Pokemon Go is still going strong after an incredible first few days, with people everywhere seemingly playing the game. We’ve had plenty of people complaining about server issues, but one other issue with the game is definitely the battery drain, and we have some tips to help alleviate that a bit.
Niantic has already said previously that they were working on ways to decrease the battery life used by playing the game, but at launch, there is something in the options that can help.
Make sure to press the Poke Ball on the bottom middle of the screen and then select the settings option on the top right. Right in these settings, there are a few things we can do. First is to disable the music and sound effects, which can drain battery for sure. The other is actually known as Battery Saver, which dims the screen when you put the phone upside in your pocket or something, with you still able to find Pokemon while doing so. Also, you might want to turn off the AR capabilities if you’re really trying to conserve battery, though that takes a lot of the fun out of it.
Now, we also have a few recommendations outside of the app that could help you. First of all, try to dim your phone screen as low as it can go with you still able to see it. This is definitely going to be hard to turn down too low if you’re planning on being outside on a sunny day, but if you’re inside buildings, the dimmer the better.
Another thing that can really help as well, along with helping to conserve data usage, is to download the map the game will be using on your phone. If you are using an Android device, you can just enter Google Maps, but if you are using an iPhone, you will have to download it first. After doing so, go to the settings menu and select Offline Areas. Here, you can download the local area’s map, or maps of places you may be traveling to. This keeps the phone from constantly having to pull up the maps in the app, which helps with both battery and data.
These are some ideas that should help reduce the battery usage somewhat, but a game like Pokemon Go is still going to drain it, regardless of what you do. Your best bet is to just make sure your phone is fully charged before going out, or even take advantage of the portable power packs that you can buy now to charge your phone on the go.
