Whether you’re an Android smartphone fan or an iPhone fanatic, you’re glued to it. That’s understandable. Your alarm clock that wakes you up is on there and so is the calendar that keeps you on schedule. Are you meeting friends for lunch? Ding! You’ll get a reminder. Are you lost? Tap on Google Maps and let your phone give you directions to get back home. Did you just take a funny photo of your family splashing in the pool? Of course, you’ll share it on Instagram, Facebook and more. You use your smartphone to pay bills, send emails, buy airline tickets and book hotel rooms. You make restaurant reservations and sell your old stuff on Facebook Marketplace. You read books, magazines and newspapers on your phone. The point is, these days you can’t live without it. At Komando.com, we want to make sure you’re getting the most value out of your Android smartphone or iPhone. These three settings will ensure that you’re doing just that. We’ll give you step-by-step instructions. Do not skip No. 3 – You’ll be so relieved!

Let Your Phone Keep Track of You

One of the great things about your smartphone is that it knows where you are. It can find your location almost anywhere in the world. That’s a good thing, right? Whether your phone is using GPS or nearby cellphone towers to locate you, it’s extremely helpful to allow your smartphone to know where you are. You can use your phone’s location service to find your lost phone or get directions on a map app. You can use it to get out of dangerous situations. Have you ever been lost in a strange town? Your phone can help you get to a safe location, like a hotel. Still, you don’t always want your phone to know where you are. That can be creepy. To turn off location services on Android, follow these steps (your phone may require slightly different steps): Settings » Personal » Location » turn off. Or try this: Apps » Settings » Location Access » turn off. iPhone: Settings » Privacy » Location Services » turn off. Tip in a Tip: Eight iOS 11 features Apple kept secret.

Check on Your Background Apps

You love your smartphone for the things you know it’s doing. For instance, you’re constantly getting texts, emails and messages with apps like Facebook Messenger, Instagram and others. Yet, your phone is doing a lot more than what you see it doing. In the background, you have apps that are often refreshing. Emails are coming in, for instance, because your email “wakes up” when a new message comes in. You may have shopping apps that are continually looking for sales, discounts or items you’ve been searching for. That’s not always a good thing, especially when it’s an app that you stopped using long ago. All this behind-the-scenes activity is draining your battery. Worse, it can slow down the apps you are using right now. Here’s how to turn off background refresh: With Android, you want to turn off apps. On Android 6.0, try this: Recent Apps » Active » choose End or End All. You may want to turn off Auto-Sync on older versions of Android. Here’s how: Apps » Settings » Accounts & Sync » turn off. iPhone: Settings » General » Background App Refresh » turn off.

Save Your Battery

There may be nothing more frustrating than your battery dying. You know that sense of dread. You’re having a blast chatting with friends on Facebook Messenger, or you’re talking on the phone with clients, or you’re paying bills. Whatever you’re doing, there’s always that feeling deep in your gut that you’re about to hear that unwanted “ting.” Your battery is dying. We’ve all been caught with a low battery with no charger nearby. If you’re not going to be able to charge it for hours, you should shut it off or put it into Airplane Mode. That way, your screen dims and you’re not receiving incoming messages. But you also want to make sure that your Android or iPhone has its Battery Saver turned on. This will start turning off battery-draining features at a point that you determine. You might set Battery Saver to kick in when your battery is down to 30 percent of its life. Here’s how: On Android, you’ll follow steps exactly like this or similar to this, depending on what type of Android smartphone you’re using: Apps » Settings » Power Saver » turn on. On iPhone, you can automatically set up Low Power Mode: Settings » Battery » turn on Low Power Mode.

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