Extending your phone's battery life: Dos and don'ts for when you're scrolling
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A question for you - how often do you power down your phone? Do you even need to?
Well, according to results found on Google, you'll find varying answers. Some say once a week, others say once a day, but check the dates on those recommendations, because, like a loaf of bread, they can expire.
Phones are such a vital part of our lives these days, you want to make sure your phone is at full speed when you need it, so you should periodically power it down for a minute.
"Continue to use your phone as you see fit because again that is really just going to provide a very negligible benefit," said Andrew Testa from Verizon.
Testa added that powering off your phone is not much help, there are other things that very much are.
"You're going to want to make sure that your phone has the absolute latest software, but you don't have to do that by rebooting, he said.
Instead, go into your settings, and under general you'll find software update, and it will tell you if you are due for an update.
"There's always performance improvements," he said. "That comes along with those updates that include optimizing your battery, so you're going to want to make sure you do that."
If your battery seems like it's running down too early in your day, go into settings and find the battery option, it's there you'll find there's a list of all of your activities and how much battery they use.
You may find some surprises along with apps you can turn off.
Testa suggests you also may want to reduce your screen brightness, which can really extend your battery life.
As for charging, not all chargers are created equal.
"Definitely check out your device manual to make sure you've got the right charger for your device," he explained.
Another big battery killer is apps that use location services.
"It's constantly refreshing to update your location or it's constantly looking for a WiFi signal, right? Those are the apps that are actively working your phone and then, therefore, decreasing your battery life," Testa said.
Apps that are constantly giving you push notifications are also constantly running the in background, if you don't want them - disable them.
Lastly, Testa told me that if you leave a lot of web pages open in your browser, it's not a problem unless it's something that is constantly updating.