12 Tips to Make Your Phone Battery Last Longer

Getting the most battery life out of your phone requires making some adjustments to settings and usage habits. Follow these step-by-step tutorials for tips to extend your phone’s battery life.

1. Enable Power Saving Mode

Power saving mode limits background processes and phone features to conserve battery life.

On Android:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap Battery
3. Tap Battery Saver
4. Toggle the switch to the “on” position to enable Battery Saver mode
5. Tap “Turn on automatically” to set Battery Saver to activate automatically when your phone’s battery level gets low
6. Customize any additional Battery Saver settings as desired

On iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap Battery
3. Tap Low Power Mode
4. Toggle the switch to the “on” position to enable Low Power Mode
5. Customize any additional Low Power Mode settings as desired

Power saving mode is an easy way to extend battery life in a pinch when you need your phone to last longer.

2. Lower Screen Brightness

Dimming your screen brightness significantly reduces power consumption from the display.

On Android:

1. Swipe down from the top of the screen to open the Quick Settings shade
2. Locate the brightness slider and drag it left to reduce brightness
3. Optionally, tap the 3 dots or edit icon to customize the Quick Settings tiles
4. Drag the Auto-brightness tile into your Quick Settings to enable automatic brightness based on ambient light

On iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap Display & Brightness
3. Drag the brightness slider to the left to reduce brightness
4. Toggle Auto-Brightness to the “on” position to automatically adjust screen brightness based on current light conditions

Keeping screen brightness at around 50% or lower will go a long way in preserving battery life.

3. Disable Unused Background Apps

Apps that run in the background when not in use drain your battery. Remove or restrict background usage for apps you don’t need running constantly.

On Android:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap Apps & notifications
3. Tap See all apps
4. Tap the app you want to restrict
5. Tap Battery > Restrict background usage
6. Select Restrict background usage or Restrict background usage & disconnect from Wi-Fi

On iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap General
3. Tap Background App Refresh
4. Toggle the switch off for any apps you want to prevent from refreshing in the background

Disable background refreshing for apps you don’t need actively running and updating when you aren’t using them.

4. Disable Unused Radios

Turn off battery-draining connections like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS when you don’t need them.

The fastest way is to enable Airplane mode, which disables all radios at once.

On Android:

1. Swipe down from the top of the screen to open the Quick Settings shade
2. Tap the Airplane mode tile to enable Airplane mode

On iPhone:

1. Swipe down from the top right to open Control Center
2. Tap the Airplane mode icon to enable Airplane mode

Only turn radios back on when you need to use their features to avoid battery drain.

5. Shorten Screen Timeout

Decrease the time before your screen turns off after inactivity. A shorter timeout prevents your display from being on needlessly.

On Android:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap Display
3. Tap Screen timeout
4. Select a shorter timeout duration

On iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap Display & Brightness
3. Under Auto-Lock, select a shorter timeout duration

Set the screen timeout to as short as possible while still being convenient for your usage.

6. Disable Always-On Display

Always-on displays use battery by continually showing basic info like the clock when your phone is sleeping.

On Android:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap Lock screen
3. Tap Always-on display
4. Toggle the switch off to disable Always-on display

On iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap Display & Brightness
3. Under Always On, select Off

Limit always-on features to only certain times or frequencies when useful.

7. Limit Background Syncing

Frequent background syncing and fetching data for email, social media, and other apps decreases battery life.

On Android:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap Accounts
3. Tap the account
4. Toggle off auto-sync for that account

On iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap the app name (e.g. Gmail)
3. Tap Account
4. Under Fetch New Data, disable Push

Disable auto-syncing and instead sync accounts manually only when you need the latest data.

8. Reduce Refresh Rate

Higher screen refresh rates make scrolling and animations smoother but use more battery.

On Android:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap Display
3. Tap Refresh rate
4. Select 60Hz

Setting the refresh rate to 60Hz from the default 90 or 120Hz will provide noticeably better battery life.

9. Use Dark Mode

Dark mode displays dark background colors to take advantage of battery-saving OLED display technology.

On Android:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap Display
3. Tap Dark mode
4. Select Dark

On iPhone:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap Display & Brightness
3. Under Appearance, select Dark

Dark mode makes a bigger difference on OLED screens but can help save some power on any display.

10. Avoid Heat Exposure

Exposing your phone to high temperatures degrades the battery faster over time. Avoid leaving your phone in hot cars or direct sunlight.

11. Maintain Battery Health

To maximize your battery’s lifespan:

• Avoid fully discharging or overcharging the battery
• Ideal charge range is between 20%-80%
• Use optimized charging to learn your charging patterns
• Avoid using ultra-fast charging overnight

12. Replace Old Batteries

If your battery no longer holds a full charge, replacing it can extend the usable life of your phone rather than upgrading the entire device.

Contact the phone manufacturer or a repair shop to properly replace worn phone batteries.