Did you know that Siri can check the battery life on an iPhone? Go ahead and grab your iPhone or iPad and use this phrase:
“Hey Siri, what is my battery at?”
Siri will then respond with the exact percentage of your battery life, for instance mine was at 60%.
Pretty neat, right? Now you don’t have to pull out and open your phone in order to check the battery life.
If you don’t have “Hey Siri” voice activation enabled, you may not be able to summon Siri with the “Hey Siri” activation phrase. So instead, you can hold down the power button to summon Siri, and then ask the question. That’s not as useful as the voice activated feature, though. Alternatively, if you already have the phone open, you can look at the top right corner to see how much battery life you have left in the tank.
iPhone Battery Life
While we’re on the topic, let’s dive into battery health and how you can make your battery last longer. Generally speaking, iPhone and iPad batteries typically get slower over the years. Each time you charge your device, the battery stores a tiny bit less energy than it did before. Over the course of recharging your phone daily, you’ll start to notice that your battery doesn’t last as long as it once did. It usually takes years for battery health to degrade enough for you to notice a significant difference. But if you’re using an older device, like the iPhone 6, you’re bound to see some battery life problems.
The good news is Apple does provide a way to see how well your battery is doing at holding a charge.
By using the Settings App, you can learn more about what apps use the most battery life and how well your battery health is doing. Let’s see it in action.
Open the Settings app. One quick tip here, you can open any app with Siri. Try: “Hey Siri, open settings.”
Scroll down a page or so and tap on “Battery.”
Finally, tap on “Battery Health.”
Here you can see how well your battery is aging. Once you start seeing “Maximum Capacity” drop below 75%, it’s a good time to consider having Apple swap out your battery, which is usually cheaper than buying a brand new device.
Outside of spending some money, there are a few best practices of how to quickly improve your battery life.
Removing Power-Hungry Apps
Let’s start by learning how to remove a power hungry app. Did you know that Apple will tell you which apps are using the most power? Let’s see how.
First, head over to the battery screen.
Next, scroll down. Click on “Last 10 days.”
The list you see here shows you apps that have used the most power most recently on your device. Most likely the first 3 or 4 apps you use often. But if you scroll down a bit further on the list, you’re likely to find some apps that you rarely, if ever, open. This is what you’re looking for!
Once you find an app or two you want to remove, you can follow the steps below to uninstall it.
How to get rid of an app on iPhone
- Go back to the home screen by pressing the home button, or swiping up
- Find the app that you want to remove
- Press on that app for a few moments
- After a second or two, you will see a menu with several options
- Click on “Remove App” at the bottom of the menu.
Improve iPhone Battery life with Low Power Mode
Did you know that your iPhone has a built-in way of monitoring its own power use, saving you more juice especially when you’re away from a charger? Apple calls this feature Low Power Mode. When you turn on Low Power Mode, apps in the background are slowed down or disabled which reduces how much power is being used, ultimately enabling your phone to last longer.
To turn on Low Power Mode:
1. Open Settings
2. Open Battery Settings
3. Finally, toggle Low Power Mode
Does low power mode charge your battery faster?
Low power mode doesn’t impact charge time in most cases, so it doesn’t hurt to try it. The amount of power that is being sent to your phone impacts charge time in most cases. For example, if you’re charging your phone by using a wall outlet, you won’t notice a difference. But if you’re changing your phone by connecting it to a computer, you will notice a difference.
If you’re looking for more tips on how to get the most out of Siri, check out the guide Keeping up with Siri Commands.
Do you know of another tip on how to get more out of your iPhone battery life? Leave a comment below.