Don’t you just hate how fast your smartphone’s battery can lose its juice? Constantly having to charge your phone can be annoying and inconvenient, especially if you’re on the go. With the hyper-connected culture we have today, having to go even just a few hours without your phone can be rather stressful as you know you may be missing messages or emails that could be important.
So what’s a smartphone user to do? Aside from dimming your screen or refraining from using your phone’s audio and camera features, here are some tips to make your phone’s battery life last longer:
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Turn off Push Notifications or Play Services
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Pick WiFi over cellular data
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Keep your phone at room temperature
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Clear your App History
- Investing in good quality compact lithium ion batteries or “power banks” (that you should always keep fully charged!) is also recommended if constant battery drainage cannot be helped. These allow you to charge your phone multiple times even when you’re on the go. There are even power banks that can charge your phone using solar energy, which is great if you’re going to be outdoors.
If your Android phone’s battery suddenly drains out seemingly out of the blue, it may be because your phone is connected to Google’s Play Services, which automatically updates and syncs applications to your phone. If you’ve got an iPhone, the Push Notifications might be the culprit.
Apart from camera use, accessing the Internet is one of the reasons why our smartphone batteries drain so fast. Opt to use WiFi for Internet access if you’ve got a reliable connection within reach, as using cellular data is more taxing on your phone’s batteries.
Exposing your phone to extreme temperatures drains out the battery so avoid this!
If you’ve got an iPhone, clear your phone’s open apps by clicking the home button twice. For android phones, press and hold the home button to reveal and close open apps.
Thanks for sharing this with us, I believe this actually should help improve cell phone battery. I’m sure there are many more ways, such as lowering brightness, airplane mode, etc. I always forget to do those things but I surely remember when my battery percentage is dropping quickly.
I dim my phone’s brightness, connect to Wi-Fi, turn off my background tasks, and turn off unnecessary radios (e.g.: NFC, GPS) to improve my battery life. Of course, there are many more things you can do to maximize your battery life, but I prefer finding the right balance between usability and efficiency. Thanks for your tips!
I have an HTC One M7, and after updating to Android KitKat, the battery life took a major hit. I searched for solution that actually helped, and turning off Play services was the best one. My battery life almost doubled when I turned them off.
I find that if I go into settings and stop programs that I rarely use from updating automatically via Google play then I don’t have to stop everything while preserving the battery life. Also using my headphones when on the phone and listening to music keeps me from touching the screen so much when changing songs and answering calls. Ultimately I think there is something to Keeping a solar charger as back up, it’s light and easy.
Thanks for the tips! It can be really hard to know what’s using up a phones juice, so inside tips like these really help out! The solar rechargers are interesting. I wonder if cafe’s will eventually offer recharges( as well as wi-fi) by installing a solar panel, as a way of attracting customers to their establishment?
Hey! Thanks for this article. My Nexus 5 cannon run for more than 5 hours, I will try what you’ve suggested here. My only concern is, what happens if we disable google play services? I read an article in which Google employee suggested we should not force close it, so in that sense, is disabling it okay?
Thank you for sharing this useful info. I’ve always faced this problem on my phone. I’m using an android and my battery lasts just for some 3 hours if i start using it continuously. It was really a big problem for me. Now, I’m trying to find a way to turn off the automatic sync with app store and planning on getting a power bank.
I was actually shocked by the app history and wifi tips. For some reason I thought that wifi drained the phone’s battery quicker, but thinking a little harder I guess it would make more since for data to drain the battery faster. Keeping a phone at room temperature is definitely out of the box, now I’m wondering how much body temperature affects a phone’s battery.
Helpful post. I swear that choosing Wi-Fi over cellular data is very helpful! It saves me a lot of cash and also has doubled my battery life. I can keep Wi-Fi open 24/7 and I will experience no battery loss, but an hour of 3G will almost kill my battery. Not to mention the costly 3G packages I have here. Also, it is true that the phone drains battery at high temperatures. Playing a game on my phone in an air conditioned room drained less battery than playing it while in a bus on a sunny day. And, I always clear app history. I recommend everyone to do it.
