iPhones have a hidden ‘vampire’ setting that drains your battery and most people are unaware of

Hands down, one of the most annoying things about modern technology is how fast the battery drains.

Gone are the days of being able to last an entire week on one charge, when the only thing that might impact how quickly the battery went down was how many hours you spent playing Snake.

Now we're lucky if we can make it an entire day without needing a quick top-up, and though social media, WhatsApp and random Google searches all have a part to play in that, there might be something else that's impacting your iPhone's battery life without your knowledge.

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And I'm sure we'd all agree; if something is using up our precious phone battery, we at least want it to be worth it.

The 'vampire'-like setting - nicknamed as such way because it drains your phone of life, obviously - is called Wi-Fi Assist, and involves making sure you always have quick access to the internet.

We often rely on Wi-Fi to get us online, but if your provider is lagging then Wi-Fi Assist automatically switches your phone to use mobile data to keep up the connection.

It can happen with all sorts of apps, including Safari, Apple Music, Mail and Maps.

Explaining the feature on its website, Apple says: "For example, if you're using Safari with a poor Wi-Fi connection and a webpage doesn't load, Wi-Fi Assist will activate and automatically switch to cellular so that the webpage continues to load."

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The setting can be useful if you're streaming or downloading something on your phone and don't want to be disconnected if the Wi-Fi starts playing up, but it also has its down sides.

By switching automatically to mobile data, Wi-Fi assist can end up eating up not only your data, but also your battery.

The setting is switched on by default on iPhones, but you can turn it off if you notice it eating up your battery.

To do this, head to your phone's main Settings page and scroll down until you find the Cellular section. Once there, tap on Mobile Data and scroll down to Wi-Fi Assist, where you can move the switch to turn it off.

Once you've done that, your iPhone will only use Wi-Fi when it has a strong connection, and won't rely on mobile data to help make it stronger.

Turning off the setting might mean you have to wait a little bit longer for your Wi-Fi to kick into gear, but at least you won't have to worry as much about being cut off altogether by a rapidly depleting battery.

Topics: Technology, Life, Hacks

Emily Brown

Emily Brown is the Community Desk Lead at LADbible Group. Emily first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route. She went on to graduate with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University before contributing to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems. She joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features, and now works as Community Desk Lead to commission and write human interest stories from across the globe.