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Android Battery Issues? Try these two simple tricks!

I love Android, and I prefer Vanilla Android even more. However, Android phones, like all other smart phones suffer from one Achilles Heels, and that is poor battery life. I have pondered over this quite a lot, and specially with my new Nexus 5X, and found a couple of simple steps to solve the issue.

As I bought my new Nexus 5X, I noticed an alarmingly poor battery life for a new phone. Frustrating as this was, I tried many things, and kept looking at battery consumption. This is what I repeatedly saw, over and over again.

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Android OS and Android System seemed to be eating up most of my resources. Why though, and if that is the case, then what hope do I have to fix it? Well, at least one thing was obvious, whatever was eating my battery life, was part of the OS.

So I did a bit of logical thinking, and looked at what really is my phone doing the most? The answer was surprisingly simple. A couple of things:

  • Constantly listening to me, in case I say OK Google
  • Constantly talking to apps to fetch me cards for Google Now

It was a thought, but there is no harm in trying, eh. So I went about disabling both of them, and found that it actually made a massive difference. For example, today, being Sunday, I disconnected my phone from the charger at 10am. It is now half 1. The battery is at a comfortable 87%. I would have been at around 60% easily by now, if older trends were to be believed.

As such, I have prepared a guide for you on how to disable both Google Voice Search and Google Now:

Disable Google Voice Search

Step 1: Go to your Google App

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This can be done in two ways, you can either hit the ‘Google Search Bar’ on top of your home screen, or just go to the Google app via your Google Apps folder, or through the App Drawer.

Step 2: Go to Settings

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This can be achieved by hitting the ‘three bars’ icon on the top left.

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And then hitting Settings on the folder that appears.

Step 3: Go to ‘Voice’ Settings

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Step 4: Click on ‘OK Google’ Detection

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Step 5: Turn off the appropriate settings

You can turn them off for always, or just on in the Google app.

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Disable Google Now Cards

Step 1: Go to your Google App

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This can be done in two ways, you can either hit the ‘Google Search Bar’ on top of your home screen, or just go to the Google app via your Google Apps folder, or through the App Drawer.

Step 2: Go to Settings

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This can be achieved by hitting the ‘three bars’ icon on the top left.

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And then hitting Settings on the folder that appears.

Step 3: Go to ‘Now Cards’ Settings

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Step 4: Disable ‘Show Cards’

 

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As you disable it, you will find that it will ask if you want to disable it for all your devices, or just this one. Choose whatever you prefer, but as long as you disable for this particular device, it should improve your battery life.

Once done with both of these, you should notice a great improvement in your phone’s battery life.

Of course, this works on most Android phones, so by all means, go for it on whatever phone you may have.

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