10 Ways to Increase the Battery Life of Your Phone in 2023

Once upon a time, phones had removable batteries you could swap in when needed for extended usage. But these days most smartphones feature built-in battery optimization features that automatically lower screen brightness and restrict background app activity in order to extend battery life.

Bright smartphone displays can be one of the biggest drains on battery life. Utilizing AMOLED technology to temporarily turn off individual pixels can significantly extend battery life. Activating dark mode can significantly extend this period and extend battery life significantly.

1. Reduce screen brightness

Most people wish their phones could last longer on a single charge, and one way to increase battery life is by decreasing screen brightness.

Displays consume the most power on smartphones, contributing to your battery draining faster than usual. Dimming the brightness by half should save power and save some energy overall.

Some phones feature settings that automatically adjust screen brightness according to lighting conditions; however, most devices allow users to manually decrease its brightness as well.

2. Use dark mode

Manufacturers frequently promote dark mode as a battery life saver, since OLED screens don’t use power for individual pixels when in black mode. Yet according to research from Purdue University, using dark mode doesn’t actually save much battery.

Researchers conducted their study by conducting 60 second tests with six popular apps (Calculator, Google Maps, Google News, Phone and YouTube) with and without dark mode enabled for 60 seconds each before employing a tool to measure the power consumption per pixel on screen – results were disappointingly mixed.

3. Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Navigation, playing games, browsing the Web, making calls and texting can all draw on significant power resources, so charging your device every night will keep it working longer.

By tapping Settings > Battery, you can see which apps are using the most power. The list is organized based on how much each app drains your battery over 24 hours.

4. Enable power-saving mode

Power-saving mode is an incredible feature to extend battery life. It lowers screen brightness and limits background activity while disabling network and connectivity features.

Emergency or power saving modes can be extremely useful features to have available when in an emergency, or on the road where battery conservation is key. They’re also helpful if your phone plan limits data usage – with these modes restricting processor speeds, animations or visual effects; background app refresh and push notifications from being updated too frequently – plus any animations or visual effects which might play during processing speeds that would normally allow more.

5. Turn off location services

Numerous apps are constantly accessing your location and draining away battery life, so it is wise to disable location services and only give permission to those whom you trust.

Your privacy settings can be found within Settings, with Location services being no exception. Once there, you’ll see a list of apps requesting your location; more significant locations should remain enabled while lesser used features such as Find My iPhone, Emergency Calls and Cell Network Search may need to be toggled off accordingly. Generally, though, these should all remain on.

6. Turn off background refresh

Background app refresh is a feature that allows apps to update their content even when you aren’t actively using them – potentially draining battery and eating up your cellular data usage.

Deactivating this feature can increase battery life and save mobile data usage. Both iOS and Android smartphones make this setting easily manageable; you could also try other data- and battery-saving strategies such as turning off YouTube videos or switching Low Power Mode mode on iPhones to further save resources.

7. Turn off auto-sync

Although older phones could make do with removable batteries that could last all day and then recharge overnight, today’s sleeker phones like the Samsung Galaxy S23 series and foldables like those made by LG offer longer days on a single charge. Making smart decisions to maximize battery performance includes turning off auto-sync which not only backups your data but also drains both battery and storage resources.

Make use of features you aren’t using such as Bluetooth, GPS and near-field communication (NFC) to lower battery consumption. Also delete unused apps regularly.

8. Turn off location services when not in use

Disabling location services is one way to protect your privacy and extend battery life, yet may make using apps less convenient – your map app won’t show where you are anymore and ridesharing services won’t be able to track you anymore.

Disabling location services on both iPhone and Android smartphones is simple. You can disable them globally or selectively for certain apps; by default, these will be turned off ‘While Using the App’; however you may also select Never or Always as appropriate settings for you.

9. Turn off location services when not in use

Searching for Wi-Fi connections or using GPS services consumes battery power; to save power when not needed, disable these services when not in use.

No matter if your phone runs out of juice mid-meeting or you just want to spend less time plugging it into a wall charger, these tips will help maximize its battery life and prolong its use. They apply equally well to iPhones and Android devices alike – though some aspects like dark mode and Bixby Routines may only apply specifically to Samsungs.

10. Turn off location services when not in use

Avoid charging your phone overnight, or to 100% capacity. Doing this creates heat and battery cycles which reduce its capacity over time.

Heavy apps, like video and game apps, tend to consume an excess amount of power and deplete your battery faster. You can reduce their background usage by restricting their permissions or turning on dark mode; many Android phones also include an automatic battery optimizer which helps extend phone battery life further; Samsung smartphones feature this option automatically optimize their devices whenever necessary.