Hours passed as Joshi and his many friends combed the forest into which the two-year-old husky had escaped. Hiking through dense woods, he called out her name. Joshi fielded constant calls on his Google Pixel, regularly checked his location on Google Maps, and shared it with the other searchers. Joshi worried that the battery on his phone would drain down from heavy use, forcing them to abandon the search for Luna.

But the Pixel’s battery was never in jeopardy. Fortunately, the search wasn’t long – they found Luna after five hours (no doubt a lifetime to a dog owner!). But Joshi, a Pixel Superfan, had peace of mind knowing that his phone could handle the heavy use – and if needed, he could turn on Extreme Battery Saver, which closes non-essential applications or puts them to sleep.

“My Pixel phone was a trouper! It kept going strong,” Joshi says. “I finally found Luna and was able to bring her back. I would not have been able to do it without my Pixel phone as my partner.”

Even if you’re not chasing after a lost dog, odds are there will be scores of situations in which you’ll find yourself away from a charger for long periods of time and in need of a charge to communicate, navigate, or work. Battery Saver and Extreme Battery Saver were designed with those scenarios in mind.

Your fully charged Pixel will work for more than 24 hours under most circumstances,¹ as Adaptive Battery uses machine learning to triage apps based on which are more or less important to you. Lesser-used apps that don’t need to be constantly running in the background are pushed out of the device’s memory when you’re finished with them, while the apps that you use more frequently are kept in the memory for faster access.

Had he needed to, Joshi could have been out searching for Luna all day (or up to 72 hours with a Google Pixel and later generations) with Pixel’s Extreme Battery Saver, a mode that takes even stricter measures to help squeeze every last drop out of a charge. It works by turning off power-hungry features like Wi-Fi and background activities like notifications and app refreshes. When in that mode, you can select “essential” apps – Maps, Messages, or others you might need in an emergency – to ensure they keep sending you notifications and don’t go to sleep.

“There’s a million things that are invisible in the background to users,” says Google Product Manager Matt Kulick. “We do a lot of protective things to make sure that the battery life is preserved.”

While Adaptive Battery has you covered in most scenarios – and Extreme Battery Saver helps you when you need to radically extend battery life – there are many other things you can do to make sure your phone doesn’t die when you need it most:

You can set Battery Saver mode to turn on automatically, either according to a set schedule based on your usage or when the battery drops below a certain level. Some users may opt for a lower threshold if they know they are always near a charger, but others might opt to set it higher.

“Everyone has a certain level of battery anxiety – for me, because I have kids, I need my phone to be working all the time,” says Kulick. “So my battery level is set really high. I want to go into this Battery Saver mode pretty early on.”

There’s more than one reason to have the latest version of apps and software on your phone, and power is one of them. Kulick says that applications become more battery efficient with each new iteration, addressing errors and glitches that use unnecessary power.

Save your eyes by turning down the brightness of your phone, while also saving the battery. You can also set your phone to Dark theme, which turns your background to black. It uses less power and relieves some of the strain on your eyes, too.

Kulick also says Pixel users should be aware of what activities drain their batteries most. Video calls and gaming are at the top of the list. Users should also shut down apps they have opened but aren’t using.

“Keep what you’re doing in the foreground alive and shut as much stuff down in the background as possible,” says Kulick. “We designed the battery so that you have peace of mind and don’t have to worry about finding an outlet,” he says. With a little help from users, it may last much longer.

Got battery to spare? You can use Pixel to wirelessly charge Qi-certified phones or accessories – and they don’t even have to be part of the Pixel family. Just turn on Battery Share in the Settings app and put the back of Pixel on the other device’s battery area. Charging begins instantly and, just like that, you’ve saved someone’s day.

Chetan Joshi is a member of Pixel Superfans, Google’s community for people who love Pixel products. Superfans gain access to private events, exclusive Q&As with product and engineering teams, limited-edition merchandise, and other surprise perks. Interested in joining the community?

Learn more about becoming a Superfan.