Users of the Facebook app on iPads and iPhones have been complaining recently that it drains the device's battery.

But the latest update makes some inroads, and further improvements seem likely.

According to Facebook engineering manager Ari Grant, "We found a few key issues and have identified additional improvements, some of which are in the version of the app that was released today [Friday 23 October, US time]."

"The first issue we found was a 'CPU spin' in our network code. A CPU spin is like a child in a car asking, 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?' with the question not resulting in any progress to reaching the destination. This repeated processing causes our app to use more battery than intended. The version released today has some improvements that should start making this better.

"The second issue is with how we manage audio sessions. If you leave the Facebook app after watching a video, the audio session sometimes stays open as if the app was playing audio silently. This is similar to when you close a music app and want to keep listening to the music while you do other things, except in this case it was unintentional and nothing kept playing. The app isn't actually doing anything while awake in the background, but it does use more battery simply by being awake. Our fixes will solve this audio issue and remove background audio completely."

Grant implied that further improvements were in progress, but stated that the app's location-related functions were not a cause of high battery consumption, although Facebook does warn that "Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. Facebook doesn’t run GPS in the background unless you give us permission by turning on optional features that require this."