Apple Watch Battery Life Tips

If you own an Apple Watch – and it is the most popular smartwatch in the world – then you’ll be familiar with the low battery warning that appears long before your day is over!

But there’s a lot you can do to eke out the battery power. Read on to find out how!

How Do I Turn Off Cellular Connectivity?

Being connected is great, but not if your battery is running low. If you are connected to a wifi network or you can go without cellular connectivity for a while to save on your battery then simply swipe up from the bottom of your watch and tap on the Cellular Data icon. Turn off your cellular connectivity until you need it back and keep your battery going for longer.

Which is the Best Apple Watch Face?

You have probably chosen the watch face that best suits what you want to get out of your watch. For some that will be activity trackers, others like to have photos of loved ones on show. If your battery is running low or you find you need to charge your watch more often than you like, try changing to a different watch face and see if it makes a difference.

Modular Compact watch face for Apple watch

As a rule, the more that is going on on your watch face, the more battery it will be using. Opt for one of the ‘Simple’ designs that show the time and nothing else to keep your battery going for longer.

How Does Wrist Raise Use Battery Life?

Every time you raise your wrist and your watch springs into life it’s using more power. If you are someone who is fairly active then this could be having an impact on your battery life.

Whilst it is convenient for your watch to respond to your wrist being raised, you can change your settings so that your battery lasts longer. However, if you choose to try this out, be aware that some other functions can be affected. Your watch may not automatically lock and some people have found their activity tracking is not as accurate.

Can Silent Mode Reduce Battery Output?

If your Apple watch is constantly beeping or pinging to alert you to something? Every time your watch plays a sound it takes power from your battery and sounds take up more battery power than haptics.

So if you still want your notifications but can cope with just haptics instead of sound as well, try switching to silent mode. If you are worried you will miss things, turn your haptic strength up on the same screen as when you switch to silent mode.

How Do Notifications Affect My Apple Watch Battery?

Another simple way to save some battery life is to turn off watch notifications. One of the main perks of having an Apple Watch is that you can be connected and receive messages, emails and whatever else you need to in the most convenient way, so it may seem odd to suggest turning notifications off.

However, to receive notifications your watch has to be constantly checking for them and this drains your battery. It is unlikely that you need to be alerted to everything instantly so why not go through your notifications and turn off those that can wait or can be checked manually?

Why Do Map Routes Come up on My Apple Watch?

If you are going somewhere new or just want to know what the quickest route is to get somewhere then you probably do this on your iPhone. You can follow the route on your phone or through CarPlay if your car has that function.

Apple Watch users will have noticed that their watch also kicks in and starts tapping and displaying the route to guide them along the journey. Unless you are walking or going for a run, this function is just wasting your battery but is the default setting for when you start up a route on your iPhone. To turn it off and save your battery, hard press on the Maps app on your watch and tap the cross to End.

How Do I Use Do Not Disturb on My Apple Watch?

Do Not Disturb is a great function for various situations. When you try to get some sleep, have an important meeting or when you want to save on your battery life. Do Not Disturb is pretty self-explanatory and when selected your watch won’t alert you to any notifications.

That means your watch will continue to receive everything but it won’t tell you about it unless you actively check, saving battery power. It’s a great compromise if you don’t want to permanently stop or reduce notifications but want to save power when you’re running low.

What Happens When Power Reserve Is Enabled?

Even by using our tips, it is inevitable that the battery will get too low sometimes. When this happens the watch will ask to put itself into Power Reserve Mode, so it will save power by only functioning as a timepiece. You don’t even have to wait for the battery to get too low as you can choose to put Power Reserve mode on at any time.

Apple Watch - happy face emoji - charging

If you find your Apple Watch battery isn’t lasting as long as you’d like it to, try some or all of these tips in combination. You might find that they don’t make too much of an impact on how you use your Watch, but they will have an impact on how often you have to charge it up!

The new Apple Watch Ultra has an improved battery life of up to 36 Hours.

If you’re still not happy with the battery life on your Apple watch then check out our article on smartwatches with the best battery life here.