Let’s face it, everybody loves their smartphone in this day and age smart phones have become an integral part of our lives. They help us stay connected to our loved ones around the globe. But when it’s the middle of the day and your smartphone has almost run out juice and there is no sign of a charger nearby, it becomes quite a hassle. Today we are going to give you some tips on how to increase your battery life for both Android and iOS.
ANDROID
Android phones have gotten a bad reputation for poor battery life but in recent years’ manufacturers have done a great deal and have come a long way in improving battery life. With software optimizations and introduction of features like Doze, things are finally heading in the right direction. However, if you still want to maximize the amount of battery life you can get out of a single charge then here are some tips.
- Turning Off Wi-Fi
If you want to maximize battery life step 1 would be to turn off Wi-Fi while you are not using it or are in a no connection area. Most people don’t realize that keeping their Wi-Fi always on consumes a considerate amount of battery as your phone is constantly searching for a Wi-Fi signal. Head over to Settings > Wi-Fi in order to turn it off.
- Disabling Your Data Connection In a Weak Signal Zone
Your data connection also has an impact on your battery life and especially when you are in an area where the signal is weak or close to non-existent. In low signal zones your phone is constantly searching for a good signal and is constantly switching between different network types which takes up a ton of battery. I have also had cases where my phone would drain about 80 percent of battery overnight on idle due to a weak signal.
So step 2 would be to disable your data connection altogether when you are in a weak or a no signal zone and to take it a step further you can even switch your network type to 2G while you are in an area that offers no 3g/4g connectivity by heading over to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Cellular Networks > Preferred network type and switch it to the one you wish to use.
- Disabling Location Services
Another battery drainer is the location services. Many people keep their location at always on which eats up a lot of battery life. Keeping your location at always off and turning it on whenever you need to will do wonders for your battery life. Head over to Settings > Location to turn your location services off.
- Disabling Sync
Another culprit that eats up your battery life is the sync services. Sync services constantly wakes your device up throughout the day even while you are not using it. I find it better to keep it off altogether and turn it on manually whenever the need be. You can do that by heading over to Settings > Accounts and adjust the sync settings for each service.
Furthermore, some applications like e-mail constantly sync in the background which also eats up a lot of juice but the good thing is that you have the freedom to change the sync frequency of these applications, you can do that by heading over in to the applications settings.
- Rogue Applications
We all love applications, but unfortunately there are certain very popular applications which eat up a lot of your battery life. Identifying these applications can be hard for an average user but I can name two applications that have been notoriously known for being resource hungry and those are Facebook and Facebook Messenger.
These applications not only eat up your battery life but greatly affect your devices overall performance. I highly recommend that you use the web version of Facebook from any browser on your device and uninstall these applications and see the difference for yourselves.
iOS
So now that we have covered the android side of things let’s switch to the other side of the spectrum which is iOS. Although apple phones have been well renowned for extra ordinary good battery life on idle but when it comes to usage time, unfortunately, they also suffer. Here are some tips to maximize the amount of battery you can squeeze out of your iPhone.
- Turn On Wi-Fi Assist
Apple has introduce a really nifty little feature called Wi-Fi assist that greatly helps in improving battery life for those who want to stay connected to the internet at all times. As discussed earlier when you’re Wi-Fi signal is weak your device will eat up a lot of battery life in order to stay connected to that weak signal.
What Wi-Fi assist does is that whenever you face a situation where the Wi-Fi signal is too weak your device will automatically switch over to your data connection. To enable this feature head over to Settings > Cellular and turn on Wi-Fi Assist.
- Disable The Parallax Effect & Dynamic Backgrounds
Have you noticed that when you move your iPhone the icons and the notifications move slightly to give you an effect? Well, this effect is called the Parallax Effect and, yes, it also eats up some of your battery because it uses the gyroscope sensor on your iPhone in order to function. To turn this off head over to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on Reduce Motion.
Another feature that also drains battery is called Dynamic Backgrounds. To put it simply, if your wallpaper has certain elements that move about then chances are that this feature is turned on. I recommend you use a still image as your wallpaper to save some battery life because every little drop counts. To change your wallpaper to a still image simply head over to Settings > Wallpaper and choose a still image as your new wallpaper.
- Disable or Control Background App Refresh
This feature is similar to the sync feature that you find on android and, yes, it also eats up battery life. As the name indicates this feature allows apps to synchronize and refresh in the background thereby costing you some precious battery life.
Fortunately, Apple has made it really easy to let you decide which applications can use this feature or either turn this feature off altogether. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn it Off which will disable the feature altogether or turn it On or Off for individual applications.
- Turn Off “Hey Siri”
Everybody loves Siri, her witty replies and jokes can certainly brighten up your mood. As good as Siri is we wouldn’t want her eating away at our precious battery life, right? “Hey Siri” is a feature that Apple has turned on by default on every iOS device.
This feature enables you to quickly trigger and access Siri in order to ask her anything by saying “Hey Siri”, which means that she’s always sat there in the background listening for “Hey Siri” which eats up battery. Fortunately, you can turn this off by heading over to Settings > General > Siri and turn off Allow “Hey Siri”.
- Stay Up to Date
Apple is always hard at work at improving their software experience. Every major and minor update is aimed towards improving your iOS device. Therefore, you should always update to the latest of what Apple has to offer. There have been many cases that poor battery life issues have been fixed with the latest iOS updates. To check if your device is up to date head over to Settings > General > Software Update.