How to make your Apple Watch battery last longer
Like its predecessor, the Apple Watch 8 reportedly offers around 18 hours between charges, meaning as a power user you might have found an outlet before the day is done.
The newly released Apple Watch Ultra performs twice as well, according to the manufacturer, with 36 hours of battery life. But the device is designed for the great outdoors. So if you’re several days away from civilization, you may still struggle to keep your watch powered for the duration of your trip.
Regardless of which model you have, there are several ways to increase the time between charges for your Apple Watch. Put some of these into action and you’ll find that the smartwatch still has juice left over when you need it most.
Low power mode
A new feature added with watchOS 9, battery saver works the same as the battery saver available for iPhones and iPads. It disables certain features to save energy, such as These include the always-on display, heart rate notifications, background heart rate and blood oxygen readings, and workout reminders.
[Related: 4 tips to make your phone battery last longer]
In this mode, Apple Watch also turns off Wi-Fi and cellular connections when an iPhone isn’t nearby, and blocks incoming calls and notifications. As a result, Apple says calls can take longer, background apps update more sporadically, and complications (the widgets on your watch face) update less frequently. Additionally, Siri may be slower, and you’ll find that animations and scrolling can look less smooth.
To turn on Sleep mode, touch and hold the bottom edge of the Apple Watch screen to bring up Control Center, then swipe up. Tap the battery percentage icon and toggle that on Low power mode toggle switch. You can also turn it on in the settings on the watch by tapping battery. If you turn it on, you can also activate the mode indefinitely or for one, two or three days. A yellow circle appears at the top of the screen when the power saving mode is on.
Another option is to activate the energy saving mode every time you start exercising. In the Settings app on the smartwatch, scroll down to ” Work out option, and then turn on the Battery Saver toggle switch. And don’t worry: your device will continue to measure important metrics such as heart rate and pace.
Make manual adjustments
If the battery saver mode is too much (or not enough) for you, you can make some manual changes to your Apple Watch’s settings instead. For example, you can turn off the always-on display yourself: In the Settings app, tap on the watch screen brightnessthen turn off Always on. From the menu, you can dim the screen using the slider to save even more power.
Other ways to reduce the display’s power consumption are to switch to a darker watch face and limit the number of complications used. Not only does that mean fewer pixels to boot, it also means the wearable has less information to update in the background. Tap and hold the current watch face to change it.
Disabling the alarm when you raise your wrist can also save battery life. This way you prevent the face from lighting up when you scratch your ear, for example, and only do it when you really need it. This function is on the same screen brightness Screen in the settings on the watch – just turn it off Waking up when you raise your wrist Possibility.
Preventing your Apple Watch from having to constantly listen to your “Hey Siri” can also relieve pressure on your battery. Go to Settings on your smartwatch, select Siriand disable those Listen to “Hey Siri” Possibility. You can also disable Rise to Speak to save more battery life.
Management of your apps
The way you use your Apple Watch also affects battery life. If you really want to maximize the time between charges, keep calls from your wrist and audio streaming to the watch to a minimum and don’t use the gadget for demanding tasks like turn-by-turn navigation. The walkie-talkie feature is another one to avoid to save battery life as it uses the speaker and microphone.
It can also help to reduce the number of notifications that come in on your phone. This reduces the number of background checks the watch has to perform and the number of times it has to beep and vibrate. In the Watch app on your iPhone, tap notifications– Start by turning off alerts for any apps you don’t necessarily need to hear from.
[Related: Make your laptop battery last all day]
You can also use a trick to manage battery life on smartphones, which is to enable Do Not Disturb on your watch for a while. This blocks all notifications, stops your watch from constantly checking for them, and reduces the buzz and pings your device has to power. Touch and hold the bottom edge of the Apple Watch screen, then when Control Center appears, swipe up and tap it Do not disturb.
Also on the subject of apps, you can tell your Apple Watch not to update them in the background – so they’ll only update when they’re actually open. In the Watch app on your iPhone, tap General: You can either turn off the Update background app Disable option completely or disable for individual apps using the toggle switches.