How to use Low Power Mode on the Apple Watch

The Apple Watch has never been known for long battery life. Case in point: Apple never strayed from its estimated 18-hour battery life until the introduction of the Apple Watch Ultra. But with watchOS 9, the company introduced a new power saving mode to extend the time between charges.

Previously, the Apple Watch had a Power Reserve mode that turned off all functions except your ability to read the time, turning your smartwatch into a “dumb” one until you could plug it into a charger. This new mode is different – it’s more like the iPhone’s power saving mode. With this option turned on, you can continue to use your Apple Watch, but certain power-hungry features will be turned off or limited to conserve battery power.

On Apple Watch, Sleep mode turns off the always-on display and caps sensor readings like background heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring. (You should be aware that it also disables irregular heart rhythm notifications, as well as high and low heart rate notifications.)

The power saving mode also limits LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity. While you can still send messages or make calls from your watch, it only gets notifications about once an hour. As a result, you may miss timely texts and emergency notifications.

Don’t worry if you’re in the middle of a workout, though – heart rate and GPS won’t be affected. Another option that reduces heart rate and GPS tracking is also in the works but isn’t currently available.

This mode is a great option if you have an aging Apple Watch but don’t want to upgrade (since battery life is often the reason people buy new watches). However, your mileage may vary. Battery life is highly dependent on individual usage, and the battery health of your watch also plays a role. You can only get that much out of sleep mode if your battery has significantly degraded over the years.

As with the iPhone version, you’ll be automatically prompted to turn on Low Power Mode once your battery power reaches 10 percent. But some people, particularly those with Ultras, might want to be more aware of how they use the feature — for example, if they’re competing in an Ironman and need at least 12 hours of GPS and activity tracking. With the Ultra, Apple says the power saving mode can extend battery life to up to 60 hours. (Based on our testing, however, you can go way beyond that.)

First things first – to use Battery Saver you need watchOS 9. That means this feature is only available for the Apple Watch Series 4 or later. If you have an older watch and think this feature is worth considering, consider upgrading.

In any case, assuming your Watch is equipped with Watch OS 9, there are two ways to enable the feature.

The quickest way is through your watch control center.

You can also enable power saving mode by going to Settings > Battery > Power saving mode. The benefit of doing this is that it gives you additional context for your battery life. Not only can you see how your battery has drained since it was last charged, but you can also see what times you may have previously turned on sleep mode.

And you can type battery condition from this menu to check how low the battery is and to enable optimized battery charge settings.