While the Apple Watch is undeniably the best smartwatch on the market, battery life often tops the list of user concerns.
The Series Ultra 2 boasts impressive multi-day performance, but most models fall short, requiring daily charging, especially for active users with sleep tracking enabled.
This is super frustrating, particularly when you rely on your watch for health monitoring or evening commutes.
The good news is there are ways to optimize battery life without sacrificing the functionality you love.
We’ve compiled 5 tips to help you extend your Apple Watch’s battery life, from simple adjustments to strategic feature utilization. Let’s get started.
1. Limit Background App Refresh
When you launch an app on your Apple Watch, you will immediately see the most recent news or sports score because those apps continually take in new data in the background and refresh in real time. Battery life is the price of that convenience.
The Watch app’s General menu contains a Background App Refresh menu. You can either disable background refreshes for all apps or toggle them on and off for specific ones.
Here’s how: On your Apple Watch, go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn the feature off.
To conserve battery life, you can prioritize app refreshes for frequently used apps while turning them off for non-essential apps.
2. Turn on the Workout Battery Saver
Apple has a mode to conserve battery life while working out.
For walking and running exercises, the phone will turn off the heart rate sensor if Workout Power Saving Mode is enabled in the General section of the Watch app.
Though less precise, your estimates of how many calories you burn will still save you some juice.
- Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
- Scroll down, then tap Workout.
- Tap Low Power Mode to turn it on.
To preserve battery life during workouts, Low Power Mode will now automatically turn on when you start a workout in the Workout app.
3. Adjust the Haptic Vibrations
When you receive a text, prompt, or call, a small vibration is a terrific way to stay informed covertly, but limiting this can positively impact your battery.
- Turn off Haptic Alerts by going to Settings and selecting Sounds & Haptics.
4. Turn Off Siri
When your hands are full, Siri might come in extremely handy to carry out your voice requests. However, you risk losing some valuable battery life if you awaken Siri from a deep sleep.
- You can disable it by navigating to the Siri menu under the General heading in the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
5. Use Do Not Disturb and Theater Modes
Do Not Disturb (the moon symbol) is like putting your Apple Watch on silent mode. It helps you focus on what you’re doing and avoid distractions, and it also saves battery life by keeping the screen off and notifications quiet.
Theater Mode (two mask icons) acts like Do Not Disturb, silencing notifications, calls, and alerts with an extra perk.
Unlike Do Not Disturb, Theater Mode keeps the screen dark even when you raise your wrist until you tap the screen, press a button, or turn the Digital Crown.
You can turn on both modes by pressing the side button under the Digital Crown.
Bonus: Turn on Power Reserve Mode
If you’ve done everything possible but are still at risk of running out of power, you can always access Power Reserve mode.
- You can turn this on by holding down the power button while selecting Power Reserve.
You won’t be left with a dead screen on your wrist because this will turn off all features except the clock.
