You can't catch 'em all, if your battery dies.
So Pokemon Go is here. You've gotten logged in and created your avatar, you've even chosen your starting Pokemon. Now it's time to go hunting through your neighborhood for Pokestops, Gyms, and of course, Pokemon. Be sure to keep a close eye on the battery of your phone though, otherwise you might lose power right as you are about to catch the next pocket monster for your collection.
Pokemon Go is a high battery use application, which in more general terms, means that it can eat through your battery faster than you would think. So we've spent some time finding the best ways to save, and extend your battery life to get you the most time out there hunting Pokemon. Keep scrolling for the nitty gritty details.
Check your brightness
While this seems like a no brainer, the first thing that you can do to help with the battery drain is take a look at your screen brightness. By turning it down you can grab yourself up some more time for gameplay. The big problem with this is if you are playing outside in a super sunny area. Turning the brightness down can make it much harder to see your screen much, much harder to see. Depending on the weather though, turning down that brightness can ensure that you can play for much longer.
Enable Battery Saver Mode
This game has a special Battery Saver baked right in! It's designed to dim your screen and slow the refresh rate while you're walking, and it works really well as long as you remember to use it. When this mode is enabled, all you have to do is point the top of your phone towards the ground, like you would do when holding the phone down at your side while walking. By doing this instead of just turning your phone screen off while walking between 'Stops and Gyms, you will still get vibration notifications when a Pokemon pops up on screen for you to catch.
To enable Battery Saver, all you need to do is: 1. Tap your Pokeball 2. Tap Settings 3. Tap the empty circle next to Battery Saver
Turn off Augmented Reality features
Want to know what drains your battery faster than having the screen on the whole time? Using your camera the whole time. Within Pokemon Go you have a choice between turning your camera on or off. If it is on, then when it's time to capture a Pokemon your camera will open up. You'll see your intended Pokemon in front of you in AR while your actual surroundings are just behind it. While this is awesome, and leads to some fantastic photos, you're bleeding battery in this mode, especially during a Gym battle. However, if you turn the camera off you can ensure that your battery will last at least a bit longer.
All you need to do in order to disable this feature is flip the little switch with AR next to it the next time you go to catch a Pokemon. You'll see a new background and your battery will thank you.
Invest in a battery pack
If you're really gung ho about going out and hunting down Pokemon for hours, then investing in a portable battery pack might be your best bet. You can find these just about everywhere, and they can make sure that your phone doesn't die just as you are about to capture the Pokemon you've been hunting for hours. All battery packs are not made equal, so be sure to do your homework before purchasing one. This may be the easiest way to ensure that you can get hours of fun out of the app before being forced to head back to home and recharge your phone.
For now, there isn't a single easy way to adjust the amount of battery that Pokemon Go is consuming. Hopefully in time, we'll see a battery saved added to the app for itself. In the meantime you can use these tricks to help ensure that you can play for as long as possible. Have you had issues with your battery while playing Pokemon Go? Do you have a battery saving trick that we missed and should know about? Tell us about it in the comments below!