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Our cell phones are a lifeline to everything that matters to us: our calendars, family, health, social connections, jobs, photos, music, movies, our ride home ... do you really want a low battery when pulling up your airline boarding pass? For better or worse, our mobile phones mean everything to us. You’re probably reading this on your phone!
But, today’s phone batteries can barely make it through a day. Moderate to heavy users (which is most of us) will easily burn through all 100% by dinner time, if not earlier. “Nomophobia” is the fear of being away from one’s mobile device - Google it! Low Battery Anxiety is real.
In this comprehensive post, I'll cover 20 tactics you can use to keep your phone up and running. I pulled together the best ideas, a bunch of good ideas, and maybe even a few lame ideas for when you’re truly desperate.
1 - Use a power bank! Boosa is my power bank company, so I'm leading with this! #TRUTH: none of the other 19 tactics are really necessary if you:
All your worries are out the window! You’re at 15% stepping off the plane in a foreign country? Who cares - you have a power bank! For you, there’s literally no such thing as a dead phone. Ever! Most other blog posts about this subject matter don’t mention portable phone chargers. Free yourself from Low Battery Anxiety - take a Boosa power bank with you.
2 - Reduce screen brightness. Again, shameless plug, this is completely unnecessary if you’re carrying around two days of Boosa power in your pocket. But this will help if you’re in a pinch.
3 - Turn off your cell network. Phones suck up power when they’re searching for and staying connected to cell towers. The downside is you're potentially losing connectivity.
4 - Use Wi-Fi instead of cell towers. If you have Wi-Fi available, use it. If you’re on an unlimited data plan, you might be used to using cell data wherever, whenever. But Wi-Fi does use less phone power than connecting to cell towers.
5 - Go into Airplane mode. Now I'm starting to introduce pain. I need the Internet, and so do you! But if you’re dipping below 10% and are desperate, you might just have to cut yourself off from the outside world. If you have to do this, I sincerely hope you’re actually on an airplane going somewhere with palm trees.
6 - Turn off other unnecessary wireless connections. Bluetooth, GPS, and location services, I’m looking at you.
7 - Text instead of talk. I prefer texting to phone calls anyway, so this advice works out perfectly for me.
8 - If you’re going to talk, keep it short. If you’re still making phone calls, try to make it short and sweet. This is like a dream for me, as I hate talking on the phone.
9 - No Skype or FaceTime, or keep it short. Video chats are more power-intensive than texting.
10- Don’t watch too many videos. This is just hitting me where it hurts, but videos suck up the power. Stop watching them and maybe read a book? A book that's not on your phone?
11 - Turn on smart battery mode. Apple calls it Low Power Mode, and Android has Power Saving Mode.
12 - Fight your addiction to check your phone. Dopamine has its claws in you, but you’re holding a phone with 10% left. Something’s got to give. Every time you turn your phone display on, you’re eating up the battery. Have you ever reflexively unlocked your phone, and then instantly forgot why you unlocked it? We're all addicted - fight it!
13 - Plug into a wall, a car charger, or a portable phone charger at any opportunity you get. If you don’t have a power bank with you, always plugging in to power when it’s available can be hugely helpful. From my observation, most people don’t plug in often enough. Don’t waste a second of charging. Plug it at your desk, in your car, anywhere!
14 - Set your screen timeout or auto lock to one minute. This is a questionable one, because it also takes a bunch of battery power to turn your phone back on. So if your phone keeps turning the screen off and you have to keep waking it up, you could cancel any benefit out by having your lock screen come on after a minute.
15 - Turn off push email. BONUS - if you do this while on vacation, you won’t get any emails. And that’s what vacation is all about.
16 - Turn off vibrate and sounds. I'm getting desperate here. Basically your phone is now a silent brick.
17 - Avoid flash photography and use of the flashlight. Even more desperate.
18 - Disable push notifications. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
19 - Update your apps. The slim hope here is that newer versions of your apps have been designed to maximize battery efficiency. Grasping at straws, people.
20 - Avoid using moving or animated pictures for your phone’s background. A black background uses the least power. You’d think I was just making this stuff up now.
Unless you plan on breaking your addiction to your phone (and all of the wonderful, productive things you do with it) ... unless you plan on explaining to your boss and your friends and everyone you love that your phone will be off because it’s just weak and almost out of power ... you’re going to need to help yourself and start bending over backwards to keep your phone from dying. We hope you found some value in the tactics shared above. Start using them today! Or just get yourself a Boosa.
