Tips for Extending a Phone’s Battery during an Emergency Situation

In the modern world, our phones can be our only line of communication between us and the emergency services. Although we heavily depend on them, they still need to have some battery power to be functional. A phone with a drained battery is not much of a use. 

Luckily, manufacturers are always working on extending the battery life of phones. If you find yourself in an unexpected situation, making your phone’s battery last longer could save your life. To help you with that, below are some tips for extending your phone’s battery life if you get caught in an emergency situation.

Invest in a Power Bank

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

Having a handy power bank is one of the best ways to extend your phone’s battery life. You can use a power bank to quickly charge the drained battery of your phone. You can also find green power banks that will help reduce your carbon footprint, and they can also charge your phone using solar power. 

Using them would eliminate the need to find a wall socket. It is highly advised to invest in a power bank to extend your phone’s battery life and keep it with you at all times. Purchasing a car charger is also a good idea as it can allow you to charge your phone’s battery using your car. 

Keep a USB Cable with You

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

A USB cable can be very handy in an emergency. You can use it to charge your phone by attaching it to other devices, such as your laptop. Moreover, you can also charge your phone in your car using a USB cable. Hence, keeping a USB cable with you will help ensure that you have multiple options to keep your phone’s battery charged in an emergency situation.

Charge Your Phone before the Blackout

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

If you find yourself in an emergency situation and still have power, you should plug it into a power socket immediately. This will ensure that your phone has as much battery power as it could get before the power goes out. 

Text Instead of Calling

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

Texts are an efficient and quick way to have a conversation. You can send a quick text to say whatever you want without eating up your phone’s battery too much. However, you cannot say the same for calls. Calls can drag on for many minutes, draining away the precious battery power of your phone that you need the most during an emergency situation. A few calls that take too long could result in your phone running out of power.

So, it is always preferable to use text to converse with family and friends instead of calling them.

Update Your Family on Your Status

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

Send your family a text every hour, informing them about your location and status. It is also important to inform them about any plans you have of moving from your current location to a new one. 

This way, they can also know where and how you are. 

Keep the Calls Short

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

When you receive a call, try to keep it short if you are in an emergency situation. You can also tell them that you will text them later because calls will drain your battery quickly. 

Avoid Setting Your Phone to Vibrate

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

It is not a good idea to set your phone to vibrate in an emergency. It will use much more battery if you set it to vibrating mode than ringing. 

Another way to reduce your phone’s battery power consumption is to turn off haptic feedback as it makes your phone vibrate when you type. 

Limit the Phone’s Use

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

Do not use your phone for unnecessary purposes – limit its usage and resist the urge to check it every few minutes. Unnecessary use will only drain the battery. Limited use of your phone will ensure that your phone’s battery lasts longer. 

Only Use Essential Apps

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

Using unnecessary apps such as games or the camera will drain your phone’s battery life. Only use the essential apps to get updates. This will help you conserve your phone’s battery life for important uses. 

Turn on Power Saving Mode

Most modern phones come with some form of power-saving mode. In this mode, the phone turns off any unessential background services and apps that might be using battery power. This mode basically does almost everything it can to conserve battery power as much as possible. 

Turn on Airplane Mode

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

Turning on airplane mode is another great way to conserve battery life. It stops your phone from searching for a broadcast signal that consumes power. 

This mode will also stop your phone from searching for Bluetooth or Wi-Fi signals etc. All this helps extend your phone’s battery life, so it is a good idea to turn on airplane mode if possible. If you need to make a call or send a text, you can turn off the airplane mode.

Turn off any Unnecessary Services

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

There are a bunch of unnecessary services running on your phone in the background, draining its battery. In an emergency, you must turn these services off. 

Cloud services can be very taxing on your battery, and turning them off is a good idea. Other battery-intensive services include Siri, Google Assistant, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. Turning off these services will extend your battery life as they consume a lot of power from your phone. 

It is also not advised to use any streaming services on your phone when you are in an emergency situation, as these services eat the battery life. 

Turn off Any Visual Effects

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

Some people like to have flashy visual effects on their phones, such as live wallpapers. They might not know, but these visual effects drain quite a lot of battery in the background. Therefore, it is best to turn off any visual effect or live wallpapers to conserve battery power in an emergency.

Turn off Push Notification

You might have many apps installed that give push notifications, such as Gmail, games, and e-shopping apps. The downside of push notifications is that they consume battery power when these apps and services update data every few minutes. In an emergency, you should limit the push notifications or, if possible, turn them off completely to conserve battery charge.  

Avoid Placing the Phone in Hot Places

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

Many people might not know this, but keeping your phone in hot places will affect its battery life. Leaving your phone in the sun or even in your pocket near your body’s heat will make the battery deplete faster. Therefore, ensure that your phone is kept at room temperature so that its battery lasts longer.

Dim the Phone’s Brightness

Tips for Extending a Phone's Battery during an Emergency Situation

If your screen brightness is set to high, it is easier to see the screen out in the sun, but it also means that your battery is being drained faster. In an emergency situation, lower the brightness as much as you can while still ensuring that the screen is visible in order to conserve battery. Lower brightness will help your phone’s battery last longer.

Set Your Phone’s Screen to Time Out Quickly

Another good measure to take is to set your phone’s screen to time out quickly. Doing so will help safeguard against accidentally leaving the phone on, which will drain the battery. 

Share Phones

If you are with other people who also have phones, you should switch off all the phones except for one. Only keep one phone turned on and once its battery is depleted, turn on the next one. Doing this will allow you to drain one phone at a time instead of all of them at once.

Conclusion

Knowing what the best thing to do in an emergency can save your life. Phones have become an essential part of the way we communicate with each other, and in some situations, they can be the only way we can contact the emergency service. By following the tips given in this article, you can extend your phone’s battery life, which could save your life.