Top Tip to save battery for those using Gmail on the iPhone

-
Perhaps something a little niche, but one thing that has always bugged me about the iPhone is that, even though all my email is in Google/Gmail, and even though I'm using the Gmail app for iOS to get the full Google experience, every time I hit an email link in a web page, Apple's Mail client (which I don't use at all) got launched.

I put up with it until this week, but after seeing that 'Mail' was listed under the iPhone's Settings/Battery as having used 10% of my battery power in the last 24 hours, I reckoned enough was enough. Time to knock Mail around a little…

With that in mind, here are my two recommendations:

1. Stop Mail from grabbing email at all and thus duplicating what the Gmail app is doing

Now, one has to be careful here, as 'Mail' in the context of a computer system of any kind in 2025 is what also brings along what is probably your main contact store and your main calendar. So in the case of an iPhone, we want Gmail to be accessed by iOS, but only for its contacts, calendar, and notes.

Head into Settings/Apps/Mail/Mail accounts/Gmail and deselect Mail syncing. This isn't needed, since the dedicated Gmail app will 'do' email and so much better. But leave the other toggles set!


By not having Mail needlessly syncing email in the background, I clawed back all of the 10% of battery that I was losing every day! (Contacts and Calendar ‘push’ only happens when a change is made to either, so at most a few times a day and with trivial compute power needed. )

2. Make Gmail iOS's default email app

I believe this was a recent addition to iOS - you'll find it under Settings/Apps/Default apps - in my case, set 'Email' to 'Gmail'.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wavelet - and better sounding speakers (and headphones) on Android...

-
Image
You may well be fairly happy with the audio output (speakers and headphones) on your existing Android phone. Or, like me, you may welcome an extra step up. Perhaps more bass/punch, clearer treble, or perhaps just a volume boost overall. Now, there have been various 'boost' utilities for Android in the past and they've been a bit patchy in how well they work. But Wavelet, discovered by Ted Salmon back in 2021, is a whole different kettle of fish, in that it works supremely well, with extra bass, clarity, and volume,   BUT has a very confusing interface. Which is why a brief tutorial is in order. The steps come from Ted in bullet point form, but expanded by me here and with screenshots, which will hopefully help. By the way, ignore the 'headphone specific' text in the app's title - it works perfectly well for speakers too. In fact, by definition, I'd say that it's really ONLY for speakers, since with headphones you've usually got plenty of natural i...
Read more

Why the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max is better than the 15 Pro Max

-
Image
Forgive the click bait(y) title, but there's actual evidence here, I promise. Note that I did write an article before availability, putting forward worries and concerns , but I've now had hands-on to confirm a few things and report back.  Cased (of course, read the blooming' article!) Pro Maxes - 15 and 14 (with XtremeSkin, Aged Oak , in case you're wondering!) In fact, it's the first time ever in the iPhone line-up/evolution that I seriously think the old 'Pro Max' model can be argued to be  better than the new one. (Admittedly, that I already own the old one [14 Pro Max] and didn't really want to spend over £1000 on the 15 Pro Max possibly helps my argument from a personal perspective.) (There's one big win for the new model, of course. Type C connectivity has been a long time coming - but this will take several generations to become established in iPhone/Lightning households and maybe I'll come back to this in a future article.) My observat...
Read more

Review: Anker 737 140W power bank (PowerCore 24k)

-
Image
The Anker 737 isn’t your mother’s power bank. You see that old gadget in your drawer? This isn't it.  With miniature power bank OS (complete with splash screen) and with 'phone' form factor (as in hold and operate in your right hand, if needed), this also offers 140W (!) output and input over (hot off the press) Power Delivery 3.1, plus it packs the maximum capacity it's legal to ship (at least in the UK), with 24000mAh (at 3.7V, or almost 90Wh in potential power). Reassuringly, this is from Anker, one of the few accessory makers which doesn't put a foot wrong in terms of quality, support, or marketing (i.e. no fake reviews on the likes of Amazon). And the hardware is indeed stunning, with no rattles or creaks, and with beautifully textured sides. As you can see below, the form factor is a 'phone-like' cuboid. Yes, it's a chunk compared to a phone (24000mAh etc) but there's a power/select button under the right thumb and there's a 'smart...
Read more