Confused why your Android phone has been hot lately and the battery is more wasteful? It could be that the Google Messages app is the culprit.
As quoted from The Verge, Friday (22/4/2022) a bug in the Google Messages application keeps the camera active in the background without the user's knowledge. As a result, the battery slowly becomes more wasteful and makes the phone heat up quickly.
Within the Google Messages application there is an easy way to take photos and directly insert them into SMS for later sending. In addition to attaching photos from the gallery, there is also a small viewfinder from the camera that allows users to directly take photos from those thumbnails.
In the latest update to Google Messages, it turns out that there is a bug that sometimes keeps the camera feed active even when not in use, including when Messages is only active in the background. Because it is left on continuously without the user's knowledge, this causes the phone battery to be wasteful and the device to heat up quickly.
This bug can be detected easily by Android 12 thanks to the privacy indicators for the camera and microphone. When this issue occurs, phones running Android 12 will show that Google Messages is still using the camera.
The easiest way to solve this problem is to close the Google Messages app by opening the Recents tab on your phone and swiping up on the app to close it.
You can also revoke camera access permission from Google Messages. The trick is to go to the Settings app > Apps > Messages > Permissions > Camera and select the 'Don't Allow' option.
Luckily users don't have to worry so much about this bug. A Google representative said they have identified the bug and a fix is being released to users in stages.