10 Steps To Make Your Old Smartphone Feel Like New Again

But rechargeable batteries have a finite lifespan. Despite your best efforts, they may need to be retired eventually.

To check battery status on an iPhone, open Settings | Battery | Battery Health & Charging. Note the percentage next to Maximum Capacity, which is a measure of battery capacity compared to when the battery was new.

Replace a battery with a maximum capacity below 80 percent, something Apple or an authorized service provider must do for you. Users can’t replace iPhone batteries themselves.

Checking the status of your battery on Android devices differs by model and manufacturer. On a Samsung Galaxy, launch Settings | Battery and device care | Diagnostics and tap Battery status. If the battery is still in decent shape, Samsung will report its status as Normal, suggesting it is not ready to be put out to pasture. When it has petered out, take the phone to an authorized provider to change the battery, just like with an iPhone.

5. Dress it up

Your phone says something about your sense of style and fashion. If you have a physical case that’s worn or frayed, getting a new one can make the whole phone feel new again. If the screen is cracked but still functional, you may want to replace it, too, if only for cosmetic reasons.

You can address the internal cosmetics as well. You can select a dark theme motif over light mode, or vice versa. You may also find that dark mode reduces eye strain in low light.

On an iPhone, you can change from light to dark or dark to light in the Settings or Control Center. Head to Settings on Android to do the same.

From time to time, you may want to change the wallpaper and lock screen on your device.

On iPhone, tap Settings | Wallpaper | + Add New Wallpaper and choose among custom options that Apple features or pick a priceless image from your own photo library. On Android, tap Settings | Wallpaper & style. Again, you’ll have numerous designs to choose from, or you can create wallpaper from your own photos.

6. Monitor your health

While you’re improving the health of your smartphone, you can take steps to improve your own health.

Health apps are probably loaded already on your device: the Health app on iPhone, Google Fit on Pixel phones and Samsung Health on Galaxy devices. You also can download Google Fit or Samsung Health from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Each of these apps can monitor fitness, workout and other health-related metrics. You can consult myriad third-party health and fitness apps available in either app store, too.

Though features vary across apps, you can do such things as count steps, determine your heart rate and learn your calories burned. The apps can even collect metrics when you sleep.

A fitness tracker, smartwatch or other accessory is required for some of the data to show up in these apps. But in general, the apps provide insights to follow a healthy lifestyle, help you stay in shape and in some cases store medical records.

7. Prep for an emergency

It’s no overstatement to suggest that your smartphone can save your life. On iPhone, begin by creating a Medical ID in the Health app. You can list the medications you take, any medical conditions you have, your blood type and other vital information that an emergency responder can access from the lock screen, even without knowing your passcode.

You can set up the phone to dial 911 in an emergency when you are incapacitated and cannot tap out 9-1-1. On an iPhone, you can call 911 by pressing and holding the side button and either volume bottom, or you can do so by rapidly pressing the side button five times. Go to Settings | Emergency SOS to set up these options.

Similar tools are available on Android. On Google’s Pixels, tap Settings | Safety & emergency | Emergency SOS. You can review and add emergency contacts, add a Medical ID and enable a switch that will let you summon 911 by rapidly pressing the power button five times.

8. Dig into accessibility

More than a billion people globally live with some sort of disability, according to the World Health Organization. Numerous accessibility tools, all free, are baked into modern smartphones, and each is aimed at addressing a different kind of disability.

Some tools can help people who are blind or have low vision. Some are designed for folks who have experienced hearing loss. Others can assist people with motor-skill issues.

People with vision problems can magnify text or have everything on their screen read aloud. Filters can be applied, so someone who is color-blind can see what’s on the screen.

Those who are deaf or hard of hearing can benefit from live captions that may help them take in a podcast or other media. Certain other accessibility tools can alter how the phones respond to a person’s touch.

On both iPhone and Android, most of these tools are found when you open Settings and tap on Accessibility.

9. Protect privacy

Honestly, having your phone know where you are is a mixed bag.

On the plus side, it can help you find a gas station when you’re running on empty, navigate around a traffic jam and retrieve a lost phone. But privacy advocates fret about the creep factor in capturing location data because of advertisers’ or law enforcement’s potential misuse or scammers stealing your identity.

Fortunately, you can shrink your digital footprint to match your comfort level, control who can see your whereabouts and determine which apps have permission to track your location. In individual apps, you can even choose whether to share your “precise” location, useful if you have a ride share picking you up, or “approximate” location, useful because a weather app doesn’t need to know exactly where you’re standing.

On iPhone, launch Settings | Privacy & Security | Location Services. On Android phones such as the Samsung Galaxy, open Settings | Location | Location Services.

Check out other Privacy settings on your iPhone or Android handset. When you accepted each app initially, you may have granted permission to use your device’s camera or microphone that might not be needed.

10. Limit your screen time

We’ve listed all these nifty ways to make your smartphone more secure, helpful and pleasurable to use. Now we’re going to tell you how to spend less time using it.

Indeed, you may lament all the time your kids or grandkids are in front of their screens, but the same is true about you. Parental controls aren’t just for parents. They can supply insights into how often you’re picking up your devices and provide wind-down tools when, frankly, you should be getting ready to sleep.

On Android, you’ll find such tools in Settings | Digital Wellbeing. On iPhone, check controls in Settings | Screen Time.