Save Battery Power on an Android

The Android operating system offers many exciting features, including WiFi, GPS, and countless apps. Unfortunately, many of the features can take a toll on your device's battery power and cause it to drain quickly. Fortunately, there are a few simple tricks you can try to extend the life of your device's battery.

Steps

Making Simple Changes

  1. Turn on the power saving mode. For most devices, all you have to do is swipe downward from the top of the screen to bring up a menu. Scroll to the side until you find the power saving option, and select it.
    • The power saving mode may slow your phone down a little.
    • If you're getting an instant notifications from social media applications, they will stop until you open the application.
  2. Turn off WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS if you are not using them. All of these use battery power, even when you are not using them. For example, the wireless networking transmitter will continue to search for a wireless connection on a regular basis as long as it is turned on. This uses battery power, even if you are not browsing the internet.
    • To turn these features off, simply swipe downward from the top of your screen. Scroll sideways along the menu, and deselect the items.
  3. Turn off any apps that you are not using. Closing the app by pressing the back or home buttons is not enough; the app may continue to run in the background and drain battery power. You should access your device's recent and background apps and shut them down manually. This will usually ensure they are not running in the background and using battery power.
  4. Put your phone on standby mode when you are not using it. Simply press the power button and the display will darken. This will reduce battery power. To leave standby mode, simply press the power button again; you may have to unlock your phone once it "wakes up."
  5. Turn off the phone vibration function. Press the volume buttons up and down until you leave the vibrate mode. It might be a good idea to turn off vibrations for text messages too. You will need to go to your Settings, and then to "Sound & Display." If you can't find the settings for messages there, go to "Applications," and then "Messages."

Making Advanced Changes

  1. Reduce the brightness of your display. Go to your Settings, and select "Sound & Display." Tap on "Brightness," and move the slider to the side to reduce the brightness.
    • If you are using the power saving mode, your screen's brightness may already be reduced.
    • Reducing the brightness will make the screen harder to see, especially outdoors.
    • If you are using the internet, the setting for the internet might have a shortcut to adjust the brightness.
  2. Set your screen timeout to the shortest length possible. This setting tells the device to turn off the screen after the selected period of inactivity. The shorter the period, the less power your display will use. The setting options vary from phone to phone.
    • You can find this option under your Settings. Go to "Sound & Display," and select "Screen Timeout."
  3. If your device has an AMOLED screen, use a black background. AMOLED screens can reduce power usage sevenfold by displaying black instead of white or any other color. When searching on your phone you can also use Black Google Mobile at bGoog.com to get standard Google results (including images) all in black [1].
  4. Tell your device to only use 2G networks. If you do not need access to high speed data, or there is no 3G or 4G network where you live, you can tell your device to only use 2G mobile networks. You will still have access to EDGE network data and WiFi if needed.
    • To switch to 2G, go to your device's Settings, and select "Wireless Controls." Scroll down to "Mobile Networks," and tap on "Use only 2G Networks."

Disabling Animations

  1. Consider disabling animations if you feel confident about using your device's developer settings. Animations look nice as you navigate your phone, but they can slow down performance and drain battery power.[2] Disabling them does require turning on Developer Mode, however, so it's not for the faint-hearted.
  2. Open your Settings, and scroll down to “About phone.” This will open a screen showing more information about your Android device, as well as a list of items, including "Build Number."
  3. Tap "Build Number" around seven times. This will enable the Android Developer Options.
  4. Access the Developer Options. Hit the back button of your device to go back to the main Settings menu. Scroll down and tap “Developer Options.” It should be above the “About Device” section.
  5. Disable the animation options. Scroll down until you see “Window Animation Scale,” “Transition Animation Scale,” and “Animation Duration Scale.” Turn each one of these off.
  6. Restart your Android device. This will save and apply the new settings on your device. This may stretch your battery life a little bit, and your phone may run faster as well.



Tips

  • Put your device in "Airplane Mode" while on an in a movie theater or an airline flight—or turn it off.
  • When traveling, take your charger as well as a USB cable with you. Most airports offer free charging devices or power outlets, but some may only offer a USB port to charge your phone.
  • Consider getting a portable charger. This way, if you run out of battery and are not near an outlet, you will still be able to charge your phone.
  • You can see how much of your device's memory you are using by selection Settings -> Applications -> Running Services. You can use this to manually stop certain apps.
  • Many airliners have power ports somewhere near your seat which you can use to charge your device during the flight. Some airlines, however, have concerns about charging lithium batteries in-flight because they have been known to lead to thermal runaway. It's best to check with your airline before you fly.
  • You can see what uses the most battery power by going into your device's Settings, and selecting "Battery Use."

Warnings

  • If you have Android 4.0 or higher, installing task managing apps from the Play store will DRAIN more battery than they will save. Stay away from these and instead simply use the built in task manager. Android 6 does not have a task manager because its memory managing algorithms are much better than previous versions of Android.
  • All Android devices are set up a little differently. The sections within your device's Settings might have slightly different names.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://bGoog.com
  2. ↑ http://lifehacker.com/disable-animations-on-android-to-improve-performance-1583554900
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