iOS 8: See What's Eating Your Battery

My first iOS 8 tip! Hooray! I’d like to thank my friends and family, my constant desire to install the latest and greatest stuff, and—oh yeah!—Tim Cook. Gee, Tim, you’re just swell.

For today’s article, I’m going to write about one of my favorite new features. I have a lot of favorites, by the way, so I may say that a ton over the coming weeks. Expect exclamation points and very little journalistic objectivity.

Anyway, let’s check out the new ways you can see statistics on and address poor battery performance under iOS 8. To do so, visit the Settings app, choose “General,” and then touch “Usage.” 

On the following screen, you’ll find a “Battery Usage” subsection, so select that. Then give your device a second or two to process the data it’s going to spit out; after that, you’ll get a whole lotta awesome.

I’ve called out two sections in particular. In yellow on my screenshot above is my iPhone’s suggestion for how I can make my battery last longer. I mean, thanks, but I like my screen to practically blind anyone in the same building with me. 

At the bottom of my screenshot (called out in red) is the section that’ll let you find out which apps are eating up the greatest percentage of your battery. I’m not incredibly surprised about the information iOS 8 has given me here, but you may find that one of your offenders is an app that you didn’t expect, which can help you address problems if you see your battery dropping fast. Handy!