15 Best Battery Saver Tips for iOS 12

iOS 12 is arguably one of the best updates to grace Apple’s mobile operating system. The Cupertino-based tech giant opted for optimizations over iOS 11 and avoided applying unnecessary visual tricks or useless features just for its sake. The result was improved performance and functionality across the board.

All the productivity improvements iOS 12 brings should ideally translate into better battery life as well. However, there is much more you can do on your own to get more juice out of your iPhone and iPad. Here are tips to help you do just that.

1. Monitor Battery Usage

iOS 12 has a revamped Battery usage panel on your iPhone and iPad that now provides detailed graphs that visually show how the iPhone or iPad has consumed battery over the last 24 hours or the last 2 days (or 10 days on iPad). Tap Battery in the Settings app to access it.

Simply touch any area on the chart; you should see which apps were used during that period and their consumption levels per app.

Further down, you can monitor all apps for battery usage and activity since last charge. Apps running in the background are also listed accordingly.

Consider checking the Battery usage panel regularly so you can reduce the apps that consume the most battery life. Also, use iOS 12’s Screen Time functionality to set limits on how much access you have to certain power-hungry apps.

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2. Disable Background Refresh

By default, certain apps are configured to run in the background so they are up to date as soon as you install them. However, apps that use background refresh can consume battery life quite aggressively – photo management and backup tools like Google Photos fall into this category.

If you don’t want an app to run when it’s not actively in use, you can always disable background refresh for that app.

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Tap an app in the Settings app, then turn off the switch next to Background App Refresh. Applications that are not running in the background do not have this toggle feature.

3. Disable Location Services

Some apps like to use your location to give you a better experience when you’re online. However, this function takes a serious toll on battery life due to the additional workload. So consider turning off location services for apps you can do without.

To manage location services, tap Privacy in the Settings app, then tap Location. From this screen, you can disable location services for all applications on your device or manage them separately for each application.

When managing individual applications, you can also specify whether an application can use location services by using the Never, While Using, or Always options. If location services are important to the app in question (like Google Maps or Apple Maps), you may want to select While Using instead of disabling location services entirely.

4. Lower Brightness Levels

You may have heard this a few times, but once again, too much screen brightness drains your iPhone or iPad’s battery pretty fast. If you think you can do with a little less brightness on your iOS device, go ahead and bring it down.

Swipe down from the top right corner of the screen to open the Control Center and then use the nifty brightness controller to do this easily.

Even with Auto-Brightness turned on, iOS 12 will only automatically adjust the brightness at the manually adjusted level.

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5. Open Wi-Fi Assist

If you live in an area with wild fluctuations in signal strength, this alone can result in serious reductions in battery life. This is because the cellular radio on your iOS device is working overtime to establish a connection.

To prevent this from happening, iOS 12 has the option of Wi-Fi Assist, which, as the name suggests, automatically connects to known Wi-Fi hotspots in case the cellular connection drops randomly.

To turn on Wi-Fi Assist, tap Cellular Data in the Settings panel, scroll all the way down, and then turn on the switch next to Wi-Fi Assist.

6. Turn On Airplane Mode

Once again, in areas with weak signal, the cellular radio on your iOS device drains the battery to keep you connected to the nearest cellular tower. If the connection is poor, consider temporarily switching to Airplane Mode until you reach an area with better signal strength.

While this isn’t a viable option for most people, consider it a way to save battery life if your iOS device really has too little water.

7. Reduce Auto-Lock Time

Is the screen on your iPhone or iPad taking a long time to turn itself off? That’s a waste of battery life, right?

To reduce the time, tap Display & Brightness in the Settings app, then tap Auto-Lock. On the next screen, select a much lower timeframe than the one currently in use. The 30 Seconds or 1 Minute options should get you a world of good.

8. Deliver Silent Notifications

Thanks to the reintroduction of stacking in iOS 12, notifications are essential and pretty cool to deal with. However, they also light up the screen when you pick them up. You get lots of notifications regularly and you lose tons of juice in no time.

