How To Make Your Phone's Battery Last Longer
How To Make Your Phone's Battery Last Longer
You’ve
probably noticed your phone’s
battery life decreasing over time. It’s not just in your head —
as batteries age, they gradually lose their ability to hold a charge. And sometimes,
other situations cause your battery to struggle, like a 2017 controversy in
which Apple
apologized for intentionally slowing down iPhones with older
batteries to prevent sudden shutdowns.
There
are a few ways you can get your phone battery to last longer, drawing out the
time between the dreaded 15 percent mark and when your battery goes fully dead.
Here are some tips you can use to make your phone’s battery last longer,
regardless of whether you’re using an iPhone, Android or anything else.
1.
Keep your phone’s software updated
Phone
manufacturers like Apple and Samsung issue updates for their devices all
the time. It can be annoying when it feels like you’re constantly updating your
phone, but those updates are there for a good reason: Having the latest, most
efficient software can help make sure your phone is giving you the most battery
life possible. (They also help keep your phone more secure.)
Generally
speaking, you can see if you need to update your phone by navigating to the
Settings app. From there, you’ll find options to update software, likely under
a General tab then under Software Update. This may be slightly different
depending on the phone you’re using.
2.
Limit background battery use
Your
phone should have a page dedicated to battery usage, typically found by
navigating to the battery section of your Settings app. Depending on your
device, a graph may appear, displaying how much battery life each of your apps
are typically eating up.
Many
apps run and refresh in the background while you’re using different software.
You can choose to allow specific apps to do this, set it so all apps can do
this, or prevent specific apps from doing this. If a particular app is using a
lot of battery life, you could also choose to uninstall it completely.
Here’s
how to change your background usage settings:
On iOS
Navigate
to Settings, select General, then Background App Refresh. From there, you can
select Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi & Cellular Data, or Off.
On Android
Open
the Settings app, hit Battery, then tap the More symbol and click Battery
Usage. From there, your device will list how different apps are using battery
life. Click the app for which you’d like to display background use, then select
Background restriction. When the Restrict app? notice pops up, click Restrict.
3.
Dim that screen
Keeping
your phone screen’s brightness all the way up can really eat away at battery
life. When you’re low on battery life, you’ll also want to avoid doing anything
that needs a lot of processing power, like playing games, watching videos or
using navigation apps.
Another option is to turn
off push notifications, which can light up your display even when you’re not
using your phone, thus using battery life. The process will be slightly
different depending on your phone. Generally speaking, head to Settings,
Notifications, then select the relevant application. From there, you’ll select
the option to disable notifications.
4. Disconnect
If you’re desperate to save your phone’s battery life, turn on airplane
mode, then manually re-activate Wi-Fi and connect to a wireless network. In
general, connecting to the internet over Wi-Fi uses less battery power than
with cellular networks — plus you won’t have to worry so much about data
overages.
5. Use your phone’s battery
saver
Your phone’s battery saver option is an easy-to-use feature that
restricts your phone’s capabilities in order to extract the most possible
battery life. On iPhone, it’s called low power mode. On Android, it’s called
battery saver. When your phone gets low, you should receive a pop-up that’ll
let you turn on battery saver with a tap.
Here’s how to activate your
phone’s battery saver mode manually:
On iOS
Navigate to Settings, then hit Battery. The low power option will be
available there. According to Apple, low power mode is designed to keep your
screen brightness low and minimize animations. Apps will not use background
data, either. But you can still make phone calls, send messages and more.
On Android
You’ll find the battery saver option by swiping down and hitting the
Battery saver icon. You can set your phone to turn on battery saver
automatically by finding the Battery section in the Settings app, then looking
for Battery saver. If you choose to have Battery saver activate automatically,
you can also set a certain battery percentage that triggers the setting.