As useful as they are, smartphones can tend to be battery hogs. If you think your iPhone or Android battery life isn’t up to par, try these quick and easy tips to get the most juice out your smartphone.

iPhone

Try turning off background app refresh. 

Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh

The blue arrow icon indicates which apps use location services.

Consider only turning off unnecessary apps that you don’t want to refresh in the background.

If enabled, this feature allows apps running in the background to refresh their content periodically. For example, if you have Google Maps running in the background, your phone will refresh the app to regularly update your location in real-time. Similarly, social media apps like Facebook will refresh to update your newsfeed which can drain your battery. You can turn this feature off on an app-by-app basis or altogether.

If you can’t see this option, you may need to update your iOS. You can ensure that your iPhone is running the latest OS version by going to Settings > General > About > Version.

You can update by checking Settings > General > Software Update.

Android

Android devices have a handy feature that shows you which applications are consuming the most battery life.

If you’re running the latest firmware (4.4 KitKat), you can see this feature by checking…

Settings > Power > Usage

If you can’t see these options, you may be running an older version. Try this…

Settings > Battery

From there, you can see which apps are using up the most battery life. Try closing unnecessary apps that are running in the background and use the most battery life. Just tap on the app, and then “Force Stop” to close it. 

Also, if you tap on one of those apps, your device may tell you some other options you have for conserving power. For example, if you tap on “Screen,” it will tell you to either reduce your screen brightness or screen timeout. You can get to those options by tapping “Display.”

To see if you’re running the latest firmware, go to Settings > About Device > Scroll to find your firmware version. If you need to update, go to Settings > About Device > Software Update.

More smartphone tips are coming your way. Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow.