People in the US, Australia, and New Zealand are going batshit crazy for Pokemon Go. Even those living outside these countries have found workarounds to download the game even if it’s not available where they live. Since Pokemon Go relies heavily on camera and GPS, you won’t even realize when your phone’s battery dropped from 90% to 10%. And the massive data consumption is another headache.
Turn on Battery Saver in Pokemon Go
Is there a way to save battery life and data while playing Pokemon Go? Yes, of course. The game comes with a battery saver mode that you can activate. You can do so by tapping the Poke Ball at the bottom of the screen, then clicking on Settings and selecting Battery Saver from the menu. What does the battery saver do? It dims the screen when you point the phone downward, but continues to track you and notify you of any nearby Pokemon.
Reddit user throwaway96388 has found another way to conserve battery and data usage. We know that Pokemon Go relies on Google Maps API to keep the GPS and in-game maps running. So, you can download the maps data for your city from Google Maps and use them offline. That way the app won’t have to pull in the data constantly while you are running around the city catching Pokemon.
Download your city map data for offline use
To download the maps data for your city, open the Google Maps. Then go to Menu > Settings > Offline areas. Now you can tap on the “Home” region or hit the “+” button at the bottom right corner to select the area of your choice. Players on Reddit reported that they noticed a decline in data usage and an increase in battery life conservation after applying these tricks. However, Pokemon sucks battery pretty fast, so don’t expect these methods to increase your phone’s battery life by several hours.
Niantic Labs, the developer of Pokemon Go, said it was aware of the issue and was looking into ways to fix it. Some smartphone users have bought portable battery packs to keep their devices charged up while playing Pokemon Go.
