How to improve Android Phone battery life ~ TecCracker

Table of Contents

    Manually adjust display brightness
    Adjust screen timeout
    Use Dark mode on AMOLED displays
    Avoid Live wallpapers
    Disable widgets
    Turn off Bluetooth, Location and NFC
    Use Wi-Fi instead of mobile data
    Turn off Wi-Fi when not needed
    Turn off Automatic Wi-Fi
    Turn off auto-syncing of accounts
    Turn off vibrations
    Turn off Hey Google detection
    Enable Power Saver mode
    Turn off animations
    Restrict apps running in the background
    Root your Android
    Install a custom kernel
    Install custom ROM
    Use Greenify app
    Monitor misbehaving apps
    Uninstall unnecessary apps
    Switch to Lite apps
    Keep apps up to date
    Install ad-free apps
    Limit notifications
    Avoid battery optimizer apps
    Avoid graphics-heavy games
    Practice full charging
    Avoid third-party chargers
    Avoid high temperatures

Keep apps up to date

Whenever you receive a new app update on your device, don’t ignore it. Most app updates come with bug fixes and other enhancements and optimizations, some of which may be directly aimed at improving the power optimization of the app. And even if you don’t notice any improvement, you can always be sure that the update either fixed/improved something or got you a new feature.

Install ad-free apps

In case you didn’t know this already, all those advertisements you see on the apps on your phone waste a lot of battery power. While I understand ads are important to support the developers, just from a performance point of view, they are a hindrance. Not to mention the issues with privacy and bad user experience.

If you have two apps that do the same thing, one with and the other without ads, go for the latter. It will have a slight (although not very noticeable) positive effect in improving battery performance on your smartphone.

Limit notifications

Notifications are very important if you want to stay updated with all that is happening around you. But it comes at a cost. All these social media, news and special offers notifications require background services that push them. As explained before, these background services use up a lot of power. To keep it within certain limits, disable notifications that you can live without.

To do this, follow the steps below:

Go to Settings.
Tap on Apps and notifications.
Select the app that you don’t want notifications from.
On the App info screen, tap on Notifications.
Disable the toggle for All <app name> notifications.

Avoid battery optimizer apps

All those funky apps that claim to kill background apps on your smartphone are junk. Trust me when I say this, they do more damage to your device than good. The apps that they kill spring back to life in no time. And when they do, it ends up draining more power than they otherwise would. Overall, these apps do practically nothing to improve the battery life of Android devices.

Android by design does a good job at handling memory, so don’t let some pathetic piece of third-party code, that often are nothing but adware, go on a killing spree on your device.

Avoid graphics-heavy games

High-end games consume a lot of battery power. This is mainly due to three reasons. One, rendering the graphics requires a lot of work to be done by the processor which translates to higher battery usage. Second, most games need to be played on near-full brightness to enhance the visuals. Lastly, serious gaming requires high-end headphones that draw power from the phone’s battery.

If you’re already facing battery performance issues on your device, I would advise avoiding playing such games.

Practice full charging

It is recommended by experts to always allow the smartphone battery to charge fully in one go. Batteries are designed for an approximate maximum number of charging cycles, each of which is said to cause minor wear. Although it is not noticeable in general use, abrupt charging of the smartphone battery can damage it in the long run. So, by charging the device completely in one go, for example from 10% to 100%, you can minimise that risk.

Avoid third-party chargers

Always charge your device with the official charger that came with it. Third-party charges may not match the power specifications on your smartphone, causing issues such as slow charging or overheating.

Avoid high temperatures

Batteries, and for that matter most electronic and electrical components are known to get damaged at temperatures higher than the designed threshold. Try to avoid exposing your smartphone to higher temperatures to save not just the battery but the device itself.

So these were the best ways to improve battery life on Android. For most users, optimising the display settings, disabling unnecessary features and restricting apps and services from over-consuming memory and data will go a long way. For advanced users, root your device and get a custom ROM and kernel. You’ll be blown away by realising all that you can do to improve the battery life of your smartphone.

If you can follow at least a few of these tried and tested tips, I can assure you of a visible improvement in your smartphone’s battery performance.

Let me know if you know of any other hacks or tips that can extend the battery life of Android devices, I’ll be eager to try them out.