Battery life is something we all have to deal with, and eventually, all batteries will meet their end. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take care of your battery, and it’s something you can track if you have a Google Pixel. I have a 9a myself, and you can go into the settings and click on battery to see your current health. Depending on the age of your phone, you’re either looking a battery that can still reach 100% charge, or you’re dealing with something that can no longer get to full.

Even if you can’t hit a full charge anymore, it doesn’t mean you should just give up. There are several ways to maximize the battery life on your Pixel, and you can apply this same logic to any phone. What used to be a single day of charge has now spread to multiple days. I’m not saying this will be a perfect solution for you, but it’s what helped keep my phone alive for longer stretches at a time. Also, since I’m spending less time on the charger with it, it’ll be better for the battery in the long run.

Brand

Google

SoC

Tensor G4, Titan M2

Display

6.3-inch 1080 x 2424 pixel resolution pOLED, (422.2ppi), 60-120Hz variable refresh rate, 1,800 nits (HDR), 2,700 nits (peak brightness)

RAM

8GB

Storage

128GB/256GB

Battery

5,100mAh

Find creative ways to limit screen time

I use web-based apps

I spend a lot of my day in front of my computer, which is a blessing and a curse. The good news is that anything I’d be doing on my phone — scrolling Twitter, Reddit, etc. can be done on my computer instead. I use a desktop PC most of the time, so there’s no need for me to think about battery life whatsoever. I also use the Google Messages web app that lets me text people without using my phone at all, and it doesn’t even have to be in the same room as me.

This is the biggest thing that helped me prolong my battery life, because it means I hardly have to use my phone at all throughout the day. Even Android games I play can be done on the PC using the Bluestacks emulator. This is how I feed my Pokémon Pocket addiction without having to spend hours playing on my phone, although I still find myself doing that quite often. It also helps that I have a Galaxy Tab that I spend a lot of time on, so my phone doesn’t get a lot of use in the grand scheme of things. This has helped my battery life span days instead of hours, however. There are plenty of things my tablet can’t do that a phone can, so it’s not like a tablet can ever fully replace a phone, but things like a tablet or smartwatch can help take some of the brunt off your phone.

Don’t use your phone while it’s charging

Avoid it as much as you can

Many people use their phones while they are charging, but that actually causes damage to the battery over time. The reason for this is overheating causes your battery to degrade faster than it would otherwise. You probably notice how hot your phone gets when you continue using it while it’s on the charger. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with checking an email or firing off a text message while it’s charging, but I’d avoid playing a game or watching Netflix. My Battery Saver mode kicks on at 25%, and that’s typically an indicator for when it’s time to put my phone on the charger. I can usually get a few more hours out of it, but that’s around the time I start looking at other devices to use while I plug a USB-C cable into my phone.

Using your phone during a charge is also bad for reasons other than battery health. It’ll make your phone take longer to charge, which really defeats the purpose if you’re looking for a quick top off before heading out for the day. Pretty much any phone today has fast charging capabilities, so you’re better off leaving your phone alone for a couple of minutes just to juice it up as much as you can. Since phones can charge so fast now, I often find that it’s not worth the trouble of using them while I have them charging. It also helps that I have a Galaxy Tab available for me to scroll on, as I mentioned before.

Keep notifications to a minimum

Don’t need everything to send me push notifications

Everything I install on my phone feels like it needs to send me notifications when something happens, and that’s just not the case. The only thing I have notifications for is text messages and phone calls. I don’t need to know when somebody responds to a Reddit comment or when I have a free pack to open on Pokémon Pocket. I’ll find out about those things when I open their respective apps, so I don’t feel any need to be bombarded by notifications. Not only are they distracting to have at the top of my screen all the time, but they also use up battery life that I don’t want to use.

Having apps always running in the background is another way your battery life is being used up. I tend to force close apps often, and since I don’t have notifications on for most of them, there’s no reason to keep anything running in the background. There are still many apps that slip through the cracks and notify me, and those are turned off as soon as they come through. When your phone isn’t spending time sifting through notifications and having several apps running at the same time, you’d be surprised by how much additional battery life you can squeeze out.

Utilize adaptive charging

Common advice says to turn it off, but it’s actually good

Adaptive charging means your phone won’t charge directly to full overnight, but it’ll trickle its way to a full charge instead. A lot of people will tell you to turn this off, which you probably should if you care about having a full battery instead of long-term health. The reason adaptive charging is on in the first place is so your phone doesn’t sit on a hot charger all night and raise the temperature of your battery when you don’t need to. It’s similar to using your phone when it’s charging.

Adaptive charging still ensures you wake up with a full battery, but it does it in a way that doesn’t damage the lifespan of your battery any more than it needs to. The downside is that you have to deal with slower charging when you need some juice in a pinch, so it’s worth turning off if you’re able to babysit it.