However, instead of turning off notifications completely, consider silently delivering notifications to Notification Center; this stops the screen from automatically lighting up with incoming notifications.

To do this, swipe left on any notification (from Notification Center or Lock Screen), tap Manage, then Silently Deliver; All app-related notifications should now be sent directly to Notification Center instead.

When using an iPhone, you can also choose to hold it face down to stop notifications from lighting up the screen. Be careful with the surface, otherwise the screen may be scratched.

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9. Disable Unwanted Widgets

Yes, widgets provide a very useful way to stay up to date with the latest in your favorite apps, but always providing relevant information (especially if the widget needs to be connected online) consumes battery life.

To turn off a widget, tap Edit in the far left corner of the Home screen and then tap the red Remove option listed next to the widget.

You can add the removed widgets back at any time directly from that screen.

10. Decrease the Frequency of Data Fetch

When adding email accounts that receive data from online servers to stay up to date, your device consumes more battery. However, you can reduce the frequency of the Fetch program used by iOS 12 – to do so, tap on Passwords & Accounts in the Settings app and then on Fetch New Data.

Under the section labeled Fetch, select a higher duration (preferably Hourly). Alternatively, use Manual to only retrieve data when you are actively using the app, or Automatic to have this happen when connected to a power source.

11. Switch to Dark Mode

Whenever possible, use dark mode in apps that support them – YouTube, Firefox for iOS, etc. all have special dark modes. Darker pixels consume much less power on iOS devices with OLED displays, such as the iPhone X and XS.

Diving briefly into an app’s Settings panel will let you tell if it’s in a dark mode. If you use the revamped Books app in iOS 12, dark mode will automatically turn on in low light conditions.

12. Use Native Smart Invert

Admittedly, most apps don’t support custom dark modes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it. Use iOS 12’s built-in Smart Invert mode instead and you’re good to go. While this feature uses a color inversion scheme to create the ‘dark mode’ effect, it’s (as the name suggests) smart enough to leave images alone, so you’ll get more than a good experience in most applications.

To turn it on, tap General in the Settings app, tap View Accommodations, tap Invert Colors, then tap the switch next to Smart Invert.

13. Disable Hey Siri

Don’t you like Siri popping up randomly? Why not turn it off and save your iOS device the hassle of always being on the alert to hear your voice?

Tap Siri & Search in the Settings app, then turn off the switch next to Hey Siri. You can open and continue using Siri at any time by pressing and holding the Home or Power buttons.

14. Reduce Movement

iOS 12 brings its fair share of great visual effects to the table, but they come at a price – battery life. If you don’t mind missing out on some extra dazzling features while performing common tasks like opening the home screen or app switcher, consider turning them off.

To do this, tap General in the Settings app, tap Accessibility, tap Reduce Motion, then turn on the switch next to Reduce Motion.

15. Enable Low Power Mode

iPhones have a power usage setting that you can turn on so that your device uses very little power to operate – Low Power Mode. You may have encountered it before because your device reminds you to turn it on when it drops to the last 20% of the charge. However, you can also choose to open the thing manually whenever you want.

Tap Battery in the Settings app to turn it on (yes, the same option that opens the Battery usage panel) and then turn on the switch next to Low Power Mode. The battery indicator should turn yellow to indicate you’re turning it on.

With Low Power Mode on, you can expect your device to last much longer on a single charge. In fact, it automatically takes care of many of the markers you passed before – background activity, email receiving, and extreme visual effects are all disabled.

Now you know what to do if you’re not sure when you’ll have the opportunity to charge your iPhone again.

Evaluate This Fee

It’s never fun to charge your iPhone or iPad all the time, and with the tips outlined above, it should last a lot longer than before. Of course, don’t forget to apply incremental iOS 12 updates as soon as they become available – they are bound to bring more optimizations meaning greater efficiency and better battery life.