How to get more battery life out of your Wear OS smartwatch

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge

Some days distant from the location oregon bureau tin look similar a changeless conflict against artillery life: your telephone is dying, your laptop is dying, and your smartwatch is dying. Despite each of the advances we’ve seen successful tech successful caller years, artillery beingness doesn’t look to beryllium getting overmuch beyond the modular 24 hours of usage for a batch of devices.

Limited by the carnal restrictions of their hardware, manufacturers are putting battery-saving tweaks into bundle instead, similar the Low Power Mode you’ll find connected the Apple Watch and the iPhone. These settings tin really marque a difference, and they’re disposable connected Wear OS, too.

In Victoria Song’s Pixel Watch 2 review past year, she mentioned being impressed by the improved artillery beingness compared to the archetypal — but today, that 24-hour ceiling is inactive successful place. With my ain Pixel Watch 2, I’m usually anxious astir moving retired of foodstuff earlier the extremity of the time if I didn’t complaint it overnight — though I person recovered a fewer ways to eke retired other artillery life. I’ll get into those below.

These steps use to the Pixel Watch 2 with the latest Wear OS 4.0 installed. If you’re utilizing a antithetic Wear OS ticker (like the OnePlus Watch 2 oregon the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6) these tricks should enactment the aforesaid way. You mightiness find that the screens and menus you spot alteration successful places due to the fact that of the mode antithetic companies person adapted Wear OS.

Start with the screen

There’s tons to tweak successful the Wear OS Watch app for Android.

To prevention battery, you tin support the surface acheronian for longer periods of time.

A batch of smartwatch artillery drain is owed to the screen, truthful it helps to person the show connected arsenic small arsenic possible. Start by going to the Wear OS Watch app connected your telephone and tapping Watch preferences > Display and gestures to marque changes.

• Reduce the surface timeout hold truthful the show turns disconnected earlier aft you’ve stopped interacting with it.
• Turn disconnected the always-on surface enactment truthful the show isn’t utilizing artillery beingness erstwhile you’re not looking astatine it.
• Turn disconnected the tilt-to-wake enactment — this tin beryllium useful for checking the screen, but it tin besides beryllium activated accidentally, which uses artillery power.

With the always-on surface and tilt-to-wake options turned off, you’ll request to pat connected the surface to spot the clip oregon thing else. It’s a compromise, but conscionable astir each battery-saving measurement is, 1 mode oregon another.

You tin besides set the brightness of the surface by swiping down connected the watchface and tapping the brightness icon (the prima symbol). There’s besides an Adaptive Brightness enactment here, which adjusts the brightness for you, depending connected the ambient lighting — this tin prevention you artillery life, but not arsenic overmuch arsenic having the show dimmed permanently.

Choose a caller watchface

You tin customize watchfaces to person arsenic small on-screen enactment arsenic possible.

You’ll find plentifulness of antithetic watchfaces to take from.

Speaking of the screen, your watchface tin marque a existent quality to artillery life. It dictates however galore pixels are illuminated, aft all. Switching to a little busy, much minimal look is thing you tin try. Not lone tin you look for watchfaces with arsenic small connected surface arsenic imaginable but you tin besides trim the fig of complications connected each one.

• Tap Watch faces wrong the Watch app connected your phone.
• Swipe near and close to browse the watchfaces already acceptable up. If you take 1 of these, pat Edit to modify it (perhaps with less on-screen elements) oregon Use connected watch to use it to your wearable.
• Choose Add new to prime different watchface from the gallery. When 1 is selected, you tin edit its colors and complications earlier tapping Add to use it to your watch.

Tone down notifications

Wear OS gives you afloat power implicit the notifications you get.

Only crook connected alerts for the ticker apps you truly privation to perceive from.

Having your ticker buzzing and beeping each time tin beryllium a drain connected artillery life, truthful if you tin bash without immoderate of these notifications — oregon astatine slightest person them beryllium little audible — you tin get other clip betwixt charges.

• From the Watch app connected your phone, pat Notifications.
• Tap See each apps from past 7 days, past alteration the Most recent drop-down paper introduction to All apps.
• Turn disconnected the toggle power for the telephone apps you don’t privation to perceive from connected your watch.

There are much features connected your ticker that you tin edit. Swipe down connected the main watchface, past pat the cogwheel icon to get to Settings.

• Tap Apps & notifications from Settings to alteration which apps installed connected your existent ticker tin nonstop notifications.
• Under Sound and Vibration successful Settings, you tin power notification, call, and alarm measurement and vibration levels. Dial these down to prevention artillery life.

Watch settings

Turning disconnected Wi-Fi tin springiness you immoderate other artillery life.

If you’re not expecting a call, you tin bounds ticker vibrations.

If you caput into the Settings leafage connected your ticker by swiping down from the apical of the watchface and tapping the cogwheel icon, you tin disable a fewer much features to reclaim immoderate artillery life. There are trade-offs successful each case, which you mightiness (or mightiness not) beryllium consenting to enactment up with. However, they could travel successful useful if you’re moving debased connected battery.

• Tap Location from Settings, past crook disconnected Use location. This disables the GPS, truthful your ticker won’t cognize wherever it is (for navigation, for example) if it’s not connected to your phone.
• Tap Connectivity from Settings, past Wi-Fi, past crook disconnected Wi-Fi. With this off, your ticker won’t beryllium capable to link to Wi-Fi straight — everything volition person to travel done your phone.
• If you’re utilizing an LTE watch, pat Connectivity, Mobile, and Mobile again, past Off. Your ticker volition nary longer beryllium capable to get online via cellular networks.
• Tap Google from Settings, past Assistant, and disable “Hey Google.” You won’t beryllium capable to aftermath up Google Assistant with your dependable with this turned off, though you tin inactive property and clasp the broadside button.

You mightiness request a spot of proceedings and mistake to enactment retired which features springiness you the biggest boosts successful artillery beingness and which features you tin unrecorded without if it means little recharging — but you should find astatine slightest immoderate of them helpful.