Does Airplane Mode Save Battery? (Explained)

One of the most frequently asked questions about smartphone and tablet battery life is “Does airplane mode really save battery?” The simple answer is yes, enabling airplane mode can definitely help extend your device’s battery life between charges. However, it’s helpful to understand exactly how and why this works.

Your phone or tablet’s battery does get conserved in airplane mode. Your phone continues to get notifications, ping towers, receive messages, and update even while you’re not using it. They deplete the battery.

This article discusses the battery life of your phone’s battery and what you should know before activating airplane mode. Continue reading for advice on how to utilize airplane mode responsibly.

What is Airplane Mode?

Airplane mode, often indicated by an airplane icon, is a setting available on all smartphones, tablets, and many laptops. When enabled, it disables all wireless radios and antennas used for communication with cellular networks, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS satellites.

The original purpose was to prevent interference with aircraft navigation systems by turning off all potential signal transmissions during flights. But it has become a useful feature any time you want to prevent your device from communicating wirelessly.

How Does It Save Battery?

There are several mechanisms through which airplane mode conserves your device’s battery power:

1. Disables Cellular Radios:

One of the most battery-draining components of a smartphone is the cellular radio that maintains a connection with the mobile network. This allows you to make calls, send texts, and use mobile data. Maintaining this connection requires periodic radio “pings” back and forth, constantly using power. By disabling the cellular radio in airplane mode, it eliminates this constant battery drain from maintaining network connectivity. For devices on CDMA networks like Verizon or Sprint, this cellular drain is even higher than GSM carriers.

2. Turns Off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth:

On most devices, enabling airplane mode automatically disables the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios as well. While not as battery-intensive as the cellular radio, these wireless radios still use power to periodically scan for available networks and respond to pings. Turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cuts off these smaller but significant sources of battery drain from wireless communications.

3. Prevents Background App Refreshes:

Many apps regularly connect to the internet in the background to fetch updates, download content, sync data, and receive push notifications. Every app that maintains these persistent network connections incrementally drains your battery.

In airplane mode, apps lose the ability to communicate over the internet. This suspends their background refresh cycles and data transfers until you re-enable wireless connectivity, reducing battery usage.

4. Limits Location Services:

Most devices also limit or disable location services like GPS when in airplane mode to further save power. GPS is another radio that requires battery to scan for satellite signals to pinpoint your location. Turning it off eliminates yet another source of battery drain.

Should I Conserve Battery by Using Airplane Mode

There are occasions when using airplane mode will allow you to get more battery life out of your phone. For instance, you may put your phone in airplane mode for a bit to conserve power if you’re out and about without your charger and you know you have an important call coming in later in the day.

Nonetheless, you won’t want to do this if there’s even a remote chance that your call may arrive early. Learn why as you continue reading.

When is Airplane Mode Most Useful?

While airplane mode disables many of the primary ways your device uses power, the biggest benefits come in certain situations:

• During air travel when you can’t use cellular or WiFi anyway
• When you’ll be away from power sources for an extended period
• In areas with no or poor cellular/WiFi signal that your phone constantly searches for
• If you need to eliminate app activity and data access temporarily
• If you just want to force yourself to unplug from notifications and connectivity

Keep in mind that while useful, airplane mode won’t let you magically double or triple your battery life. But in the right circumstances, it can provide very helpful battery savings by cutting off all those background pings and radio connections that steadily drain power.

Why Is Airplane Mode Not Recommended?

Your phone enters a connection sleep state when in airplane mode. Your device won’t be able to access the internet or receive SMS or calls. In essence, certain operations will be prevented or disabled.

While enabling airplane mode can provide a nice boost to battery life by disabling radios like cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS, it also comes with several downsides – you’ll miss all incoming calls, texts, notifications, and alerts, you lose the ability to make emergency calls or use navigation apps that require location services, the hassle of having to reconnect to networks when disabling airplane mode again, and you eliminate any remote access capabilities to your device; so while helpful in certain situations, it’s not recommended to simply leave airplane mode enabled all the time as that eliminates too much core functionality that most users require from their smartphones and tablets on a regular basis.

You wouldn’t want to put your phone on airplane mode if you would miss anything crucial.

What Battery Benefits Does Airplane Mode Offer?

If your phone is turned on and connected, it always functions. When a cell tower comes within range, it pings it to establish a connection. Moreover, it communicates with and receives messages from other devices.

Your phone may be engaged in numerous tasks at once, depending on your settings. Without your direct input, programs may be updated, apps could be refreshed, health indicators could be tracked, and more.

Put your phone on airplane mode to halt all of the aforementioned activities. These activities all drain the battery. With little effort, your battery will last longer.

What Can I Do With My Phone in Airplane Mode?

You may still access your photographs and utilize the phone’s camera when it is in airplane mode. You can still use the flashlight or the calculator. The clock’s features, including alarm, stopwatch, and timer, are also available.

You may view any television series or movies that you have downloaded on your phone. You may also play downloadable games that are not web-based.

Is WiFi Accessible When in Airplane Mode?

Even with your phone in airplane mode, you can connect to WiFi or Bluetooth. This implies that you may use popular applications to access the internet and stream movies and television shows. You may use your webcam to conduct web calls to anyone, check your social network accounts, purchase online, and send and receive emails.

You should be aware that connecting to WiFi will drain the phone’s battery more than it would if it weren’t in airplane mode, but not as much. Put your phone in airplane mode and connect to the WiFi network if it’s accessible to conserve battery life.

How to activate the airplane mode

Here are the step-by-step instructions to activate airplane mode on your smartphone or tablet:

Step 1: Swipe down from the top of your screen to open the Quick Settings or Notification Shade.

Step 2: Look for the airplane icon, which is typically an outline of an airplane or a plane emitting signal lines.

Step 3: Tap on the airplane mode icon to turn it on. The icon will become colored or filled in to indicate it’s enabled.

Step 4: Alternatively, you can go to Settings > Network & Internet (or Cnnection& Sharing) and toggle on the Airplane Mode switch.

Step 5: Once enabled, you’ll see the airplane mode indicator at the top of your screen, often next to the battery icon.

Step 6: All wireless radios like cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS will now be disabled.

Step 7: To turn off airplane mode, simply repeat step 2 or 4 and tap/toggle airplane mode off.

Step 8: Your device will then start re-enabling and reconnecting all the wireless radios and networks it was previously connected to.

That’s it! Just a couple of clicks is all it takes to easily enable or disable this battery-saving mode. Make sure to exit airplane mode when you need to regain access to your internet connectivity, location services, and wireless functionality.

Navigate to Settings on iOS. The first option on the list is airplane mode. Toggle it on by tapping the button.

Final Reflections:

It’s not necessary to use the aircraft mode option just when flying. It may be used whenever you want to conserve battery life. Just be careful to do it when it’s OK to be a bit less connected.