I never swipe my iPhone apps closed and you shouldn’t either after Apple’s warning – ignore ‘battery saving’ myth
STOP swiping your iPhone apps closed every day – it’s a big mistake.
It’s easy to think you’re giving a big boost to your iPhone’s battery life and performance, but it’s just not true. I haven’t swiped for years. You shouldn’t either.
On an iPhone, you have the app carousel that appears when you swipe up from the bottom of your screen and hold.
It’s where your “active” apps appear, ordered by how recently you’ve used them.
Plenty of people swipe these apps away, effectively force-quitting them.
But it’s actually better to leave them there.
Swiping them closed can actually make your battery life worse.
So if you’re swiping your apps closed multiple times a day, stop right there.
Apple says that the only reason to ever swipe an app closed is if it’s stopped working.
In an official memo, Apple said: “If an app won’t response or seems frozen, you can close it, then open it again.
“You should close an app only if it’s unresponsive.”
In another memo, Apple noted: “If an app isn’t responding, you can quit it and then reopen it to try and resolve the issue.
“Typically, there’s no reason to quit an app; quitting it doesn’t save battery power, for example.”
When you leave apps in the carousel, it means that they can be re-opened as efficiently as possible.
They’re not putting significant strain on your battery life, because they’re kept in a suspended state.
But if you close it, the app has to fully restart, which has a greater power demand.
So leave those apps floating in the carousel and stop wasting so much time swiping them closed.
BETTER BATTERY
If you’re worried about battery life, you’ve got plenty of other options to give it a boost.
There are some obvious ones that have a massive impact.
Firstly, dim the screen – having your brightness set too high puts a huge drain on battery life.
WHY DO BATTERIES GET WORSE OVER TIME?
Here's what you need to know
- Most gadgets run on lithium-ion batteries
- Over time, the amount of charge this type of battery can hold gets smaller
- That means you need to charge your device more often because they hold less charge
- Batteries have two electrode points – the cathode and the anode
- To charge a battery, the ions inside the battery are forced from the cathode to the anode
- When you use a battery, it moves in the reverse direction
- This process wears away at the structure of the anode, reducing its ability to function correctly
- But the process also builds up a kind of salt on the cathode when charging
- As this build-up grows, the battery will accept less charge over time
- It’s estimated that between 500 and 1,000 full charge-cycles will reduce a battery’s maximum capacity by roughly 20%
Picture Credit: Apple / The Sun
You can also try toggling on Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Auto-Brightness so you don’t have to manually manage this.
Secondly, use Wi-Fi wherever possible, as it’s far more power-efficient than relying on phone networks.
If you’re really struggling for battery life, you can try activating Low Power Mode.
This special setting can be found in Settings > Battery and reduces your iPhone’s performance (including limiting some features) to save battery life.
It’ll usually turn off once you get back up to 80% charge.
And you’ll know that it’s active because the battery icon on your iPhone’s status bar will turn yellow.
Of course, your iPhone’s battery will get worse over time no matter what you do.
After about 500 charge cycles – which will probably take you around two years – you’d expect an iPhone to hold about 80% of its original maximum charge.
Keep your iPhone for longer and that number will get lower.
So the easiest fix if you want to hold onto your iPhone for a long time is to simply pay for a battery swap at the Apple Store.
You can read our guide to iPhone battery swaps for full pricing details, but they typically cost less than £100 / $100 depending on your iPhone model.
It’ll give your iPhone like-new battery life, and usually improves general phone performance too.
Why does heat damage batteries?
Here's what you need to know...
- Hot temperatures can cause permanent damage to batteries
- That’s because batteries contain fluids, and work through chemical reactions
- When heat is applied to a battery, the fluid inside starts to evaporate
- This damages the internal structure of the battery
- Components like the voltage indicator can be affected by heat
- This can allow batteries to charge at too high a rate, which can lead to a loss of electrolytes
- This can reduce battery life over time
- As batteries heat up, chemical reactions inside will also occur faster
- Excessive chemical reactions can reduce long-term battery life
This is a far cheaper alternative to upgrading your iPhone, so consider trying it before paying for the latest model.