Recently my friends and I took a girls’ trip to our alma mater. After a day of reminiscing on campus, we headed back to our hotel room. First item on our list: make a mad dash to the nearest electrical outlet.  Not to plug in our straighteners or blow-dryers…but to charge our phones! We all complained that our cell phone batteries were at 100 percent when we left our houses in the morning and now our batteries were all on the verge of dying. It was probably due to the fact that we streamed music on our car ride up there, texted all day, checked Facebook at least six times, and took way too many selfies. As a result, we ended up sharing some tips we’ve heard can help conserve your cell phone battery…

Adjust the brightness.  Most phones have an auto brightness setting for your screen. Usually the phone will default to this setting, but if not, select it and the screen will adjust depending on the lightning.

Turn off your location-based services. Under your phone’s settings there is an option to disable your “location services” or “location access”.

Watch your push notifications. Push notifications notify you of new messages or events without actually opening the application. You can set up push notifications for your apps like Facebook and my favorite, Instagram. Under your settings area and notifications, you can disable these to help your battery last longer. But don’t fret! When you log into your apps you will still be able to see all of the notifications.  

Turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.  A few other battery wasters are Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. When you aren’t using Bluetooth, be sure to turn the feature off. Also, when you aren’t in an area where you are using Wi-Fi, switch this feature off. Both of these can be turned back on when you need them.

Download a battery-managing app. There are several battery-managing apps available to help you extend your battery life. Popular apps include JuiceDefender for Android and Battery Life Pro for iPhone. You can also use the Active App Manager that is available on all Android devices by default. Quick app shutdown is possible on both Android and iPhone devices by double clicking the home button.

Don’t use vibrate or haptic feedback.  Having your phone set to vibrate uses more power than playing a ringtone since it takes a lot more power to make your whole phone shake. If you insist on keeping your phone set to vibrate, consider turning down the intensity or duration.

Turn off GPS. There isn’t a need to have your GPS active so just turn it on when you need it. Phones have the option to detect your location through the Wi-Fi connection. If an app needs GPS, it will tell you.

Switch to airplane mode. If you know you are going to be in an area with an unreliable or weak connection, switch to airplane mode. Airplane mode is a setting for most mobile devices that prevents the device from sending or receiving calls and text messages, and disables the use of Wi-Fi, GPS, location-based services, and Bluetooth. This feature can easily be switched on and off.

Hopefully these tips will help you avoid the panic that sets in when “Low Battery” pops up on your phone! Please share any additional tips or tricks that you use to help your cell phone battery last longer.