I always refresh my app history by closing them. It is something you figure out by accident. the android feature is much more straightforwards, while on apple products, these are the things that you eventually come across my chance. I always assumed my apps closed when I switched to another , but that is not the case for apple. My battery life for the iphone is excellent and I use all these tips listed above.
The app history you mention is huge for preserving battery power. There are certain apps that stay open in the background and constantly drain not only energy, but also processing power that may slow down the other things you do on the phone.
I’ve found getting either a task manager app (android) or periodically closing apps on iOS can really help with overall phone performance. In addition, this helps reduce the overall heat of the phone you mentioned which in turn has its benefits including overall longevity of the device itself.
Use energy saving mode if your phone has one. Turn down the screen brightness. Log out of any apps you don’t want to get notifications from. Use airplane mode + Wifi when you are not expecting any calls. These are my tips which help me, especially when traveling because if your cellphone is constantly contacting different towers and changing between 3g and GPRS you will just drain the battery for no reason whatsoever.
These are great tips and I’m going to incorporate them immediately. It never occurred to me that clearing the app history and to do that is not a sacrifice in convenience at all.
It is frustrating that after so many years of cell phones we still have not seen significant advancement in battery life, so every tip and pointer towards saving those precious moments of battery time is so important, especially when traveling or in emergency. It is quite nerve racking to have a power outage and not know how long it will last.
Another important thing is to set screen brightness to automatic and the screen time-out to the least seconds.Don’t forget that the screen of the mobile phone demands a lot of energy compared to other operation (e.g. wifi/data,bloetooth,music playback etc) especially in high-end phones.
This was a really helpful post. I’ve been struggling with my iPhone dying rapidly and I could not figure out why. The screen brightness definitely helped, and I had no idea how much battery is drained by open apps in the background. I remember reading somewhere long ago that if you opt to have the battery percentage number show on your screen rather than just have the icon of the battery that it drains faster. I don’t know if that’s true or not..
Good tip about the play services. I have an LG G2 and bought it mainly because of the awesome battery capacity, but powerful phones demand a lot of power. I definitely get more life out of it than my iPhone 5s, but it is starting to wane a bit. I’ll try that out.
Like the other posters before me commented, I thank you for pointing these out, particularly the temperature one. I live in a tropical climate, so that’s probably one of the reasons one of my previous phone’s batteries gave up the ghost on me. Say, what do you think of “battery optimization” applications? I have one installed, but I don’t really feel a significant difference regarding battery duration.
I found it interesting that there are on the go kind of batteries that they sell. It would be helpful when camping or hiking somewhere and there is nowhere to charge. I need to buy one as soon as possible!
Thanks for the tips. May I add another one? Don’t leave the Facebook app running. It uses a LOT of batter power. I believe the reason for it is due to this VoIP daemon that continuously runs in the background. If you have a jailbroken iPhone, you can remove it, but otherwise you can’t.
I was patting myself on the back for most of the article because I already do those. Until it came to the last one. That’s one I never knew, and since I just switched from an iPhone to an Android having that tip will be tremendously helpful. Lesson learned for sure today!
I find that reducing my screen’s brightness and turning off indicators such as light and sound will make my battery last longer. I also try to reduce my ringtone volume and I use software to under clock my phone’s CPU speed. Reducing your phone’s clock speed makes your battery last much longer. The CPU draws power from the battery and a lower than default speed will result in a 20% boost to your battery life.
Thanks for the tips! This guide is much better than most because cell phone users already know not to leave your Bluetooth or WiFi on all day. You went a step ahead and told the right type of connection to use for data transfer. I didn’t even know the temperature of the phone itself influences the battery life it has.
