Saving batteries is a land of snake oil and half solutions. It is really difficult to find an application that will actually save you battery because most of the battery saving measures are done manually. These include decreasing the brightness of your screen, decreasing the frequency with which apps sync data, and other best practices. In most cases, you will see greater improvement once you understand what is causing the battery drain and how to identify and mitigate your biggest causes. Still, if you still want to try some apps that might help, here are the best battery saver apps for Android!
- Battery guru
- Greenify
- GSam battery monitor
- Servicely
- Wakelock detector
- Bonus: Doze mode and app standby
Continue reading: Best phones with long lasting batteries
Battery Guru (root and non-root)
Price: Free / Up to $ 19.99
Battery Guru is an excellent battery saving app. It doesn’t work like booster apps or service terminators. Instead, you can keep your battery as high as possible. The app includes notifications about battery temperature and charge limits so you don’t wear out the battery sooner. In addition, there are some battery saving modes that can help reduce battery consumption so that you charge less frequently. It has a Doze mode customization tool that you can use to make it even more aggressive if you need to. However, this last function requires root, or you will need to type some ADB commands to give the app permission to perform these tasks. It’s great for power users.
Greenify (root or non-root)
Price: Free / $ 2.99
Greenify is one of the most popular energy saving apps. It identifies apps that are waking up your phone more often. It can also help prevent them from doing this so often. The app also offers modern functions for Android Nougat and also with the modes Aggressive Doze and Doze. This app is useful for both root and non-root devices. However, with root you get more functionality and performance. All functions are free. There’s an optional donation version for $ 2.99 if you’d like to support the development.
GSam Battery Monitor (root and non-root)
Price: Free / $ 2.49
GSam Battery Monitor is another popular battery saving app. It won’t do anything to save your battery life on its own. However, it can give you information about the apps that are draining your battery. You can use this information to improve your own battery life. It can show details about wakelocks, wake up time, and even CPU and sensor data. There have been some issues with the latest versions of Android. However, you can use an ADB command to give GSam access to more detailed app usage statistics and other controls. There is also an optional root option if you are using a rooted phone. However, the ADB option should work for most users, whether root or not.
Servicely (root only)
Price: Free / Up to $ 13.99
Servicely is one of the better root-only battery saving apps out there. It works by stopping services that are running in the background. It prevents rogue apps from turning into bananas and keeps them from constantly syncing. This is great for apps that you love but don’t want to keep syncing. However, there may be a delay in notifications. Use this tool carefully. This app works well with wakelock detectors as a powerful one-two punch. It’s highly configurable and has enough options to make it work the way you want it to. You can get the Pro version as an in-app purchase for $ 3.49.
Wakelock Detector (root only)
Price: Free / $ 1.99
Wakelock Detector is one of the best battery saving apps out there. As the name suggests, this app helps identify wakelocks. It can detect both partial and full wake locks. You can also get a list of all the apps that are causing this. From there, you can take steps to uninstall the apps, find replacements, or use another app like Greenify or Servicely to put an end to this nonsense. This is the one we would recommend to root users first.
Doze mode and app standby
Price: Free
Android’s native features far exceed what you can find in app form. Doze mode puts your entire device into a kind of hibernation state. Apps can only be synchronized occasionally and in batches, as specified by the operating system. This saves a lot of battery life. App Standby limits the data usage by apps you don’t use often for additional savings. These are activated by default in modern Android versions and cannot really be controlled. However, simply not using apps and letting your phone rest for a while will activate the modes and reduce battery consumption by a whole lot.
Other battery saving methods
Google is slowly closing the doors to Android when it comes to things like accessibility, developer tools, and the like. Hence, the really good power saving apps are for root users only. Thankfully, no matter what device you own, there are a few little tricks that can improve battery life. Here are some quick, easy tricks that actually work:
- Uninstall unused apps – That way they don’t run in the background and consume battery life. This also increases your storage space.
- Decrease the screen brightness – This is sometimes unavoidable in certain situations such as direct sunlight. The lower the screen brightness, the less energy your screen uses. Your screen is usually the main source of battery drain. This is also the only power saving trick that works on LCD screens.
- Use black themes, background images, etc. on OLED screens – Samsung, Google (with Pixel 2 XL and Pixel 3 XL), LG (with V40 and G8) and some others use some type of OLED, POLED or AMOLED display. OLED screens appear black by turning off individual pixels on the screen. By using darkened themes, wallpapers, and other elements, parts of the screen can remain off at all times. After that, it’s simple math. The fewer pixels your phone has, the less energy your display uses. It doesn’t save a lot of battery, but it definitely helps a bit.
- Don’t play games – Mobile games are known for their battery chugging skills. Those who need to extend their battery life may want to wait until they are near a charger or at home.
- Use WiFi whenever possible – The cellular connection generally drains the battery faster than WiFi. The less often you are on a cellular network, the better. This has the added benefit of using less data. This is a boon for users with limited data plans.
- Turn off unused connections – We’re talking about things like bluetooth, your wifi radio, etc. They drain your battery if they are left on even when not in use. Those who are in a battery can turn on airplane mode and turn everything off.
- Use your phone’s battery saving modes – Most manufacturers offer battery saving modes that apps simply cannot replicate. They generally degrade functionality, but significantly improve battery life. Typically, it will turn off synchronization, lower screen brightness and resolution, and some devices have battery modes that lower CPU clock speeds for better battery savings.
- Do not use vibrations or haptic feedback – Both of them require a small vibration motor to turn on and cause vibrations. The engine drains the battery for a full day. Turn them both off if you can live without them, or at least use them sparingly. It doesn’t seem like much, but if you turn on the haptic feedback on your keyboard and then post a full 260 character tweet it is 260 times the vibration motor. It adds up.
- Do not use booster apps – You are trying to kill processes that may be using battery power. However, with the way Android works, these processes won’t reopen until shortly after it’s closed. So you have an app that runs in the background and does things that bring themselves back to life. In many cases, this actually leads to higher battery consumption. Don’t use them. You are rubbish.
- Turn off 5G if you can – 5G is the latest mobile data technology. The technology for this is not that efficient yet and will definitely drain your battery faster than 4G LTE most of the time. This option isn’t available to everyone, but turning 5G off when possible can definitely save you some battery life. In many areas, 5G is not much faster than 4G anyway.
- Change other Android settings: There are plenty of other Android settings you can change, and here are our top 5 tips.
- More tips: We’ve linked some other tips below in case you want to go deeper!
Buying Guide: The Best Power Bank Chargers You Can Buy
If we missed any of the best battery saver apps for Android, let us know in the comments! You can also click here to see our latest Android app and game lists!