Overjoyed iPhone owners hail genius ‘automatic’ battery life trick that saves you from running out of charge
APPLE fans have found a way to make a clever iPhone battery-saving feature even better.
It’s the perfect solution if your iPhone is always running out of charge.
The trick works by setting your iPhone up to automatically switch on Low Power Mode when it hits a certain battery percentage.
Low Power Mode is a standard iOS feature that limits parts of your iPhone to preserve battery life.
Apple explains: “When Low Power Mode is on, your iPhone or iPad will last longer before you need to charge it, but some features might take longer to update or complete.
“Also, some tasks might not work until you turn off Low Power Mode, or until you charge your iPhone or iPad to 80% or higher.”
Here’s what Apple says will be reduced or affected while Low Power Mode is active:
- 5G (except for video streaming) on iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models
- Auto-Lock (defaults to 30 seconds)
- Display brightness
- Display refresh rate (limited up to 60 Hz) on iPhone and iPad models with ProMotion display
- Some visual effects
- iCloud Photos (temporarily paused)
- Automatic downloads
- Email fetch
- Background app refresh
You can turn Low Power Mode on very easily just by going into Settings > Battery.
Alternatively, you can go to Settings > Control Center > Customize to add it to your Control Center.
Then you can simply swipe into the Control Center and activate it from there.
You’ll know that Low Power Mode is on because the battery icon on your status bar will turn yellow.
AUTOMATIC!
Normally your iPhone will prompt you to activate Low Power Mode if the battery life drops down to 20%.
But savvy iPhone owners have found a way to automatically turn it on at any battery percentage.
Why do batteries get worse over time?
Here's what you need to know...
- Most gadgets run on lithium-ion batteries
- Over time, the amount of charge this type of battery can hold gets smaller
- That means you need to charge your device more often because they hold less charge
- Batteries have two electrode points – the cathode and the anode
- To charge a battery, the ions inside the battery are forced from the cathode to the anode
- When you use a battery, it moves in the reverse direction
- This process wears away at the structure of the anode, reducing its ability to function correctly
- But the process also builds up a kind of salt on the cathode when charging
- As this build-up grows, the battery will accept less charge over time
- It’s estimated that between 500 and 1,000 full charge-cycles will reduce a battery’s maximum capacity by roughly 20%
Writing on a Reddit thread, one said: “I set a Shortcut that turns it on at 40%.”
Another said: “I’ve set an automation for mine to activate at 40%. It also doubles with a reminder for me to charge my phone. I feel like 20% is a little too low.”
One added: “Same here. As soon as it goes below 40%, it activates.”
And one added: “I created an automation to enable it when the battery is below 50%.”
Apple users are doing this by taking advantage of the iPhone’s Shortcuts feature.
This is an app that lets you automate certain actions on your iPhone.
Head into the Shortcuts app and then search for “battery”.
Then set up a Shortcut that is based on the trigger: “When battery level falls below XX%”.
Next you’ll want to search for “Low Power Mode” and set that as the action for the Shortcut.
Once you’re done, save it and you should be protected from running out of charge so quickly.