Having your phone battery die at an inopportune time is just the worst! I will definitely use this advice to my advantage, as my older iPhone 3GS seems to drain way more battery juice than it used to. This is one of the reasons that I wished that Apple would have made the batteries on iOS devices replaceable, because I feel like many of my problems would be solved if I just replaced it. Since that is not an option for me, I will try your advice!
Thanks for these tips. I’ve been having problems with my iPhone’s battery as I’m a heavy user of this phone and I rely most of my tasks from it. It’s what I use for work and there are times that I just can’t check my messages because I’m always running out of battery. My friend is giving me a power bank but I still need to at least look for other ways to prolong the battery life of my phone in case I forgot bringing the power bank with me.
Imho the best way to make sure your phone lives throughout the day is to buy a device with a big battery. My moto G can hold charge for two days without a problem while my Nexus 4 will usually day by the end of the day.
IMO, you missed one of my biggest battery saving measures: turning down the display’s brightness! On my iPhone, the display accounts for about 85% of the battery usage alone. Brightness level has a huge influence on battery time.
Apart from the standard advice offered in this article, I was intrigued by the “room temperature” tip. What exactly qualifies as “room temperature” in this case? Perhaps a specific range would be more appropriate. Also, how effective has this actually been shown to be? I for one find that my phone lasts longer in colder climates than warmer ones.
Just to specify, when I was comparing climates I was talking about the difference between Boston and Florida. My phone tends to last longer in Boston than Iin Florida given the same usage habits
Lot of great tips here. I do a few more things myself though: dimming my brightness, turning off bluetooth and other radios. Maybe one day we won’t have to recharge our phones. That would be cool.
I agree! If only someone could find a way in order for us to have an unlimited battery life that would benefit a lot of things like electricity, since we won’t be charging phones, we won’t be wasting energy. I wonder how possible could it be.
I also found disabling data when you are working helps wonders. Data takes up so much battery life when you have low signal. Since I work in a big hospital, I always have trouble with signal.
The one dilemma I do have is if I should use my phone while it’s still charging. I’m not sure if that’s okay. Sometimes, my battery says “fully charged” but when I remove the charger from the socket, the battery drains out as fast as a bucket riddled with holes.
If you are using an old fashioned mobile phone, not a smartphone, you won’t find that problem as often. When I first used my Nokia and noticed that the battery was draining a lot when it did not in the past, the battery did the same thing. It drained. With my iPhone I was having less issues by using power banks.
Useful tips you just shared! I’ve always had a problem with my android phone going off before the end of the day even after charging it completely in the morning.
Thanks especially for the tip on using WiFi connection as opposed to cellular data. Had no clue that it could save my battery power. Now I know better.
My friends think I’m a genius when I tell them how many things I don’t get notifications for. I turn off almost all of my alerts – Facebook, Twitter, email, games. Chances are, when I get those alerts, I don’t have time/don’t care to stop everything and check it right then and there, anyway. Then, when I do have time, I can prioritize my services. Not many people realize how many things don’t actually demand immediate attention! And it saves on the battery A LOT – not just the notification itself, but having to go to the app etc.
Hey thanks a lot for this post. I’ve been having problems with my battery constantly running out, I ca’n’t even finish an entire day without having the damn thing plugged in the wall. You can also add turning off the brightness and Wifi when not in use. I didn’t know temperature can affect the battery life though.
‘Clear your App History’ – how sure are you about this one?
I have heard several people say the opposite, in that open apps are already cached and use less memory and battery when called upon to be used.
Good tips on battery life though thanks, I am lucky if my phone makes it half a day with out needing charging, so frustrating.
1. Yep, those things will bring you from 100% to 0 no problem. If you’re really looking to save power and keeping connect isn’t too important, turn Push Notifs off.
2. Or better yet, don’t use the internet at all. When my phone gets to 5% and I need the battery for emergency, putting it on airplane mode will up the life from 15 minutes to an hour. More than enough for emergencies.
3. Heat is the death of electronic devices. Keep it cool.
4. I know people who complain about their phone being slow and dying quickly while having 10 apps open. So yep, this.
5. External batteries (especially the ones that double as cases) are lifesavers
Great article.
