Smartphone makers and app developers are locked in a “cat-and-mouse” game, with apps occasionally too demanding for current hardware.

Users want functionality and app makers are willing to indulge us, but our battery life, storage and data are struggling to keep up.

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Security company AVG has quantified the biggest drains on our phones. Unsurprisingly, social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat dominated the report released this week.

“We want to be connected with our friends and family on social media apps in particular, which is why they rate so highly,” AVG spokesman Michael McKinnon told The New Daily.

“The ability for those apps to keep people connected on a real-time basis … is really something we all want to have, yet it’s something that we’re having to keep up-to-date with the technology.

Smartphone hardware has been steadily improving, but our apps are increasingly thirsty for notifications, updates and megabytes.

“The hardware has been improving over the years, but then the uptake and the demands that we place on our smartphones and tablets as users are equally keeping up pace with that and in some respects you could say our demands are outpacing what the hardware is capable of,” Mr McKinnon said.

“In some cases, there are certainly examples of some apps that overstep the boundaries of what you would reasonably assume an app should do.

“We’ve seen examples of weather apps that are quite aggressive about giving you all the latest information and you could argue about whether that is absolutely necessary.”

How to remedy this? Upgrade to the latest phone. Considering buying more GBs of storage than you think you’ll need. And get rid of the ‘zombie apps‘ you no longer use.

If any of your favourites appear on the list above, maybe it could be time for a cleanout. Your internet bill will thank you.