Force your phone battery to lastast longer
What you need: Android phone or iphone Time required: 15 minutes
Aphone’sbattery tends to drain more quickly the older it gets. Kaspersky Battery Life (KBL) is a new, free Android app that will make your battery last longer by closing energy- hogging background apps. There’s no similar app for iphones so (from Step 5) we’ll provide you with some handy tips to keep your iphone running longer.
STEP1
On an Android phone, install and open Kaspersky Battery Life ( www.snipca. com/25693), keep tapping Next, then tap Done. You’ll now see how long your current charge will last 1 . Below that, you’ll see a list of all apps running in the background 2 and the length of time you can extend your battery life by force-closing each one 3 . There are two ways you can use Kaspersky Battery Life. Tap the green button 4 to force-close your background apps in one go and extend your battery life by the time displayed on the button.
STEP2
Alternatively, tap ‘Select all’ 1 to untick all the apps. Now tick to select those you want to close 2 , then tap the green button 3 to force-close them. KBL tells you how many apps were closed and whether any apps restarted automatically after closing. Tap Details to see these culprits – there’s an easy way to stop them restarting in future.
STEP 3
First, ensure the restarting app(s) 1 and the box at the bottom 2 are ticked, then tap ‘Turn On and Stop Apps’ 3 . Next, select Kaspersky Battery Life, tap the slider at the top to turn it on, then tap OK. You’ll see how many minutes of battery life you’ve gained by force-closing your apps. Tap OK and you’ll see a ‘Battery usage is optimal’ message.
STEP4
KBL lets you nominate ‘Favorite apps’ that you don’t mind running in the background. Return to the main app section, tap the three lines at the top left, then ‘Favorite apps’. You may see some apps have been included by default (including messaging apps). To add more, tap Add 1 , tap the apps you want to run, then tap Add at the top right. You’ll see a total estimate of how these apps will reduce your battery life 2 , with individual app estimates below 3 . You can remove apps from this list by tapping their X 4 . Finally, return to the main screen 5 , tap the three lines at the top left, then Settings. From here, you can manage KBL’S notifications using sliders (to alert you when your favourite apps are draining your battery, for example).
STEP5
Whether you use an Android phone or iphone, you can prolong phone’s battery life by turning off your Wi-fi, Bluetooth 1 , location services 2 and NFC 3 when you’re not using them. Also reduce your screen’s brightness levels 4 and avoid streaming videos. Some phones (including models from Google, Samsung and Huawei) offer battery-saving modes that you can tap to enable. Open Settings 5 , then tap Battery to access them.
STEP6
If you use an iphone, tap Settings, then Battery to see two tabs showing you as a percentage which apps have consumed most charge in the last day 1 and last 7 days 2 . Tap the clock icon 3 to see how long you’ve used those apps in those time periods. Some apps also include length of time running in the background 4 . At the top, you’ll see the Low Power Mode slider 5 that you can activate to reduce background app usage.
STEP7
If you’ve updated your iphone to IOS 11, you can add the Low Power Mode option to your Control Center for easier access. Open Settings, Control Centre, tap Customise Controls, then tap the ‘+’ icon beside Low Power Mode 1 . From now on, you can activate this mode by swiping up from the bottom of your iphone, then tapping the battery icon. ●