11 Clever Ways to Make Your Phone Battery Last Longer

You’re riding the train mindlessly scrolling social media or listening to music, when your phone’s screen suddenly goes black. Seriously?! Five minutes ago your phone was sitting at 30% battery and now it’s completely dead. Unfortunately, the more we use our phones, the more the batteries wear down after months of use and ultimately become far less reliable. But instead of carrying a phone charger and always worrying about finding an outlet, there are other ways you can provide your smartphone with a little extra juice. Here are some tips for making your phone’s battery last as long as possible.

Toggle On Low Power Mode

One of the simplest ways to ensure a longer battery life is by toggling on your phone’s low power mode. This limits the amount of background activity and prevents apps from automatically updating, just to name a few of the benefits. The good news is that you can still make texts or calls and even browse the internet while in low power mode. Just be aware certain apps may not function properly while using this energy-efficient option.

Turn On Airplane Mode

If you’re not expecting any calls or texts and are more focused on preserving the battery life you have remaining, then airplane mode is the perfect solution. This mode temporarily disables any cellular or wireless signals that would otherwise eat away at your phone’s battery. The good news is that you can still use your phone to take pictures, view any pre-downloaded documents, or listen to pre-downloaded music or podcasts.

Turn Off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Much like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, leaving the GPS turned on uses up tons of battery in the background. Go into location settings and turn everything off in order to temporarily extend the phone’s lifespan. If you’d rather leave location settings on, you can still limit them to use up less battery. Go into location settings and look at which apps are actively using your location. If you see an app toggled to “Always,” change that to “While Using” or “Never,” both of which eat up less battery.

Keep Your Phone at Room Temperature

Extreme heat or cold can cause your battery to run far less efficiently. Try to avoid exposing your phone to direct sunlight by placing it on your car’s dashboard while driving. In the wintertime, keep your phone snugly tucked away in a warm jacket pocket rather than leaving it more exposed to the elements behind a thin pant pocket.

Turn the Brightness Down

The higher the screen brightness, the quicker your phone’s battery will die. Dimming the brightness even halfway could mean a few extra hours of battery life. The lower you can go, the longer your phone will survive on a single charge.

Turn Off Vibrations

Vibrations use up more energy than audible ringtones or notification sounds. That’s why it’s best to turn off vibrations and set your phone to a low volume instead. That being said, it’s even better if you can set your phone to silent so that you don’t waste battery to produce those audible notification sounds. The major drawback here is that it makes it more difficult to know if somebody is trying to contact you.

Set a Quicker Sleep Mode

Sleep mode is a power-saving tool that automatically shuts your screen off after a certain period of time. Some people have their sleep mode set high, as the screen only dims after 10 or 15 minutes of inactivity. In order to preserve your battery, set the sleep mode to take effect as quickly as possible — preferably after just 15 or 30 seconds.

Keep Calls Short

Phone calls that go on far too long are boring, pointless, and drain your battery. Try to keep your conversations on topic and prevent them from going on long tangents. If you need an excuse to hang up, just tell the other person that your battery is running low and hop off the phone.

Auto-Lock Your Phone

Auto-lock prevents your screen from accidentally turning on in your pocket without you realizing it, which would drain your battery over time. By turning on this feature, your phone won’t ever unlock unless you take it out of your pocket and type in a code or use facial recognition.

Avoid Taking Too Many Photos

Any sort of photography — but especially flash photography — can drain battery life in the blink of an eye. If your phone’s battery is running low, try and keep any photo-taking at an absolute minimum until you can charge the device.

Update Your Operating System

Every new operating system is intended to make phones run more efficiently, and that’s why it’s so important to download the latest operating system as soon as it’s available. Each new operating system comes with plenty of bug fixes and other backend updates that make phone batteries last as long as possible.