You can't catch 'em all, if your battery dies.
So you're all-in on Pokémon Go — hunting through your neighborhood for PokéStops, Gyms, and of course, Pokémon. After a couple of hours, you realize that this game is an absolute battery drainer. But don't worry, it's not just you — this game uses mobile data, GPS, your screen and your camera, and that means sucking down a lot of battery every minute you're playing.
Pokémon 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 Pokémon.
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, of course — but depending on the weather, if it's not too bright out it may be a worth-while trade-off to make.
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 Pokémon Go you have a choice between turning your camera on or off. If it is on, then when it's time to capture a Pokémon your camera will open up. You'll see your intended Pokémon 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 "AR" switch 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 Pokémon 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 Pokémon 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.
Read: Best external battery packs for Pokémon Go
For now, there isn't a single easy way to adjust the amount of battery that Pokémon 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 Pokémon Go? Do you have a battery saving trick that we missed and should know about? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Reader comments
How to save your battery while playing Pokémon Go
I use PokePal in the play store, dims the screen fully black, still receive pokemon notifications, and also starts the game automatically if the power button or some other button was accidentally pressed.
On the Nexus brightness at max to use it outdoors unless it's night time or REALLY overcast.
The only issue I have is, when you use the battery saver option (within the game) Go freezes after the screen turns back on.
Haven't used it since.
I play this game quite a bit, but don't find the battery drain too bad. I can play it for about 4-5 hours non-stop from full charge before my battery depletes on my Xperia Z3 Compact. On a low-ish brightness setting (but auto brightness), no battery-saving mode, AR off. Perhaps other people don't play games often hours on end - but battery life I get with Pokemon Go is on par with some other games out there.
Looks like this article is repost of a previous article because I'm not sure if you've noticed but the battery saver option was removed in the latest app update for some reason that's unknown at this point. At least that's what I've noticed on the iOS version as I have the app installed and updated on my iPhone. I'm not sure if it's the same situation on Android but I would be surprised if the battery saver option is still there after the update in the Android version. Hope Niantic Labs brings back the battery saver option but at the moment, it's been removed in the app update.
I still have the battery saver
Really? Did you update the app though?
Battery saver is still there after the update on the Android version.
I updated still have it. In fact I've had since the app came out. But on Android not iOS so there's that.
#TeamFrosty Nexus 6P
My app called “Screen Off Keep Playing” for Android will put the screen black with the lowest brightness while pokemon go is running. On amoled screen (like galaxy series) black=turned off so no battery drain but also on LCD the screen will be black with the lowest brightness. I use it everyday.
As long as i have an internet connection, this app drains battery at a pretty standard rate for me. However, once i lose internet connection (Every other 10 meters...), the battery drains at about 1% per second.
This app has drained my phone from 100% to 0% is less than 15 minutes before.
Battery saver doesn't work if the phone doesn't have a gyroscope, which is lame.
It's very possible I'm naive, but I'm pretty sure even the most basic smartphones have a gyroscope.
You would think so but it's actually a more expensive sensor I guess
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Wasn't it Motorola stopped putting them in some of their devices
Comma splice immediately as the very first sentence? :(
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I actually have Pokemon Go on my iPad.
I haven't even launched it for the first time yet. It's sitting there, waiting for that moment.
good for you?
... was that a real comment?
OK?
Just don't play it; problem solved.
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What that? You stubbed your toe? Stay there, I'll get my axe...
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OMG you are genius. How about you contribute to humanity by never commenting on the internet ever again?
Only if you promise to contribute by never reproducing.
Except.....the article is for people that do play it.........( ! )
lol @ invest in battery pack.. Not sure why I find this funny..
No one knows why you find that funny.
When ever I use Battery Saver Mode, the game locks up every few minutes. This is on a Nexus 6P.
Same on a S6, at least sometimes. For some time it works, but after a half hour or so it makes problems and doesn't longer re-act to touch inputs. My guess would be that they use a black layer for the battery saving mode and for some reason it doesn't go away sometimes.
This has happened to me even without battery saver enabled on my Z3. I have figured out it's relating to the phone heating up. As it happened a lot less in cool environments or at night.
Same. I went out biking playing Pokemon Go and decided to do the Battery Saver thing and while it worked for a while soon it locked itself.
#TeamFrosty Nexus 6P
Good tips, which I'm already following :p
The problem with Pokémon go is you can't really reduce brightness if you're using it during the day, you probably need max brightness.
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Exactly. On the Nexus 6P, at least, you've got to have the brightness at max to use it outdoors unless it's night time or REALLY overcast.
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If your phone has the options, you can adjust the brightness/contrast or white balance (RGB) settings to compensate brightness without relying on the screen backlight. If you're dealing with RGB, tone each of the R, G and B channels up (to your liking) so they have the same values, otherwise you will have a colour tint