In case I have an old iPhone 3GS what am I supposed to do? The battery drains very fast. I keep my brightness as low as possible and it still ruins out of juice pretty fast. If I use the phone constantly for more than 2 hours then it beggins to heat up like really bad and I’m starting to think it’s a ticking bomb waiting to explode.
Thank you so much for the advice. My phone battery always stays dead. When I fully charge my phone, about ten minutes later I have to charge it again.
I am currently trying to make my battery last longer, and have tried to kill applications manually, use WiFi over data and some maintenance. I recently installed a software that cleans junk files and allows you to kill applications based on the temperature. I have noticed a real change in the battery performance, and everything seems to run smoother. I just wish everything could be automated an running without my input.
No wonder, that’s why when I’m outside using my phone the battery runs out much quicker. I had no idea the temperature had something to do with it, good to know. The other ways I already do frequently. I still think phone batteries should be made to last longer than a day though, maybe a week?
I love the idea that gets charged on solar energy. How awesome would it be if we could use solar energy to charge our cellphones? We could save so much of power that we waste by overcharging our phones. We need to invest in ideas which use the modern sources of energy, like wind energy and solar energy and tidal energy and everything related to those, you know what i’m saying? That would somewhat shift out dependence on the almost exhausted fossil fuels and could also help us avoid a severe energy crisis.
These are all great points, thank you for the article. I find that it can sometime get annoying that we cannot use our phones to the true potential, but as battery technology grows it will get better. Another important battery saving tip is to ensure that you do not run the battery all the way down to zero a lot. This puts unnecessary strain on how the battery functions, and can slowly reduce the capacity that your battery can hold.
Awesome, thanks for this post. I knew about a few of them like the cellular data, because when my phone gets down to 15% it goes into power save mode and disables my cellular data. But I didn’t know about the extreme temperature draining a battery. No more leaving my phone in the car while I’m at work.
Thanks for sharing those tips! I use my phone pretty heavily everyday but I’m able to get through a day because I have a 3000 mAh battery.
Though I always keep a secondary battery on me, just in case something happens or I’m just too lazy to charge my phone.
This was informative. I had long since done most of the things on this list. But, I cleared my app data. Not only is my battery draining slower but I also have more space on my phone. It only takes one move sometimes.
For Android, don’t clear apps directly after using them, unless your phone has 1GB or less of RAM. Doing so will stop the app from being cached in memory, and when you go to relaunch the app, it’ll take up more CPU cycles to recreate the process and re-initialize. Also, Google Play Services does take up some battery, but disabling or uninstalling it will cause some applications to stop working, like Google Play and Google Now.
I can’t count how many times I’ve had to explain to friends and family that they should absolutely, under no circumstance, leave their phone plugged in over night. There’s no higher form of battery abuse. Most people don’t make sure to actually close their apps also. I’ve had to diagnose and solve this problem for way too many poeple.
Leaving your phone plugged in over night doesn’t do anything to the life of your battery. The only time it would be damaging if the battery was being overcharged due to a faulty charging circuit, but most phones nowadays have software that’s advanced enough to switch to AC power and not use the battery if the battery is full and the phone is plugged in. The worst thing to do to a battery is to let it drain completely, which is extremely bad and can drain the life out of your battery completely. Ever see that a battery that lays dormant in a computer doesn’t work after a couple of years? Same thing goes with phone batteries.
Great tips. being a power user I do these things regularly to save on battery power. So far it’s netted me a couple of extra hours of usage and that’s no small thing.
I used to have big problems with my battery because it was actually broken, but now my phone battery actually works. Because of that, I don’t need to use these tips, but it was interesting to read through this. I did notice that one of the tips says to clear your cache to save battery. While this does work sometimes, it could actually reduce battery life. Reopening an app after closing it completely uses more power than just leaving it in the cache. Because of that, you should only clear apps that you won’t be using for awhile.