Are Your iPhone’s Keyboard Settings Affecting Battery Life?

My parents were recently visiting for a few days. For some reason, parents have a knack for keeping iPhones until they barely work. Beyond the busted screens and cracked cases, I couldn’t help but notice two other things: Their iPhones were extremely loud, and always plugged in.

Ringtones, notifications, text chimes, you name it — instead of being retired, you’d think they were each running Fortune 500 companies. It was nonstop. I couldn’t get them into the Apple Store because their iPhones are “fine.” And the settings are “just how we like them.” I had to draw the line somewhere, and that was silencing their keyboards. I could tolerate all of the other noises, but hearing each individual keystroke was making me crazy.

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Turning Off Keyboard Sounds and Haptics

Fortunately, my folks agreed to the compromise of allowing me to adjust their iPhone’s keyboard settings. While we negotiated on just turning off the keyboard sounds, I took the liberty of turning off haptics (the vibration for each key push) too.

It didn’t take long for them both to notice. “Hey, it’s not vibrating when I’m typing. I need that. How am I supposed to know I’m typing?” Rather than argue with them and suggest they could simply look at their screen, I showed them Apple’s support page, where Apple states that “keyboard haptics might affect the battery life of your iPhone.” Problem solved! While Apple doesn’t specify precisely how much impact keyboard haptics or sound have on battery life, the threat alone was enough.

To adjust keyboard sound and haptics, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Keyboard Feedback. On the next screen, you can adjust the Sound and/or Haptic response. If you want to conserve battery life, adjusting this setting should help you squeeze more useful life out of every charge.

Anecdotally, turning off your keyboard sound and haptics definitely helps prolong the time between charges. This is especially true if your iPhone is already lighting up like the Fourth of July. If other battery-saving tweaks don’t help, it could be time to replace your battery. Either way, you have options, but start with adjusting the settings for your apps, notifications, and keyboard.