Apple last week released its latest mobile operating system, which has some great new features like Apple News, better battery life, and split-screen multitasking. But have you noticed your data and battery consumption lately? Discover two tips that’ll help save your data and battery life below.
If you’ve received a text from your carrier alerting you about your data consumption, then you may have burned through almost double your data and you didn’t even know it! Take a close look at your iPhone settings because one new feature, called Wi-Fi Assist, may be eating through your data plan.
The new setting, which is automatically turned on when a phone is updated to iOS 9, attempts to ensure that users don’t experience any buffering when on a weak WiFi signal. The iPhone will detect when a WiFi signal lacks strength, and switch over to a cellular connection. This is great for when you’re stuck in places like the connectivity nexus right outside your home, where old iPhones would cling to the WiFi signal for as long as possible, but wouldn’t actually be able to load anything. But there is a cost: The switch to cellular could mean you’re using more data from your monthly plan—potentially significantly more than you’re accustomed to using.
If you’re on a wireless plan with a fixed amount of data each month, it might be worth checking to see if your data consumption has risen. (I checked my data on my iPhone 6—I tend to use about 1 GB a month, and I’ve apparently used close to 3 GB this month.) Head to Settings > Cellular to see your data tally, and scroll to the bottom to see if Wi-Fi Assist is on.
Power Saving Mode
Are you constantly searching for a place to charge your iPhone? To remedy that, with the iOS 9 software update came the brand new “Low Power Mode,” which turns off auto fetching of emails, lowers your screen’s brightness and other battery saving techniques. The setting, which you are auto-prompted to turn on when your iPhone hits 20 percent, is said to give you an extra hour of battery life. But what if you just turned on Low Power Mode for the whole day? Matt Birchler of Birchtree tested it out and discovered that keeping your phone in “Low Power Mode” all day could save you almost 40% of additional power.
