Roku mobile app

[DTM54]

jessycatherine,

Please read the thread before responding.

I've already pointed out three times that battery optimization prevents the app from working as needed and is unacceptable.

I and others have already pointed out that the app is up to date, and already stated the Android versions we're using, which are compatible.

If the problem were with the device's Wi-Fi, there would be problems with more than just this one app, and the Roku app doesn't even use Bluetooth. The problem is clearly in the app, not the phones.

Your comment about notifications makes sense. However, I already have notifications entirely disabled for the app, so it's not that.

[Globe]

Tried the Roku app for the first time last night as the battery drain when plugging headphones into the remote is beyond insane, changing batteries every other day, when before using without headphones the batteries would last like a year.

I understand that the remote uses a built in sound amplifier or something which is responsible for the high drain, but at least I have a ton of rechargeable batteries.

The app continues to drain long after the headphones are disconnected from my phone (Pixel 5a). I unplugged my phone this morning when I got up and noticed within a few hours the battery has dropped by close to 20% without even using it! No headphones attached. The culprit? The Roku app!

What's really annoying is that you have to go into settings>apps and literally force close the Roku app to shut it down. Very few apps behave this way, so I'm uninstalling it because I can't risk it killing my battery if I'm out and forgot to force close it even when no headphones are attached.

As a previous customer commented, please stop passing the buck to anyone other than yourselves, this is a Roku app that is having the same issues on multiple different brands of Android phone, iPhones etc, so it's pretty obvious the fault lies firmly with the app.

Continuing to push customers away is unprofessional and ensuring they will look for alternative streaming devices in their future purchases. 

I'm writing directly to Roku HQ detailing that their paid support agents are not helping customers and passing them blame literally everywhere else except the app. What is the point of having support reps when they do not help, not even to proactively pass information along to the app dev team. Of course I understand that I'm likely wasting my time and getting a canned response about how they care about customers and will look into it.... Reality is that support reps are likely very low skill call center phone jockeys with limited scripts they can refer to, so it's hard to blame them too. The problem is far deeper, and one that suggests Roku has very little interest in customer support beyond this flimsy facade.

You can be better than this!

[Globe]

Here's just an example of just how nefarious this app is.

As you can see I had a full charge on waking this morning. I've barely even touched my phone, but I forgot to force close the Roku app last night after watching a show using headphones on my phone.

I unplugged the headphones last night before going to bed and charging my phone, so there should be no reason why the app should be using battery 6 hours after I last used it, especially with no headphones attached.

As you can see it's just silently demolishing my phone's battery, and this is even with changing Android app settings from optimized to strict.

I have no choice other then to uninstall the Roku app and use the remote from now on when using headphones, keeping a bunch of charged batteries handy for that battery hog too!

Latest version of Android on my Pixel.

Roku Android App Battery Destroyer 

[GuyFromMars365]

Roku is consistently causing excessive battery drain. How does Roku end up consuming 10% battery in less than 1 minute while YOUTUBE consumes 2.9% in 14mins. To compare, Youtube consumes 0.2% or 50x less power. Make that make sense. 

[YogaMike]

How refreshing to see a nugget of common sense on a support site. 

It's amazing how irresponsible software developers have become and how these so-called communities are generally full of helpless people who can't solve the problems with answers by irresponsible techies

[YogaMike]

Getting the same issue on my Chinese OnePlus 8

[RokuJohnB]

Hi Community users,

Thank you for posting here in the Roku Community!

We will be more than happy to assist you further with this issue that you're experiencing. If your phone's battery is draining faster than usual, it either means you're using a lot of energy or your phone is not using energy efficiently. This could mean you're overworking your phone by running too many applications, or something is physically wrong with the phone battery itself.

Please keep us posted if there's anything else that we can do to assist you.

Best regards,                                                                                                                                      John

[Globe]

Nope, it's the app.

New Pixel 8 and still draining fast.

That's the same experience on 3 phones now. But sure, blame everyone's phones despite it becoming statistically unlikely.

[RokuTakashi]

Hi, @Globe

Thanks for posting here in the Roku community.

We appreciate you for sharing this information with us, and we're sorry to hear about the trouble. This issue will be further investigated once we have the information below:

• Roku mobile app version
• Mobile phone device information such as brand model, and OS version.

We look forward to hearing back from you with the information we've requested.

Best wishes,
Kash

[DTM54]

Kash,

Please read the thread before responding.

You were given that information by a couple of us back in July and--supposedly--the team has already been working on it ever since. Since they've had seven months to address the issue, please check with them and find out what they've discovered and when they expect to have a corrected version to release.