Instagram app's huge battery drain flaw that caused Android phones to get very hot is now fixed

Google just issued a statement that confirms the suspicions of Android smartphone owners who've been complaining about Instagram draining their battery way more than it should - and also let us know that a fix has been deployed.

In the past couple of weeks, we've witnessed a raft of complaints that Instagram is not just torpedoing battery life, but also causing phones to get uncomfortably hot, too.

In a post on the Android help forum that Android Authority flagged up, a Google community manager acknowledged the problem, and said Instagram has updated its Android app so the battery drain bug 'should' be fixed.

So, to avoid having your battery hammered, you need to grab the newest version of Instagram, which is build 382.0.0.49.84 for Android. It's currently rolling out now, we're told.

The comments from folks on Reddit are worrying considering that they contain observations of Instagram causing their phone to get 'insanely hot' and that the level of battery drain is 'crazy' no less.

Breakdowns of battery usage shared by Instagram users show the app consuming way more than it should, for example draining 15.9% of battery in 57 minutes, compared to Reddit which consumed 3.4% in 35 minutes. That's almost triple the battery that Instagram is guzzling down, as evidenced in the Reddit post we've highlighted above.

There was reportedly no problem with Instagram Lite, which is what some people switched over to in order to get some respite from this battery chomping nastiness - though there's no reason to do so now, given that the fixed app is out. Well, hopefully no reason, anyway, assuming the cure works, so we'll be keeping an eye on Reddit for feedback on that score.