Upgrade your iPhone’s battery life using this one simple setting

With how reliant most of us have become on our smartphones in recent years, battery life has become a bit of a pain point. Whereas processors, displays, and camera tech have all evolved exponentially in the mobile space, battery technology has inched along at a comparatively much slower rate. The result is an end-user experience that often involves being tethered to a wall outlet, carrying around external battery banks, or, as is my preference, relying on a multi-wireless charging stand setup.

With the release of iOS 26 a few short weeks ago, many are finding their iPhones to be draining battery capacity at an even faster rate than usual, likely owing to Apple’s liberal use of its slick new Liquid Glass material throughout the iOS operating system. There are several tips and tricks that can help you eke out some extra juice in today’s post-iOS 26 world, but one tweak in particular often goes underappreciated or even entirely unnoticed: adjusting Background App Refresh settings.

Background App Refresh refers to an application’s ability to update its content behind-the-scenes, even when your iPhone’s screen is locked. This function is useful for keeping ongoing software and services up-to-date at all times, but it also takes a toll on battery life. Thankfully, Apple makes it easy to manually switch on or off Background App Refresh on a per-app basis, while also providing a toggle to limit updating to Wi-Fi only (cellular data is generally more power-hungry than Wi-Fi).

Certain apps — think ones used for email, messaging, weather, and navigation — benefit from the ability to update in the background and to pull in relevant information as needed. Other apps, like certain games, social media services, and shopping storefronts, can also tap into Apple’s Background App Refresh function, but I’d argue that the sacrifice to battery endurance isn’t worth the trade-off when it comes to these latter types of apps.

How to adjust Background App Refresh on iPhone

The function lives within the iPhone’s Settings application

To tweak settings relating to Background App Refresh on your iPhone, follow these steps:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Navigate to General > Background App Refresh.
3. A full list of your installed apps will appear on screen — toggle Background App Refresh off for any app you use infrequently or that you don’t need refreshing behind-the-scenes.
4. Optionally, tap on Background App Refresh at the top of the screen, and then switch the default Wi-Fi & Cellular Data to either Wi-Fi only, or to off.

It’s worth noting that Background App Refresh is automatically disabled across the board for all apps whenever you put your iPhone into Low Power Mode. Once you exit Low Power Mode, your manually-configured settings will return to their normal, user-customized state.