seven tricks that go beyond low power mode

We’re used to charging the phone (virtually) daily and, but if you have a smartwatch or activity tracker on your wrist, you might not be charging it as often or have taken the point in your routine to that this device passes through the socket without you having to pay the toll to remove it. I’ve been wearing a watch/bracelet for almost a decade and it still happens to me. Beyond enabling economy/low power modes that everyone is familiar with, one way to avoid it is optimize the use of the battery of your bracelet or your watch as much as possible with these tips.

Disable voice assistants

Go ahead, only some wrist devices have assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant (or Siri), but to be honest, in all that time I’ve used my smartwatch’s voice assistant less than five times, so disabling it in my case did not mean a great loss.

Why disable it? First, if you’re on my team and don’t use it, because it won’t change your experience. Second and more important for the battery, as voice assistants keep the device always on and maybe even listening.

Bye bye still on screen

Even if your device’s screen has high-performance OLED or AMOLED technology, if it is always on, it will consume power. And we must bear in mind that in these devices the battery is small, so every gesture counts and as optimized as it is, the AOD is not trivial, as we have seen in watches like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5.

Starting from the same premise, the same can be applied to the function of raising the wrist to activate. Consider that throughout the day you move your wrist a large number of times and with this option enabled all the screen will light up. What’s worse is that many times it won’t necessarily be about checking your device.

Choose notifications wisely

It probably is the thing that has made the most difference in my daily life And I’m not talking about eliminating them all at once, because in the end for me the watch is an extension of my phone while using it is not an option.

Getting a wrist notification for a phone call, payments I make with the card, or when the payment runs out in the limited parking zone seems important to me, but getting my team goals, notifications, and previews from each and every one of the messages I receive on WhatsApp and Telegram or that the Roomba has already cleaned, not so much.

In the settings of your bracelet or your watch, you can choose to activate or deactivate them in a general way and also choose by applications. What notifications are essential on the wrist? There is no solution valid for everyone, but for me those that involve immediacy and importance.

Choose your sphere carefully

This is a tip for the note. maybe you are lovers of the most complete, lively and baroque spheres you can findbut your favorite is hurting your battery life.

The faces of your watch do not consume the same thing and, considering that it is the screen that we will see the most, this has its impact. Think that the spheres that collect more data precisely require the device to run the metrics to offer them and, at the same time, implement different graphics and animations for its visualization. In this direction, seeks a balance between functionality and minimalism.

Keep shine at bay

Touching the brightness is a trick that could be considered an emergency measure: it can help stretch your autonomy if you’re already on your last legs, but significantly affects the user experience.

In activity bracelets such as the Xiaomi Band 7 and in the most basic watches, it is possible to adjust brightness between screen settings options, so by reducing it, we would obtain a lower energy expenditure. If, on the other hand, the device has automatic brightness, it would be necessary to deactivate this option to configure a more modest level with the same objective.

But the sequins are on a mission: Allows us to view the screen in high light scenarios, such as in bright light on a sunny day. With the automatic, it is the device itself that adjusts so that we can see well without always having to have high brightness, which results in battery optimization. But forgoing that and setting a lower brightness will stretch the battery at the cost of poorer visibility in some situations.

Pay attention to connectivity

This is another one of those metrics that can have a significant impact on your user experience, although it does involve need to be aware of what you have connected and when you use it. So WiFi is good for you at home, NFC for payments, with Bluetooth for example you can plug in headphones (if possible) or understand yourself with your phone. The fact is that they are always activated implies a continuous search for connection.

In this section we also include GPS because it is probably the one whose use is clearest: it is logical that it is permanently activated on our phone, but on our watch or bracelet it is make it work when we do sports to improve accuracy.

airplane mode is your friend

The previous point involves knowing about connectivity and paying attention to our routine, but there are times when we just know we don’t want to be aware of the clock, such as when we go to the movies or the theater. You could say that when we read the poster or who is on stage don’t forget to turn off the mobile, in practice this is extended to the smartwatch.

There are models with Cinema/Theatre mode which keeps the screen off and the device silent, but this does not prevent information from reaching the device and it continues to attempt to connect. So if we want to scratch some energy on this stage (or we are under the minimum and we want to stretch the battery), a good habit is to activate airplane mode, which immediately disables wireless connections. You have it in the quick access control panel of your device.