Worried about the battery usage on your phone?
We understand your concerns about battery life, and we are constantly optimizing our drive detection formulas to use as little battery as possible!
Please check these 5 easy steps to optimize your device's battery life:
Always make sure your device is using the latest OS.
Device makers update software for their devices periodically, and these updates often include increases in battery efficiency.
- You can get the latest version of iOS by going into the Settings App > General > Software Update.
- You can get the latest version of Android by going to Settings > System > About phone > System updates.
Keep Wi-Fi on at all times.
It may seem counterintuitive, but even when you aren't connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot, Device Makers have designed their devices to use hotspot proximity (and in populated areas, you'll pass thousands of them a day) to register location information. They did this because Wi-Fi is actually far more efficient on batteries than other location sources like GPS while at the same time providing more data points for calculating location more accurately.
Adjust screen brightness.
Dimming the screen or turning on Auto-Brightness will help with battery life immensely.
To dim manually on iOS, go to Settings > Wallpapers & Brightness and drag the slider to the left. To activate Auto-Brightness on iOS, go to Settings > Wallpapers & Brightness and set Auto-Brightness to On.
To dim manually on Android, pull down from the top of the screen to expose the Control Panel. Adjust the top slider as appropriate.
Fetch new emails less frequently.
Fetching email more often uses more power. To fetch email less often on iOS, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Hourly.
This global setting applies to all applications that do not support push services.
Minimize the use of location services.
Running extra apps that use location services can reduce battery life. Please make sure that you are only giving this functionality to the applications you want to give it to.
You can see which applications have recently used location services on iOS by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services. You can see which applications have recently used location services on Android by going to Settings > Personal > Location.
Apps that recently used your location have an indicator next to the on/off switch. If you do not expect or want a particular app to use location services, you can disable it by toggling the switch to Off.
MileIQ requires the use of location services to function properly, so leave it on to ensure MileIQ can detect drives for you.
How much battery does MileIQ use?
MileIQ consumes almost no power when stationary (as it quickly goes to "sleep"), and it will only minimally increase battery consumption when in transit.
Assuming typical battery consumption of 5% per hour, driving with MileIQ would only consume an additional 1% or less over that hour.
To achieve this minimal battery usage, MileIQ uses smartly constructed formulas to detect drives rather than only using GPS (which requires more power) for location data.
We know how important battery life is, and rest assured that we have done everything possible to maximize location accuracy while minimizing battery. Additionally, we are always working to improve battery life as new technologies and battery saving methods are developed.
One helpful hint is to keep WiFi on at all times. It may seem counterintuitive, but even if you aren't near a known hotspot, WiFi increases location accuracy and minimizes battery/data consumption.
Additional Information
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Apple has a great resource here for ensuring that you're getting the most battery life out of your current iOS device
- Google has created this article to help maintain a healthy battery on most Android devices.
