Whether you spend all your time at home, or two hours commuting to work, keeping your phone’s battery alive for a full day can be a challenge. This is especially true if you use your phone to respond to emails, take calls, or as a mobile gaming station. Finding ways to pull just a little more juice out of your battery has become a daily battle for many. If you’re one of these people, then we’re here to help. Here are four ways you can improve your phone’s battery life.
How can I increase my phone battery life?
Smartphones have gotten more advanced over the years, but they still use older battery technology. While some advancements have been made to create batteries that last a week, improving your phone’s battery life can be as simple as watching how much of your battery you use.
Don’t run your battery to zero percent
Sometimes it can be hard to find time to charge your phone’s battery. But running your battery to zero percent is actually a lot more harmful to your battery than you might think.
Every time your battery is completely discharged, you complete a charge cycle. Batteries have a limited amount of charge cycles, and that means every full cycle you complete is one step closer to your battery not lasting as long.
As such, one way you can improve your battery life is to only charge your phone up to 80 percent, and then only run it down to 30 percent before charging it again.
This keeps you from ending a complete cycle as often and just helps keep the battery running at peak efficiency as long as possible. Chargers are pretty smart already, and soon we’ll even be able to charge our phones in 15 minutes.
Leave apps running in the background
It can be tempting and even satisfying to clear out all the apps you have running in the background. While that may improve your phone’s battery life slightly, if you use a lot of apps, you could be costing yourself more juice in the long run.
The system that your phone uses to keep apps running in the background can run your battery down some, yes. But, if you use apps like WhatsApp, or Telegram a lot, and then you’re constantly closing and re-opening them, you’re actually hurting yourself.
It takes a lot more juice to constantly open apps again than it does to just keep them running in the background. As such, only turn off apps that you don’t use as often. If you’re constantly going in and out of an app, just leave it open in the background. It will actually improve your battery overall.
Of course, there are always battery-hungry apps you want to avoid using.
Turn off background refreshing
Background refresh can be a handy feature on smartphones. This feature is responsible for pushing new emails, tweets, and other online content to your device. But, it can also be a battery drainer.
If you want to save some extra juice and improve your phone’s battery, turn app refresh off. Instead, just open those apps to refresh notifications and other content. It will save you some battery, and make your phone less distracting as you won’t be getting as many push notifications.
Disable keyboard sounds and vibrations
The clicking and clacking of your phone’s virtual keyboard can be a satisfying noise. However, it can also drain your battery. Any feature that adds noise or vibrations to your device will drain your phone’s battery.
So, if you want to improve your phone’s battery life, you can disable this particular feature. You can disable it on both Android and iOS devices. Typing up a text message won’t be as satisfying, but your phone battery will last a little longer.
Is it OK to use my phone while charging?
Yes, it’s totally fine. In fact, Samsung even states:
Yes, you can use your smartphone while charging. There is no danger in using your phone while it’s charging. When you use your phone while charging, the battery is charging at a slower rate than normal to allow enough power for the ongoing usage.
Why is my phone battery draining fast?
Usually, it’s due to a couple of factors. If you’re running Android, it’s entirely possible there are background tasks that are running and draining your battery. The easiest way to solve this is to reboot your phone.
Otherwise, it’s likely that the phone is overheating. Here is an overview from Google directly:
Avoid situations where your phone can overheat, especially when your battery is fully charged. Your battery drains much faster when it’s hot, even when not in use. This kind of drain can damage your battery. You don’t need to teach your phone the battery’s capacity by going from full charge to zero, or zero to full.
How long do phone batteries last?
Cell phone batteries last an average of 3 to 5 years, but that estimate can vary greatly depending on different factors. Charging habits play a major role in a battery’s lifespan. The more you charge the battery, the more its capacity will diminish over time
Is it good to switch off your phone every night?
Honestly, it does not make a difference to the phone. The only thing is you would save energy by not having to charge the phone during the night, but if you are thinking it can increase the battery’s lifetime, it shouldn’t. You do not need to power off your iPhone, iPad, or Android devices.
