11 Ways You’re Probably Using Your Phone Wrong

For many of us, our phones are ubiquitous parts of life. They accompany us through highs and lows, perpetually sit on tables next to us, navigate us through busy highways and byways, and let us keep tabs on loved ones—and often, people we met once at a party ten years ago.

For all the time that we spend on our phones, there’s a surprising lack of discussion about how to actually go about using them, both in terms of protecting and preserving our devices and keeping ourselves healthy. Some of these mistakes are, of course, riskier than others. Read on to discover 11 ways you might actually be using your smartphone incorrectly without knowing it.

1. Mistake: Forcibly Closing Apps
2. Mistake: Not Disabling Background Refresh on Apps
3. Mistake: Not Charging Your Phone At Night to Save Battery
4. Mistake: Always Keeping Your Phone at 100%, or Always Letting It Die
5. Mistake: Not Backing Up Your Data
6. Mistake: Not Canceling Your Subscriptions
7. Mistake: Not Choosing a Secure Password
8. Mistake: Not Taking Basic Privacy Precautions
9. Mistake: Ignoring Software Updates
10. Mistake: Not Keeping Your Phone Safe
11. Mistake: Using Your Phone As An Alarm
12. Mistake: Excessive Phone Use

Mistake: Forcibly Closing Apps

Force-closing all your apps by swiping up and shutting them down is a common and sometimes satisfying practice. Many people often do this because they believe that closing all their apps this way might save battery or space.

Yet force-closing apps actually can drain cell phones’ batteries faster than simply leaving them open. iPhone and Android systems usually put apps to sleep when you’re not using them, and it takes a lot more battery to entirely restart an app than it does to just reawaken it from its sleep.

Mistake: Not Disabling Background Refresh on Apps

A better way to save battery on your smartphone than forcibly closing your apps is to disable your phone's background refresh function. If you don’t do this, many of your apps might be processing data and loading updates in the background while you’re not using them, which can quickly drain your battery.

You can do this on an iPhone by going to Settings, General, and then Background App Refresh on iPhone, or by going to Settings, clicking Apps and then Data Usage, and toggling off Background Data on an Android. You’ll need to leave background refresh on for any apps you’d like to receive notifications or updates from, though.

Mistake: Not Charging Your Phone At Night to Save Battery

Early cell phones could suffer battery issues or degradation when left charging for too long, but if you’re still unplugging your phone before you go to sleep, you’re living in the past.

Most modern smartphones come complete with charge-management systems that prevent damage to batteries from long-term charging sessions. iPhones even come equipped with systems that track users’ charging patterns, and at night—or whenever the user tends to charge for long periods of time—they pause their connection to the power supply when the phone hits 80%. They then slowly charge so they’re fully powered by the morning. 

Mistake: Always Keeping Your Phone at 100%, or Always Letting It Die

Despite the aforementioned nighttime battery protections that many smartphones have, it may not be the best idea to keep your phone fully charged all of the time—or to constantly let it get close to dying. Many battery experts suggest that the sweet spot, at least in terms of optimizing your battery’s long-term functionality, is actually to keep your phone between 30 and 80% charged during the day.

Mistake: Not Backing Up Your Data

Smartphones are small and slippery and overall quite easy to lose or damage. Because of this, it’s a good idea to always back up your data. Connecting your iPhone to iCloud or uploading your data to a hard drive can prevent a devastating loss of memories, and having a solid backup system in place can also make it easier to increase the amount of storage you have.

Mistake: Not Canceling Your Subscriptions

Many apps offer tantalizing free trials that make it all too easy to fork over your credit card while promising yourself you’ll definitely remember to cancel your subscription in seven days. Unfortunately, it’s extremely easy to forget to do this, and so it's a smart idea to occasionally visit your app store of choice and check if you have any unwanted ongoing subscriptions. 

On the iPhone, you can check your subscriptions by going to Settings, opening your Apple ID settings, clicking Subscriptions, and hopefully not gasping in horror when you realize you’ve been paying $129.99 per year for a meditation app you never use. On an Android, you can do this by going to the Settings app, tapping Google and then your name, and clicking on Wallet & Subscriptions.

Mistake: Not Choosing a Secure Password

There’s a reason so many sites prompt you to choose a password using a collection of numbers, symbols, and capital letters. Some passwords are just too easy to guess.

It's smart to avoid common passwords like "123456," which one 2019 study found that millions of people were using that year. "123456" also topped the list of most common passwords that appeared in an analysis of passwords unearthed on public data breaches. Also on the list? "123456789," "1111111," and "password."

Mistake: Not Taking Basic Privacy Precautions

Most of us just freely connect to networks in public places without a second thought, but these networks can expose our data to leaks. If you’re doing something that involves accessing sensitive information, like logging into your bank account, it might be safer to wait until you’re home or to download a VPN rather than joining just any network.

Additional privacy precautions can include using apps like Signal for private communications, downloading all your apps from Google Play or Apple’s app store, avoiding suspicious links, and turning on 2-factor authentication whenever possible.

Mistake: Ignoring Software Updates

Those pesky software updates are there for a reason. Many contain bug fixes or other security measures, and there can sometimes be consequences or risks if you wait too long to update your system. For example, many newly created apps come with security risks that only new updates can address.

Mistake: Not Keeping Your Phone Safe

Anyone who’s unsuccessfully dumped their phone into rice after it got a good soaking knows that phones aren’t infallible. There are a few common-sense things you can do to protect your phone from risks, though, such as not keeping your phone on the counter while cooking and not bringing it too close to bodies of water.

Also, exposing your phone to extremely hot or cold temperatures—or charging when it’s freezing or wet—can cause lasting damage. Additionally, the rice-drying method has been widely disproven and if you do get your phone wet, it's best to place it in a bag with silica gel packets or put it in front of a fan for at least 24 hours.

Mistake: Using Your Phone As An Alarm

Phones definitely function as adequate alarm clocks, but it might actually be beneficial to invest in some old-fashioned analog alarm technology. After all, for many people, rolling over and shutting off a cell phone alarm is a direct gateway to a long period of scrolling. 

Unfortunately, diving into your phone first thing in the morning has been linked to negative effects on mental health. Alternatively, trading your morning phone time for meditation, yoga, exercise, or another wholesome habit could have innumerable benefits. 

If you do keep using your phone in the morning, it might be a good idea to make sure it’s on “do not disturb” for at least an hour after you wake so you aren’t inundated with notifications the moment you exit dreamland.

Mistake: Excessive Phone Use

Phones are great resources, but extensive research has suggested that they can be addictive and could have harmful effects on mental health. That's why it's important to make sure you're using your phone and it's not using you.

To curb your smartphone addiction, you might turn off notifications for certain apps, delete or hide unhelpful or distracting apps, or place time limits on them. If all else fails, you could have someone else set your screen time password so you can't easily override your time limit. While it’s important to ask how to keep your phone safe, it may also be worth asking how you can keep yourself safe from it—and how you can best use it so it actually benefits your life.