Optimize your watch battery

When you’re out and about, few things are as annoying as being low on power (especially when you haven’t brought a charger). Help extend your watch battery with these nifty tips.

Note: Instructions may vary depending on your device model, manufacturer, and Wear OS version. If in doubt, we recommend checking your watch’s user manual for up-to-date information.

It may sound surprising, but your watch display screen is quite often the culprit behind battery drainage. Thankfully, there are a couple of things you can try: First, decrease your watch’s screen brightness by going to your display settings (either directly on your watch or via the Wear companion app), and, depending on your device, either tapping and swiping the Brightness meter to the left, or tapping the minus button. You can also alter your watch’s display automatically by toggling on “Adaptive brightness.”

Adjust how long it takes for your screen to timeout by tapping “Screen timeout” in your display settings – selecting the fastest option, 15 seconds, will help you save battery life. Finally, don’t forget to check that the “Always on Display” setting (called “Always on Screen” on some devices) is toggled off.

If you have a Google Pixel Watch, you can reduce battery drain even further by deactivating its Tilt-to-wake setting, which turns on your display whenever you move your wrist towards you. Just go to your watch settings, tap “Gestures,” then turn off “Tilt-to-wake.”

Everything needs a good declutter now and then, and the same is true for your smart watch. Give your battery some TLC by making sure apps aren’t running in the background when you’re not actively using them.

On a Samsung watch, head to “Apps” in your settings, tap an app, then make sure “Allow background activity” is toggled off. On a Pixel watch, you can restrict things like location and physical activity permissions, which will reduce battery use. Want to do this for every app on your watch? Go to Watch settings > Battery and device care, then tap “Battery.” From here, simply toggle on “Battery saver” for Pixel watches, or “Power saving” if you’re using a Samsung device.

Have an LTE watch? Instead of streaming content on the go, download it ahead of time using Wi-Fi to reduce battery drain.

Samsung users, this one’s for you: Check whether your watch battery is running at its best by going to your device’s settings (either directly on your watch or on the phone app), then tapping “Battery and device care.” If your battery’s in top shape, you’ll see “Great! No issues found” at the top of the screen. If its health is in less-than-optimal condition, any problems found will be listed here.

On some watches, you can also go to your settings to check how many minutes are left until the battery is full when charging, or how much battery is left before it’ll be fully drained.

If your watch is often low on juice after you use certain apps, it may be that they are the problem. On certain Samsung watches, you can identify the biggest battery drainers by going to the “Battery and device care” settings, tapping Battery, then swiping down to view the usage percentage of each of your open apps.

If you often find yourself irritated at how quickly your battery drains, it might be worth swapping out your current watch face and giving another one a try. Here are our top picks for watch faces that won’t compromise your battery.