Does Smart Family App Use Connecting Phone Battery

An Android smartphone with a banner that says 'how to save more battery life' — Samsung sells many Android smartphones. Users want to know how to save more battery life. We explain how …

Few things annoy me more than having to constantly recharge the battery on my smart phone. It's my own fault for wasting so much battery time without thinking about ways to save it, but it's never too late to learn about what can be done to save some battery time.

Of course, the obvious solution is to not use your smart phone for all the things you used to do on a desktop computer. For example, do you play games no your phone? Well, stop playing games and you'll save a lot of battery power. But where is the fun in that?

It turns out, there are a few things you can do to conserve battery power on an Android phone. You may have similar options on the iPhone series but I don't buy Apple products so I'm afraid you'll have to figure that out for yourself.

1. Remove Unused Apps

We all install a lot of apps on our smart phones. And naturally as we install more apps we use certain apps less often, usually the older apps. Those apps use battery power even when you are not using them. If you haven't used an app in more than two weeks, consider uninstalling it.

Some older apps are no longer available in the Google Playstore. I take that as a sign that I should uninstall them anyway. Google sometimes removes apps for violating terms of service.

2. Use Power Saving Mode

Many people hear about Power Saving Mode, take a look at it, and then forget about it. But the Power Saving mode dashboard has been greatly improved since I first looked at it. You now have a couple of ways to fine tune the reduction in demand for battery power.

The first option is to choose either MID or MAX settings. Obviously, MID uses more power than MAX and less power than when you are not in Power Saving Mode. You can disable the power saving feature at any time.

Your smart phone will reduce the brightness of your screen, CPU speed, and network usage. This will reduce the amount of bandwidth your phone uses against your monthly plan when you are not actively using it.

If you choose the MAX setting, your smart phone won't connect to any networks when you are not using it. This means it won't download updates for anything or even connect to free Wi-Fi until you want to use it. The phone also disables its desktop wallpaper and activates a "dark background".

The second option you have is to selectively reduce power usage for some apps. This is called App Power Monitor and it lists for you all the apps that normally use power when you're not using your phone. You can check or uncheck which apps you want to throttle and then click on SAVE POWER.

In this way, you exercise some control over the apps you leave installed on your phone.

3. Turn Your Phone Off When Not Using It

Okay, this is a scary thought. What if your kids need to get hold of you? What if there is a family emergency over night? We have become accustomed to having our smart phones on and with us all the time.

It makes sense, though, to turn off your phone when you know you cannot use it for several hours. For example, when my family goes to the theater, we all turn off the power to our smartphones when the movies begin. We know we won;t be using them for at least two hours.

You can also turn off your smartphone when you go to bed. Unless you are on call or waiting for news about a family member, there is really no need to leave your smart phone running all night while you sleep. If anything, leaving a smartphone active next to your bed may disrupt your normal sleeping pattern, and that is a known problem that psychologists and sleep specialists have documented.

There may be other times when it makes sense to turn off your smart phone, but remember that police can use our smartphones to trace our whereabouts. It's a good idea to leave your smartphone active when you are driving a long distance, just in case something happens and you're not able to call 911.

4. Dim the Brightness on Your Screen

Even if you choose not to activate the Power Saving Mode feature, you can dim the brightness on your phone's screen when you are not using it. There is no reason to leave the brightness setting so high. In fact, most people can easily get used to low brightness screen displays in a few minutes.

You need a brighter screen most often when you're dealing with glare from sunlight or poor office lighting.

Many people activate their phone's Auto Adjust Brightness feature. While this is convenient, it uses more power than if you control the brightness yourself and favor the dim setting.

5. Set Screen Timeouts

You can also adjust the Screen Timeout setting under DISPLAY options. The screen timeout blanks your phone after you have not used it for a certain length of time.

You can also activate the Keep Screen Turned Off feature, which prevents your phone from activating when its in a dark place. This is handy for people who carry their smartphones everywhere in purses or pockets. It prevents the dreaded "butt call" from happening.

6. Disable "Smart" Screen Features

Under the ADVANCED FEATURES settings you can enable or disable options that make a smartphone "smart". It knows when you are using it because it monitors your camera (when other apps are not using it) to detect when you are looking at the screen. By deactivating smart features, you save power on your battery by sacrificing a little bit of convenience.

7. Use the Data Saver Feature

Under the GENERAL MANAGEMENT options, you'll see "Data Usage" suggested under "Looking for something else?" Click on Data Usage and you'll see that you can activate the Data Saver.

Although this feature was designed to help you save bandwidth, it can also help reduce power usage. The Data Saver prevents apps from sending and receiving data when you are not using them.

8. Close All Apps When You're Finished Using Them

The Recent Apps menu comes up when you touch a certain button on your phone. The button varies by phone but on the models I have used it was in the lower left-hand corner of the phone, just below the screen area.

Whenever I am finished using an app I click on the "Close All Apps" button. Usually two or more apps come up in the staggered list display. I close them all.

Apps are constantly remaining open, especially the browser apps from when you search the Web. By studiously closing all apps every time you finish using them, you ensure that they don't waste battery life by remaining open.

Conclusion

People who want to know how to save more battery life on their Android phones should be glad to know they have so many ways to do it. The variety of options available to us makes it simple to design a battery saving plan for every user and device.

Naturally, we all want longer-lived batteries. Those devices are coming but instead of buying a new smartphone every year just to get a better battery, it's prudent to manage how you use your current smartphone and then decide whether a new model is necessary.

I hope you found these tips useful. Please share it with your friends if they are also frustrated with the power drain on their smartphones.