yemus

First let me say that the Handcent SMS application is a much better messaging app than the stock app that comes with the EVO. However, the app is a battery hog and was draining my battery at a rate of almost 8 % per hour. Reason I know this is because prior to installing this app, my battery life was great. After installing the app, battery drain was really bad. Decided to uninstall the app yesterday and back to about 2% drain per hour which is what I had prior to installing the app. So for those of you with poor battery life, pay attention to what apps you may have recently installed as some of them are not optimized for battery consumption.

Bek

Do you have any solid evidence that Handcent was at fault? SystemPanel Lite allows you to turn on monitoring with history, which tells you what was active at any point in time.

I say this, because I've been using Handcent for... wow, almost a month now, and it hasn't caused any battery issues for me.

Sure you had it configured optimally?

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yemus

Well, the solid evidence I have is that after I uninstalled the app, my battery life got better. If yours is good with the app installed, then good for you. However, for some reason, my battery life went down the toilet with Handcent installed. I also use advance task killer and will check what apps were constantly running when I was experiencing poor batter life and Handcent was at the top of the list. So this is the only evidence I have. At least for now, I'm back to being happy with my battery life.

Munnarg

I find the stock messaging app fits my needs. I installed Handcent a few times and never made it through the day with it. I honestly don't like it at all.

IPvFletch

I REALLY like Handcent, I guess I fell in love with the iPhone SMS interface.

In checking into this now, it is quite possible Handcent has made my idle CPU time for "System" to go from 2% to 4%, which is a 100% gain over previous System idling. That is NOT good. I'm going to monitor this some more, but you may be on to something here.

stevieo526

I'm wondering if you didn't disable your stock messaging app. This would create the 100% increase of battery drain. As you essentially had to SMS apps running at the same time. When I first installed Handcent (as a newb to android) I didn't change my stock SMS app settings and was receiving notifications from both. I have since turned that off and have continued using handcent without issue.

Bek

Fair enough.

I would only say, give Handcent another try but with different settings to make sure it wasn't 1. constantly being killed/resurrected due to your use of an ATK (assuming it wasn't an exception) and/or changing how it does notifications. Many others, myself included, use it happily. Just saying that maybe with some tweaking, you can too.

IPvFletch

I disabled stock Messaging app from retrieving automatically and disabled all notifications. It was still running though, but it should be suspended with no CPU time (how can I confirm this??)

I just killed it, so I'll compare utilization after a bit.

stevieo526

I use SystemPanelLite: SystemPanelLite Task Manager - Android app on AppBrain

It will give you active services and inactive services. You can turn on history tracking in the full version, but you can visually monitor it on the Lite version for a period of time and have a friend sent you texts to see how it behaves.

yemus

I never did turn off the stock messaging application and did have two messaging apps running at the same time. Thanks for bringing this to my attention as it's possible that this could have been the reason for the increase in battery drain. I will give handcent another shot and disable the stock app and see if that makes a difference. Thanks for the suggestions.

IPvFletch

I killed my stock messaging app and have noticed no change in battery life really.

Sprockethead

You can't permanently disable the stock messaging app, can you? If so, how? I have handcent installed and I like it. My messaging program still runs, I just never open it. But it looks as if handcent calls the messaging app. If you go to Task Killer, kill Messaging, and then open Handcent and look at Task Killer again, "Messaging" is running again.

Eh? Please explain somebody.

travisr528

Open the stock messaging app, go to settings, Deselect "auto-retieve" and "received notification" and that should do it.

sono gal

I noticed a dramatic increase in battery life today, and I still have Handcent installed. The only difference was that I uninstalled ATK last night, I just let my EVO do it's thing as far as closing apps I usually have to charge my battery every day at 1pm. And this was with light usage! When I got home from work today at 5 pm, my battery was still at 40%.

Twosted

I dumped Handcent for SMS Popup. I like the standard SMS app and SMS Popup provides the "extra" features that the standard app is missing.

PabloEscobar

I have installed handcent tonight and have noticed it is using, quite often, more than 16% cpu!

Can anyone sugest why and how to reduce thia please?

EarlyMon

Check its notifications settings.

Turn off things yr instincts suggest you don't need.

I use minimal notifications without reminders, interrupts, or screen on - works for my needs.

You don't have to make it Spartan like mine, but I think maybe some defaults are overkill.

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YamiR6

i love handcent. amazing app that is completely customizable. I just wish u could delete the original message app and make that default. i honestly wish there is a way to delete alot of dumb apps on my phone clean it up a bit.

nRRe

I use handcent because it keeps the messages in order of sent/received. The stock app goes by time and my phone will often say the text was sent 4-8 hrs into the future and othertimes not.

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wubbie075

Absolutely love Handcent for the customization options. I just hate boring bubbles on a white background. With very little effort I was able to get it looking gorgeous. Not rooted so cannot post screenshot though.

Disclaimer: I have not really tried any others (besides a short time on stock when I first purchased the phone), so it is entirely possible that I could do what I do on Handcent with some or all of the other options, but unless I hear a compelling reason to switch (like significant battery life increase) I'll be sticking with it.

stangtech

i have noticed with Handcent that if you change the led flashing speed in it that will cause a battery drain. once i want back to default it was back to not causing a problem

voyagerlvr

Forgive me, but I am a newbie with my Incredible and Handcent. I love the bubbles, but they never show up on my pop up screen or when I am creating or reading. I only see them when I look at a conversation with one person. Is that the way it is or did I not set this up correctly?

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jeremylobaugh

I dumped Handcent for SMS popup long ago. It's lightweight, feature rich and there is a free version. There is a donate version, I will probably be picking it up, it's worth the 3 bucks

case1212

Hancent is currently using 3% battery. Display is using 77%. Android System 15%. Cell Standby 2% and Home++ is using 2%.