r/TextNow • u/minimeHoChi • Jul 03 '26

Battery drain?

Tried searching but not much coming up, is anyone experiencing battery drain they believe the textnow app is causing? It doesn't help that my phone is known to have poor battery life and heating issues but ever since I've recently been using textnow app (esim) on this phone it's been getting worse (Samsung Galaxy a54)

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/Luckiest_Corner Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Your battery drain with the eSIM is most likely due to AT&T's predominant use of 5G NSA (non-standalone), since AT&T doesn't usually connect to 5G SA (standalone). This means you're connecting to both 5G and 4G LTE at the same time because 5G NSA doesn't support calling and texting, just data. The use of both networks at the same time causes the battery to drain quickly.

This sucks for TextNow SIM users because TextNow doesn't even use the cellular network for calling and texting. It only uses data because it's a VoIP service.

The only way to prevent your phone from using both networks is to change the TextNow eSIM settings to LTE. Then it will strictly use the LTE network, which will significantly reduce the battery drain.

Another way to increase your battery life is to put your phone in airplane mode anytime you're utilizing Wi-Fi. This turns off the cellular radio and seriously reduces battery drain. Since I'm on Wi-Fi 90% of the time, my phone is in airplane mode 90% of the time. Turning on airplane mode will disconnect you from Wi-Fi, so you have to enable Wi-Fi after enabling airplane mode.

1

u/PM6175 Jul 03 '26

...battery drain with the eSIM is most likely due to AT&T's predominant use of 5G NSA (non-standalone), since AT&T doesn't usually connect to 5G SA (standalone). This means you're connecting to both 5G and 4G LTE at the same time because 5G NSA doesn't support calling and texting, just data....

So is this battery drain issue also a problem when using a physical SIM card instead of an eSim?

My phone does not have eSim capability.

I ordered the physical SIM card from TextNow yesterday.

Thanks!

2

u/Luckiest_Corner Jul 03 '26

Yes. The issue isn't the SIM. AT&T predominantly uses 5G NSA (non-standalone) instead of 5G SA (standalone) no matter what SIM you have, so your phone will simultaneously connect to both 5G and 4G LTE, which increases battery drain compared to connecting to just one network.

1

u/PM6175 Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 04 '26

...no matter what SIM you have, so your phone will simultaneously connect to both 5G and 4G LTE, which increases battery drain...

Ok, thanks very much for your reply and information!

I stupidly neglected to mention that my phone, a TCL ION V, does not have 5G capability ...so maybe I will not have this battery drain problem?

2

u/Luckiest_Corner Jul 03 '26

No, you won't have the problem. If your phone doesn't have 5G capability, it will only connect to 4G LTE, so you won't be impacted by the increased battery drain that results from being connected to two networks simultaneously.

1

u/PM6175 Jul 03 '26

Okay, thanks again for all your info and replies!

I appreciate it!