Simple hacks to extend your Android's battery life

Posted on Thursday December 06, 2018

Android phones are at the forefront of innovation in the smartphone industry. However, many of their cutting-edge features and applications are real energy sinkers. Even though the battery life of Android phones is improving with each passing year, it's still not enough to keep pace with all the power-hungry applications and hardware. Here are some tips to make the most out of every charge.

Use power saving mode

The quickest way to conserve your battery life is by activating the power saving mode found in the settings of most Android phones. As of this writing, you can do this by going to Settings > Device maintenance, then tapping the Battery icon at the bottom left corner.

This mode limits your phone's processor and reduces the screen's brightness display, thereby using only the bare minimum power to keep its critical functions running. This means that even with the power saving mode on, you'll still have access to apps for texting, web browsing, and social media. What's more, this feature can be set to automatically activate when your Android phone's battery drops to a certain level, so you can implement this tip once and enjoy longer battery life without worrying about it again.

Set brightness manually

While using auto-brightness on your Android phone is convenient, it also drains your battery faster, because the system actually sets the brightness at a higher level than what you really need. To extend your battery life, adjust the brightness manually by going to Settings > Display. To save even more power, you can set the screen timeout interval to be as short as 15 seconds, so that your phone screen goes back to black faster when not in use.

Offload unused or infrequently used apps

The more apps there are on your phone, the more power your phone uses to keep them running in the background. If you want to extend your battery life, then you'll have keep your apps to a minimum. Do you really need four photo editors? Do you need separate news site apps when you can access them all on Twitter? You can delete unnecessary, redundant, or infrequently used apps by going to Settings > Apps. From the complete list of all your applications, choose the ones that you can live without, and uninstall them.

Organize your home screen

Since most Android phone users don't realize that a cluttered home screen sucks away their battery life, they load it with tons of apps and widgets. Don't fall into this trap by keeping your home screen minimalist. Only keep the essential apps on your screen and do away with live wallpapers, as those consume more battery than regular pictures. A completely black wallpaper is also known to reduce battery life considerably in newer Android phone models.

Turn off sound and vibration

Sounds and vibration lets you know about incoming calls, messages, and notifications. But in some cases, too much of these can drain your battery life. If you have a very active group chat, for example, or if you subscribe to a lot of feeds, then you should consider turning off the sound and vibration for these apps. Anyway, even if you have them turned off, you can still see notifications via banners or message previews. Eliminate sound and vibration options by going to Settings > Sounds and Vibrations.

Hide all notifications

If you want to further extend your battery life, then turn off notifications completely. Ask yourself, “Do you need to know every time someone posts to or comments on your Facebook page? Do you want to hear about the latest deals and offers from your application?” If you don't really need to be notified about these things, then do away with them by going to Settings > Notifications, then toggle off the All apps setting.

Check your  location services settings

Some apps like Google Maps and Waze require you to turn on location services to display your surroundings and give you directions. But location services chip away at your battery life very quickly and you should turn it on only for as long as you need to. If you have to really use location services but you're running out of juice, you can go for lower location accuracy by going to Settings > Connections > Location > Locating method, then tick the Battery saving option.

Battery power shortage can be a frustrating issue for Android phone users, but following the simple hacks above can help you extend your battery life and avoid emotional breakdowns because of technology.  To learn more about how to preserve battery life on your Android devices, give us a call today.