Smartwatches are among the smallest gadgets we use on a daily basis, which means they have particularly small batteries. Every drop in battery percentage is felt all the more. So I'm going to give you some tips to try to maximize the battery life of your Apple Watch and save precious minutes or hours of battery life.
5 Ways to Increase Apple Watch Battery Life
Do You Really Need the Always On Feature on Apple Watch
Arriving with the Apple Watch Series 5, the “Always On” feature makes it so that your watch’s screen is always on. But do you really need that to be the case?
The dial of a classic watch is always visible and so it is a real comfort to have such an option on a smartwatch. But is it worth it at the expense of the battery life ?
The truth is, you probably don’t look at your smartwatch screen very often. A quick glance to check the time only takes a few seconds. Modern smartwatches are pretty good at detecting when you raise your arm to look at your watch. You may have to wait an extra split second for the screen to light up. On the other hand, the battery savings of turning off the “Always On” feature are really significant and may be worth the inconvenience… it’s up to you!
To disable the “Always On” option follow these steps:
- On the watch, go to Settings
- Scroll to Brightness and display
- Go down on Always on and click on the option
- On the option screen click the switch to deactivate it
And now, after a few seconds, the screen of your Apple Watch will turn off when not in use
Reduce screen time
Another interesting setting, and quite complementary to the first, you can adjust the duration during which the screen remains on when you activate your watch. This option is useful regardless of the status you have chosen for the "Always on" option. Indeed, even if your screen is always on, the brightness is reduced and certain functions (notably complications) go into sleep mode when the screen is no longer active.
In your settings, you can therefore reduce to a minimum the duration of activation of the screen each time you wake it up:
- On the watch, go to Settings
- Scroll to Brightness and display
- Go all the way down to Activation duration and click on it
- There you can choose between 15 seconds and 70 seconds… Choose 15 seconds.
This setting will prove particularly economical if you look at your watch very often during the day.
Turn on Do Not Disturb mode to reduce screen activation
We come to the 3rd tip… and clearly, you will have understood, the biggest culprit in terms of energy consumption is the screen. So, limiting the time during which the screen is on will increase the battery life. Also, another way to do this is to prevent repeated notifications from waking up the screen.
It is generally a good idea to disable non-essential applications so that they do not send Notifications to your watch right from the start – no need to constantly distract yourself. However, a quick way to do this when you need to save some battery is to turn on Do Not Disturb mode. By turning on this mode, only important notifications will continue to come through.
- go to the Center de contrôle of your Apple Watch by pressing the side button
- Locate the crescent moon icon and click on it
- Select the mode Do not disturb
- You will then see in the Control Center that the crescent icon has turned purple, meaning that the mode is active (you will also see this same crescent at the very top of your watch face)!
Activate “Power saving mode”
For those times when you really need to extend the battery life of your smartwatch, you can opt for the Energy saving mode. On an Apple Watch, this mode disables a whole series of energy-consuming features: Always on, background health measurements, exercise start reminders, etc.
To enable power saving mode:
- go to the Center de contrôle of your Apple Watch by pressing the side button
- click on the battery percentage
- Push the button Energy saving mode
- select Enable to activate the mode for an indefinite period or on Activate during… to choose an activation duration
The radical option: transform your Apple Watch into a basic watch to extend its battery life by several days
When you really need to extend the battery life of an Apple Watch for several days without charging, you can turn it into a simple watch. By turning off most smart features, your watch will behave like a traditional watch, only displaying the time, which can significantly increase battery life.
Apple Watches used to have a feature called "Power Reserve" that could be enabled in Settings. However, since WatchOS 9, this feature is automatically enabled when the Apple Watch is turned off while still having battery power.
Start by turning off your Apple Watch
- Long press on the side button
- Press the icon switch off then slide the Turn off cursor
To see the time, all you have to do is press and hold the crown…
