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Extend Your Phone's Battery Life With These Tips

Learn why you’re always plugging in to power up.

Quick answer: To extend your phone’s battery life, you can turn off notifications, close out of apps, dim screen brightness and turn off Wi-Fi when traveling.

You might not even be home from work or school yet, but your cell phone’s battery level is critically low. What’s draining your battery? Keep reading to discover straightforward solutions to your battery power dilemmas.

Woman holding iPhone with drained battery

The screen brightness is set too high

The first thing you should do when your battery life dwindles is to double-check your screen brightness. Save battery power by setting the brightness to low, or choose an auto-dimming feature that adjusts to your environment. Also, check that the display shuts off after a minute or so of inactivity.

Your phone is constantly searching for Wi-Fi

Turning Wi-Fi on while traveling is a big no-no if you’re trying to reserve power. During your commute, ensure that Wi-Fi is off, so it won’t burn through power trying to connect with every Wi-Fi signal in range on the way to your destination.

You receive too many notifications

Vibrations use more battery power than turning just notifications on.

From text messages to emails to push notifications, if your phone is going off all day accompanied by lighting up, vibrating, and ringing, the battery life may suffer. Disable notifications on less important apps, and if possible, keep your phone on silent all day. Vibrations also use more battery power than notification sounds alone.

You have busy, battery-draining apps running

Open the Settings app and navigate to Battery on your iPhone or Android device. There, you should be able to view which apps are consuming the most battery power. Make sure to disable background activity and close out of battery-draining apps, like ones that use GPS. You may also want to cut back on using video, gaming, and other resource-intensive apps throughout the day in order to spend more time away from your charger.

Your phone’s battery has worn down

Over time, all batteries tend to wear down, holding less of a charge than when you first bought your phone. When all else fails, it may be time to purchase a new battery or device. Fortunately, Straight Talk carries the best phones on the largest, most dependable 4G LTE networks. Plus, most new smartphones boast a longer battery life than their predecessors, so you can say goodbye to your low-battery worries.