For the past two weeks I've noticed my phone gets pretty hot when I use these apps for more than 30 minutes. I have an iPhone 14 Pro Max and it's barely a year old. Could it be a software issue or is the battery failing?
Is that heat felt more in the back of the phone or is it general? Look, two weeks is too short a time for the battery to degrade that suddenly, so it's most likely software or those apps are processing a lot (recommendation algorithms, videos constantly loading). What nobody mentions is that if the heat is excessive, you could have a problem with the thermal dissipation system or the battery is swollen, so go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health and check the maximum capacity. If it's below 85% or you see it says "Limited Performance," then it's something physical and not software, and your phone needs to have the battery checked under warranty.
Try clearing the cache of those apps first (uninstall and reinstall, or go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and tap the app to offload without deleting data) because they often build up junk that makes the processor work harder and heats things up. If it keeps happening anyway, those apps might have some software bug that keeps them running in the background eating up resources, so check if there are pending updates for both iOS and Instagram and TikTok. It's pretty unlikely the battery's failing at 12 months, but if it's still doing it after all this, go to an Apple Store and have them check it out because there could be an internal component with an issue, though honestly I think it's weird on such a new device.
Cache usually isn't as much of a problem as it seems, but what you should definitely check is whether you have high-quality video playback enabled in both apps, because that really cranks up the processor and your battery gets hot like crazy; I noticed it myself on my phone when I was watching reels nonstop. If your iPhone is still just as hot after lowering that setting, then it starts to actually look like a battery issue and you should get it checked out.
Instagram and TikTok are the apps that demand the most from the processor because they're constantly decoding video, updating feeds in real time, and running algorithms. That generates natural heat, but two weeks of overheating on a one-year-old iPhone is something worth checking carefully.
What most people don't mention is that the problem could be in the combo of both apps together if you have background refresh notifications enabled on both simultaneously. That makes your phone never really rest. Before doing anything else, go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn it off for Instagram and TikTok. Also check Settings > Privacy > Location and see if those apps have access to your location all the time (spoiler: they don't need it). I've seen several times where customers fixed the issue just by changing those permissions, because GPS drains battery and generates heat.
If the heat persists after that, it could be something deeper with software or the battery starting to fail. In that case, the best thing is to check your battery health (Settings > Battery > Battery Health and Capacity) and if you see it's below 85% or there are weird messages, Apple should replace it at no cost if it's still under warranty. But first try clearing the app cache and reduce those unnecessary permissions, because in most cases that stops the overheating.
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