Warning: That free hiking app ate my battery in 3 hours flat

Last Sunday I decided to try that AllTrails free version everyone talks about for a 5 mile loop near my apartment. I figured it would be fine since I just wanted to see trail maps and track my distance. Three hours in my phone went from 80% to dead. I had to walk the last mile in the dark using a friend's phone flashlight. Turns out the GPS pings every 10 seconds even on the free tier. Has anyone else found a battery-saver trick for navigation apps that doesn't cost $30 a year?

2 comments

2 Comments

knight.xena7d ago

Oh man, that's a rough way to learn that lesson. The GPS ping rate is a killer for sure. What worked for me was switching the app to low power mode in the phone settings before starting, and also turning off cellular data for the app so it only uses GPS. Another trick is to download the offline maps for the trail ahead of time at home on WiFi, then put your phone in airplane mode except for GPS. That stopped my battery from draining so fast on longer hikes.

ivan_fisher993d ago

That low power mode trick is honestly the kind of thing you end up applying everywhere once you figure it out lol. It's wild how many everyday gadgets just bleed power by running full blast when they don't need to, like my laptop sitting there with max brightness when I'm just typing. Definitely a good reminder that a lot of tech problems are really just about cutting out the extra stuff nobody asked for.