How to Every Ounce of Battery Life Out of Your Apple Watch

The Apple Watch is the most popular smartwatch on the market, yet battery life has never been its strong suit. That said, Apple has made improvements in this area with successive models, and while the company still only promises all-day battery life on a single charge, many Series 2 and 3 owners find they can get a lot more. 

Of course, how long a given Apple Watch lasts between charges depends almost entirely on how it's used. With that in mind, this article aims to help wearers optimize their usage and get the best battery life they can reasonably expect based on their individual needs. Read on for some of our favorite power-saving tips for Apple Watch.

Apple Watch Display Settings

Wake Screen on Wrist Raise

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the Apple Watch's OLED display draws a significant amount of power. If it tends to light up when you least expect it, and you'd rather manually activate it with a button press or by tapping the display, then try turning off the automatic wake screen feature. To do so, open Settings on your Apple Watch, tap General -> Wake Screen, and toggle off Wake Screen on Wrist Raise. (You can also find this setting in the Watch app on your iPhone.)

Theater Mode

To some users, turning off the automatic wake screen feature might seem like overkill. Perhaps you only accidentally wake the screen during certain times of the day – when you're in bed, for instance.

In that case, you're better off making selective use of the Theater Mode. To enable it, swipe up from the bottom of any clock face to reveal the Control Center, and tap the symbol showing two theater masks. Note that Theater Mode also silences notifications, which is why it's best kept for bedtime or trips to the movies.

Adjust Brightness

Many Apple Watch owners find that they can easily get along with the OLED display set at its lowest and least energy-sapping brightness level. To adjust the brightness, select Settings on your Apple Watch, tap Brightness & Text Size, and alter the level to suit. (You can also find this setting in the Watch app on your iPhone.)

OLED panels don't expend energy on displaying true black colors – those pixels simply remain unlit. In other words, the more screen space your chosen clock face takes up (if it displays a photo, say) the more likely it is to drain battery whenever it's activated. For this reason, you might want to consider using a more minimalist watch face and disabling any complications you don't need to see every time you raise your wrist. 

Apple Watch Apps

Apps and Complications

Another good reason to minimize your use of complications is that many of them require frequent refreshing in order to display up-to-date information, which uses additional power. So if you rarely tap it, then turn it off using the clock face customize mode, which is activated with a single long press on the clock face screen.

The same goes for third-party apps, many of which frequently refresh in the background whether you use them or not. If you find yourself regularly reaching for your iPhone to check social media, then ask yourself, do you really need that Twitter function on your wrist? Only install apps on your Apple Watch that benefit you by being there.

Installation Creep and Refresh Management

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