How to increase the battery life on your smartwatch

Close ups of the Apple Watch 10 on a user's wrist next to the Google Pixel Watch 3
(Image credit: Future)

Smartwatches are packed with so many helpful features that allow you to access convenient, on-the-go notifications, fitness tracking essentials and your favorite apps. But these can quickly drain your battery — not ideal when you're training or away from home.

Fortunately, there are ways to boost the juice you get on many of the best smartwatches so you can record your workout, monitor your sleep, or meddle through a busy day without worrying your watch is about to prematurely shut down.

To help you out, we've rounded up the seven simple but effective strategies you need to to maximize your smartwatch’s battery life right now. The steps will vary depending on your device and operating system, but here's where to start to keep powered up for longer.

Amazfit T-Rex 3: $279 @ Amazfit
Sponsored

Amazfit T-Rex 3: $279 @ Amazfit
Adventurers and the easily lost will be hard pressed to find a better fit for their wrist than the rugged, 48mm T-Rex 3. The 27 day battery life may be the headline-stealing feature but that does disservice to the bright 2,000-nit AMOLED display, stainless steel bezel and free access to offline maps complete with turn-by-turn directions.

Sitting behind the 1.5-inch display is Dual-Band GPS with detailed maps and tracking disablement as well as over 170 built-in sport modes covering everything from Freediving to Ultramarathons. T-Rex 3 wearers will benefit from 100m of water resistance and training metrics that now include readiness and heart rate variability. It comes with a choice of either Lava or Onyx straps but you can bag an instant 20% off an additional strap at checkout when purchased alongside the watch.

1. Check battery usage

The first place to start is your watch's settings app. Most smartwatches have a battery management setting that'll show you what is draining the most battery on your device. Often, you'll get an indication about whether the app was active in the background or not.

The feature should be found in Settings and will offer a summary of how much energy the apps and features use up. Armed with this information, you can decide on how you manage these features and apps on your smartwatch to get the performance you need.

2. Reduce notifications

If you’ve got all notifications turned on in your smartwatch and you receive a high volume daily, this will cause the screen display to light up and vibrate frequently and, as a result, drain the battery.

A good way to lengthen your smartwatch's battery life is to tailor which apps you allow to send notifications to your watch. Maybe you’d only like texts from your main messaging platform to appear on your watch or certain social networks.

And perhaps you just want to see workout and fitness reminders and would rather not see work emails come through while you are out for a run or training in the gym. If you choose to limit certain notifications, this should make a difference to your watch’s battery life.

3. Use power-saving modes

Just as your phone has a low-power mode to extend the battery, many smartwatches have a similar feature. This typically reduces background activity, dims the screen brightness, and limits the watch to only show essential features like the time and basic fitness stats such as your step count.

Plus, there are other settings you can toggle that will help to extend your battery life, such as Airplane mode, Do Not Disturb mode and Bedtime Mode. Airplane mode disables all wireless connectivity (this includes Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS) on your smartwatch until you turn this setting back off.

Meanwhile, Do Not Disturb and Bedtime mode mute notifications and dim the display to prevent distractions from disturbing your sleep or focus time. If you're an Apple wearer, you can also activate the Apple Watch's low power mode to conserve battery.

4. Turn off voice commands

Apple Watch Series 10

(Image credit: Future)

While some people love the convenience of speaking to Siri, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa for fast answers on their wrists, it's a potential battery drainer that you may be able to do without in a pinch.

This is especially true if you have any always-listen features turned on, as the watch will be continually processing background noises and speech to locate any activation keywords or requests. So if you need to preserve battery, it's wise to turn this off.

You will be able to disable voice activation in the settings menu of your smartwatch and prevent this feature from running in the background and draining your battery.

5. Reduce sounds and vibrations

Every time your watch vibrates or plays a sound — whether to remind you to move or alert you to an incoming call — it consumes battery. So, disabling haptics and switching your smartwatch to silent mode can help it last longer between charges.

This is also a useful alternative if you still want visual notifications on your watch but need to reduce power usage. In that case, you can toggle the volume and vibration intensity and this should keep your watch battery life going a little longer.

6. Uninstall apps

Smartwatches and many of the best fitness trackers have installable apps you can download to your wrist-worn device to increase its utility. It can be incredibly useful to have these on your watch, but if there are apps you no longer use, it's worth uninstalling them.

Many of these apps run in the background and consume battery life as they sync data, send notifications, and action updates. Next time you give your tracker a deep clean, consider giving it a digital clean up to remove unnecessary apps, boost battery life, and free up storage space.

7. Get an extra charging source

Whether it’s an extra charging cable or one of the best power banks that your smartwatch charger is compatible with, having an additional charging option can be a game-changer, especially if you are out all day and forget to charge your watch overnight or while traveling.

More from Tom's Guide

Jessica Downey
Fitness Writer

Jessica has been a fitness writer at Tom’s Guide since 2023, bringing three years of experience writing about health, fitness, and the great outdoors. Her passion for exercise began during her childhood, where she spent weekends hiking and competing in local athletics club events. After earning a master’s degree in journalism from Cardiff University, Jessica found the perfect way to combine her love of storytelling and fitness into a career.

Jessica is passionate about testing fitness gear and tech, using her reviews to help readers make informed buying decisions. She ran her first marathon in April 2024, finishing it in 3 hours and 48 minutes. Through her training, she’s developed a deep understanding of what it takes to grow as a runner, from effective workouts and recovery techniques to selecting the right gear for every challenge.

When she’s not at her desk, Jessica enjoys spending time in the kitchen crafting new recipes, braving cold water swims and hiking.