Five Everyday Phone Features You Should Stop Using Now to Avoid Overheating as Temperatures Rise

As temperatures rise this summer, you’re not the only one feeling the heat — your smartphone is too.

Devices overheating are bad news for your battery, performance, and overall lifespan.

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While most modern devices have cooling features to help them through the scorching summer months, you still need to be careful.

When your phone gets too hot, it may turn off and refuse to turn on again until it cools down.

There are obvious tricks to help, like keeping your iPhone or Android device out of direct sunlight.

But there are also a number of everyday features you use that also turn up the heat.

Google advises users to stop using these features or apps that “make heavy use of your phone’s resources”.

Here are five big culprits.

Video calls

You may have noticed that your phone already gets a little warm when making video calls.

Whether on WhatsApp or another application, they require a lot of energy from your smartphone, so they should be avoided in hotter periods, especially directly under the sun.

If you have to do one, find a cool, shady spot to do it.

Recording videos

Similar to video calls, recording videos consumes power.

You’ll no doubt want to capture video on the beach if you’re lucky enough to make it to the coast – if you can’t avoid it, keep it to a minimum and don’t record long videos.

Playing or streaming videos

Videos in general are resource intensive for your phone.

This is even more the case if you’re streaming over Wi-Fi or, worse, using 5G.

Avoid playing videos while in the sun.

Navigation apps

Navigation apps like Google Maps or Waze are very useful – and hard to avoid when you need them to get around.

But using them for long periods of time can cause a lot of heating.

If you need to use them, try to keep your phone in the shade.

Charge while using apps

Resource-intensive features and apps will cause a lot of heat if you are charging at the same time.

Do one or the other, not both, to help cool down.

“If your phone is very hot, unplug it from the power source if it is plugged in, move it to a cooler location, and don’t use it until it cools down,” advises Google.