iPhone battery tips: Background app activities can be limited

Even though you are not actively using a particular app in your iPhone at the moment, it can still eat up your battery. It simply applies to apps running in the background, and by restricting it in a smart way, you can save battery time without affecting the functionality too much. Apps can be active in the background in many different ways. For example, if you post a video to your Instagram feed, the app may continue to load that video even if you switch to another app. Likewise, Dropbox or Microsoft Onedrive can upload files to your cloud storage without having to keep the app open on the screen all the time. Navigation apps like Google Maps can guide you in the background and Spotify can of course stream and play music even when the app is in the background. All of these involve background app activity, but not all of them necessarily use a lot of battery. Google Maps in the background, for example, can be more gentle on the battery because the screen doesn’t need to be on at the time.

Under Settings – General – Background App Activities, you can limit this very thing at the app level, but do so sensibly. It won’t have much effect on all apps, but focus on those that you’ve noticed unnecessarily draining your battery.

This tip for improving iPhone battery life was previously published exclusively for Plus members on Mobil.se. Here you can become a Plus member and thus have direct access to all articles on Mobil.se and also benefit from favorable offers and discounts. As a plus member, you’ll get aggregate tips and many other in-depth how-to articles. The tip was originally published at the beginning of February along with nine other tips on how to better control your iPhone’s power consumption and extend your phone’s battery life yourself.