How to Save your Mobile’s Battery Life
Does the following sound familiar? You’re waiting for an important call or email when out of nowhere, you get hit with a “Low Battery: 20% of battery remaining” warning. Trying to save your mobile’s battery life can be a real pain. And if you’re on the go without a charger, that little warning can induce a slight panic attack.
We love our smart devices, especially our phones. Our smartphones put powerful tools and apps at our fingertips. But we, smartphone users, know that with more power and more fun comes a price: battery life limitations.
Luckily, there are many ways to save your mobile’s battery life. Here are tips to help you extend your phone’s power:
iPhone (iOS 10 and above)
1. Prevent Background App Refresh
Background app refresh automatically updates apps when you’re not directly using them. This feature allows you to re-open your apps and instantly see the most up-to-date information. Thought it’s neat, this tool can really suck the life out of your battery.
To turn it off: Go to Settings > General > Select Background App Refresh > Either disable the feature entirely or just for specific apps.
2. Don’t Automatically Update Apps
While this functionality is very convenient, it can also drain your battery. If you want to save battery, only update apps when you want to.
To turn off auto updates: Go to Settings > Select iTunes & App Store > Find Updates in the Automatic Downloads section > Move the slider to Off.
3. Turn Off Location Services
Apps sure do love to know your location. Creepy, right?! GPS will drain a battery quickly. If you don’t need it, consider turning it off.
Go to Settings > Tap Privacy > Select Location Services > Choose System Services > Turn off items, such as Location-based iAds, Popular Near Me.
4. Turn Bluetooth Off
Bluetooth works by transmitting data wirelessly at all times. Leaving Bluetooth on to accept incoming data might be contributing to the reason for your short battery lifespan. If you are not using Bluetooth, turn it off.
Go to Settings > Select Bluetooth > Move the slider to Off.
5. Turn on Auto-Brightness
Newer iPhones have ambient light sensors that adjust the screen’s brightness to its environment. For example, if it’s dark out, the screen will be dimmer. As a result, you save power because you are using less energy.
To turn on auto-brightness: Go to Settings > Tap Display & Brightness > Move the Auto-Brightness slider to On.
6. Say goodbye to Siri
While Siri is very helpful from time to time, your phone uses power to listen for “Hey Siri”. This is because your iPhone is constantly listening for you to say those magic words.
You can turn it off by going to Settings > Siri & Search > Toggle off Listen for “Hey Siri”.
7. Use Low Power Mode
This feature is great if you really want to save your mobile’s battery life. Low Power Mode shuts down all non-essential features on your iPhone. This feature is really handy if you are on the go without a charging cable.
To enable low power mode: Go to Settings > Battery > Move the Low Power Mode Slider to On.
8. Find Battery Killers
The Battery Usage feature allows for users to discover which apps are killing your battery. It also provides more detail on why the app is draining so much battery and suggests ways to fix it.
To use Battery Usage: Go to Settings > Tap Battery.
Android
1. Use a Dark-Colored Background
Sounds crazy, right? But black wallpapers can also save your mobile’s battery life because an Android’s AMOLED screen (most Samsung devices have these) only illuminates colored pixels. The black pixels are unlit, so the more dark pixels you have in your wallpaper, the less power you need to light them up.
2. Use Doze Mode
This feature essentially just shuts down things you’re not using. The network connection is severed, so it only syncs during specific intervals.
To activate doze mode: go to Settings > Battery > Select “All apps” from the options to bring up a list of the apps which doze mode can be enabled on.
3. Turn off Google Assistant
Just like Siri, Google Assistant is always listening.
To turn off Google Assistant, go to Settings > Google Assistant > Settings > Toggle Off.
4. Keep your Apps Updated
The reason why developers constantly update apps, and most of the time, it’s for memory, security, and battery optimization. So, it’s essential to keep your apps up to date.
If you want to see if a specific app is a battery hog, just go into Settings > Battery > Select the Menu Button > Tap Battery Optimization. From there you can see which apps are optimized and which ones are not.
5. Don’t use Adaptive/Auto Brightness
While auto-brightness helps on iPhone, on an Android you are best turning it off. This is because the screen is one of the biggest battery suckers. So instead, it’s better to manually set the brightness to a level that is low but comfortable. You can then bump it up when necessary.
To turn off auto brightness: Go to Settings > Display > Toggle off the Adaptive Brightness.
6. Set your “Do Not Disturb” Schedule
When you use sleep times/do not disturb, your phone blocks WiFi and mobile data.
To do this: Pull down the Notifications Drawer > Swipe to Quick Settings > Tap Do Not Disturb.
If you’d rather not mess with a schedule, you can also set your phone in airplane mode when you’re asleep.
7. Delete some Widgets
You can also ditch widgets you don’t need, like weather widgets. Widgets are not doing your battery any favors because they are constantly syncing and updating.
To delete useless widgets: long press on a blank space on your home screen > drag the widget you don’t need into the trash bin.
8. Turn off Auto-Syncing for Google Accounts
If you don’t need every single Google account updated every 15 minutes, turn it off. Some app, like email, let you manually refresh when you launch them, so the need to use auto-sync is unnecessary.
To turn off Auto-Sync: go to Settings > Accounts > Turn off Auto Sign for the apps you don’t need constantly updated.
Conclusion
If all else fails, you can save your mobile’s battery life by buying a portable charger. Portable chargers are excellent tools when you’re on the run and don’t have time to plug your phone into a wall outlet. Portable chargers last a long time, and depending on their charge capacities, can last you many trips.
There are tons of portable chargers out there, so it’s smart to do a little research (shout out to Amazon reviewers) before buying one. Here are a couple of things to consider:
1. Capacity
How much juice do you need? Small charging sticks might come with 2,000 mAh, but there are more heavy-duty ones that can pack over 20,000 mAh.
2. Size and Weight
If you’re going to carry this thing around all day, you want it to be a comfortable size.
3. Charging Time
Charging your battery pack and charging your device with the battery pack are two separate things. Make sure you figure out what’s appropriate for you.