Extend Your Smartphone Battery Life

It’s the complaint I have every time I’m out doing ANYTHING social media worthy. Whether it’s at a conference, a brand event, or just out with friends and family, if I’m using my phone a lot the battery is going to drain. Go to any blogging conference, and almost everybody there will have a portable charging device. They know that the battery on their phone is not going to last through the day — and there are some things you can do though to make your smartphone battery last as long as possible.

Be Prepared - The first thing you can do is either carry a mobile charger or a second battery if your phone has a removable one. This way, if you do end up with a drained battery you won’t be completely out of service.

Searching for Networks - When you have services turned on that can not be used in your location it will drain your battery — so turn them off. For example if you have your WiFi turned on and keep it on when you leave your house, the phone is going to constantly be searching for WiFi networks to pick up, and it will definitely affect your battery life. Other things to watch are GPS and other location services. If I REALLY need to extend my battery life I’ll turn them off, although I do like to use them for searching nearby, and my weather widget (yes I know, I can just look outside).

Silent Mode - Having your phone on vibrate and getting a call can take a lot of juice out of your battery. Usually your phone will have a silent and a vibrate option. If you don’t want to hear it, put it on silent instead to conserve power.

Apps – There are some apps I use that are constantly checking things in the background. They may even be running in full form in the background! My social media apps are the biggest culprits. When my phone constantly checks for new emails or new tweets, the battery is going to drain fast. If you are going to be out for the day, make sure to change the intervals the application checks in at to be a longer period of time.

Screen – One of the strongest drains on a smartphone’s battery life is the screen. Make sure you dim your screen to where it’s comfortable to see, and don’t let the “auto detection” do it for you.

Hopefully with these tips you can survive a whole day without needing to find a plug before you go into digital darkness for the rest of the day!