to over 96°F while using Instagram, causing a decrease in battery life. He mentioned that this overheating problem is exclusive to the Instagram app and switching to Low Power Mode only provides a slight improvement in heat generation while the battery still drains.
Furthermore, it is important to note that a former Facebook employee, George Hayward, claimed earlier this year that Facebook intentionally drains phone batteries as part of “negative testing.” Hayward’s experience with Meta, the parent company of Instagram, raises concerns that this overheating issue might be deliberate. However, Instagram has not responded to @iPhonedo’s attempts to bring attention to the problem. Users experiencing similar issues can test whether uninstalling Instagram resolves the overheating problem, and they can also try using Low Power Mode to mitigate the heat generation.
