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2 Popular Social Media Apps Tech Pros Warn Are Draining Your Storage & Slowing Down Your Phone

May 12, 2026 by Abigail Connolly
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Social media is a major part of many people’s lives these days, with some people spending hours on their apps a day.

Though social media can be fun, entertaining, and keep you in touch with your friends and family, it can be time-consuming, and can also affect the quality of your device. There are a few social media apps out there that can take up a lot more storage space than you may think, subsequently affecting your battery life and more. Read more about two popular social media apps that can take up a lot of space and drain your battery below.

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1. Messaging Apps (WhatsApp, Messenger, etc.)

Despite being able to get texts through a smartphone's preinstalled messaging app, a lot of people will still have a lot of separate messaging apps on their devices. It could be WhatsApp, a way to communicate with people abroad, or Messenger, the app attached to Facebook. However, these apps can hold onto a whole lot of data.

 

"Whether it's WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, or whatever else, messaging apps keep everything sent and received by a particular account without informing the user or asking for permission," explains tech pro Rafael Sarim Oezdemir. It gets even worse in group chats, as the application keeps copies of every single file sent by everyone in a group of 20 or more users, regardless of whether the message was opened. As most users cannot see those files in camera rolls, they underestimate the volume of data stored by their messaging apps."

3. Meta Apps (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)

When it comes to social media, Meta, the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg, owns some of the most popular apps, like Facebook and Instagram. In recent years, more scary information has come out about how Meta uses people's data, and none of it has been all that comforting.

 

"Users come here to connect with others and be entertained," adds Coughlin. "They didn't come here to line the pockets of fraudsters. Meta's apps collect somewhere north of 150 distinct data points per user and stitch them together across the entire family of products, creating a boon for legitimate and fraudulent advertisers alike. Meta's platforms have become the single largest reported source of consumer fraud in the United States."

Author:

Editorial Assistant

Abigail is a journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. As an Editorial Assistant for SheFinds, she covers topics ranging from celebrity news and fashion to wellness. She has written for other publications, including Chip Chick, Bandsintown, BroadwayWorld, and more. When she isn't writing, Abigail loves spending time in the city with her friends, being a 'dog mom' to her Chihuahua, and singing along to some of her favorite music.