Be careful when you use TikTok at night; this feature could use up your battery and internet while you sleep.
People are more and more likely to end their day by watching TikTok videos.on. Despite experts advising against using phones before bed, the reality is quite different: many users stay on the app until they fall asleep. And therein lies the problem.
It is not a device malfunction or a damaged battery, but rather a setting within the application itself, which, if not disabled, may keep the phone running all night, consuming battery power and phone data.
- A feature designed to keep you glued to your phone
TikTok is designed to maximize usage time. Its continuous playback system ensures videos don't pause even when the user stops interacting.
Until recently, phone operating systems—whether iOS or Android—would lock the screen after a few minutes of inactivity. But this has changed with the introduction of a new option: auto-scroll. This feature allows apps to switch from one video to another without requiring users to touch the screen, thus eliminating the normal power-saving mechanism.
The result is clear: if you fall asleep while watching TikTok, the app will continue playing content for hours. The screen stays on, the device considers it continued use, and it never goes into sleep mode.
- Impact: Battery, data, and temperature
You might notice the consequences as soon as you wake up. The TikTok app consumes between 800MB and 1GB of data per hour, which translates to 6 or 8GB in a single night if you're not connected to Wi-Fi.
Added to that is energy consumption. Continuous playback of videos—including animated images and user interface elements—increases the device's temperature, which not only accelerates battery drain but may also accelerate its deterioration in the long term.
- How to avoid this problem step by step
The solution is simple if you don't need this feature:
- Go to the "For You" section in the TikTok app.
- Press and hold your finger in the middle of the screen for one second.
- Look for the "auto skip" option.
- Disable it.
With this, video playback will depend on your interaction, allowing your phone to lock the screen automatically.
Ultimately, a feature designed to make content consumption easier can become a hidden problem at night. It only takes a few seconds to disable it and avoid waking up to a phone with a dead battery... and data about to run out.