Battery life is a constant problem for many Android phone users and it just isn’t as good as we would like - all-day use. How can it be improved? By stopping apps running in the background.

A lot of the time, the poor battery life on our Android phone is caused by the apps we install. Battery life seems to decrease as the number of apps installed increases. There is a direct relationship, so the number one best method for increasing battery life has to be to uninstall as many apps as you can.

Too many apps = bad battery life

Take a look at your Android phone, specifically the apps that are on it. Tap the all-apps button to view the complete list and not just your favourite ones on the home screens. How many of those apps do you regularly use?

It has been said that the average person has 100 apps on their mobile phone. If you don’t believe this, just count them. I have a Samsung phone and and I’m a very light user, yet there are four screens of 20 apps. That’s around 80, even though I have pruned them to the minimum. Most people have many more than this.

In my defence though, a good number of those apps are the bundled apps Samsung puts on its phones – apps it forces you to have and doesn’t let you uninstall. I would have a lot fewer apps without Samsung’s collection.

Disable bundled apps

If there are bundled apps with your phone and you do not use them, go to Settings > Apps, tap the app and see if there is an uninstall option. Remove them if you can. This will lighten the load on the phone and fewer apps running mean more memory and better battery life.

If a bundled app cannot be uninstalled, there may be a disable option. Disable bundled apps you do not use.

If there is no Uninstall and the Disable button is disabled, tap the three dots in the top right corner and there may be an option to uninstall all updates. Returning the app to its initial state may allow the Disable button to be used.

Stop background apps

The problem with apps is that many of them automatically run on startup and continue to run 24/7, so whether you intend to use them or not, the apps are running. Any app that is running requires memory, processing power and battery, and generates wasteful heat. To be fair, many apps that run in the background do not use a lot of these phone resources or contribute too much to global warming, except when they go wrong, but it is not zero.

There are apps that will stop auto-running apps, either automatically or manually by tapping an icon. However, they run in the background, so they add to the problem. Hopefully, they do more good by stopping apps than harm by adding yet another background app. I am not a fan though and I haven't seen a huge difference when using them.

There are many Android versions and many different phones, but on my Samsung phone, go to Settings > Device Maintenance > Memory and tap Clean Now. The main aim of this tool is to clean up memory, but it does so by stopping background apps, which will result in less battery power consumed. Don't stop apps you are using though, stop those you won't be using for some time.

Does your phone have a similar memory cleanup feature? Look for it in the Settings app.

Another way to stop apps running in the background is to go to Settings > Apps and tap an app. If the app is running, there is a Force Stop button to stop it. It would be a tedious task to go through every app installed and check whether it is running. However, you could look at a few key apps, like social apps, camera apps, and anything else unimportant.

Sleep running apps

Recent versions of Android are able to put apps to sleep, which puts them into a very low power state. This saves battery power and it is a good way to enable the battery to last longer.

Sleeping apps do not produce as many notifications as running apps, so it might not be a good idea to sleep your email app if you are waiting for an important email to arrive. The notification may be delayed.

There are many Android versions and many different phones, but on my Samsung phone, go to Settings > Device Maintenance > Battery and tap the Save Power button. (Battery usage figures are unreliable, so ignore them if they say no battery has been used.)

Your phone may have a similar feature, but in a different place in Settings.

View running apps and services

Reducing the number of apps on the phone and stopping them from running in the background will boost memory, processing power and battery life, and enable the phone to run cooler.

Apps that don’t run in the background are much less of a problem, so target the ones that do. How do you know which apps are running in the background, apart from checking each app in Settings > Apps.

Go to Settings and tap About Device. If necessary, tap Software Info (menus vary with different phones), and find Build Number. Tap the Build Number 7 times and then return to Settings. Down at the bottom is a new item, Developer Options.

Go to Settings > Developer Options > Running Services and a list of apps and services is displayed. Tapping an item lets you stop it, but it isn't a good idea to stop apps and services this way.

What you can do though, is see which apps are running, how much memory they are using, and how long they have been running.

There are often many alternative apps and there must be 100+ camera apps for example. Find one that doesn't run in the background and it lightens the phone's workload, reduces memory usage and won't use any battery when it isn't actually being used.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to tell whether an app will run in the background, how much memory, CPU and battery power it will consume before you install it. You just have to try apps and see.