[U] Google is already fixing that battery draining bug in its Messages app

Update, April 27th 6:05AM EST: One week after a severe battery draining bug in the Google Messages app caused phones to overheat, Google is issuing a fix via an update!

Original Post, April 21th 3:26PM EST: “Google Messages bug keeps the camera running, causes severe battery drain and overheating” – A bug in the Google Messages app for Android is causing some people to experience an unusually high level of battery drain on their devices, and in some cases, overheating. According to a Redditor by the name of CozyMicrobe, their camera remains on and running in the background of the phone after they’ve finished using it in the app. This could likely be the cause of the overheating as it was on for over 12 hours before they took notice!

9to5Google also experienced the same issue on the latest version of the app and reported on it as well. Luckily, there’s a quick fix for this problem, even though it shouldn’t be occurring in the first place. While the app is supposed to stop using your camera the moment you’re finished snapping and sending a photo, you can prevent this from happening by swiping the app away from the background overview mode, effectively closing it entirely and killing its process.

Another fix is to go into the Google Messages app’s “App info” by pressing and holding its icon and then tapping “App Permissions”, “Camera permissions”, and then “Don’t allow”. Android will then force quit allowing camera sharing to Messages. It’s not the end-all-be-all of resolutions, but we hope Google issues an update before too long.

It’s my guess that when you tap the plus icon to add attachments and media and then close it, the camera preview that shows in that small space remains open as a sub-process in the background. I’m certain that this is just a line of code that someone screwed up, and that it will be a non-issue within a few days or less. Let me know in the comments if you’re experiencing this bug!