I disabled these hidden Pixel settings and gained a few hours of extra battery life

Published Sep 18, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT Patrick O'Rourke is XDA's News Editor and Entertainment Segment Lead. Previously, he was Pocket-lint's Editor-in-Chief, the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian tech publication MobileSyrup, and earlier in his career, he worked as the technology editor at the Financial Post and Postmedia. He's based in Toronto. Over the past 15 years, he's written thousands of articles. Patrick has also interviewed dozens of tech industry executives and covered GDC, E3, Gamescom, WWDC, Apple keynotes, Samsung Unpacked events and more. Patrick has a BA in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. When it comes to my smartphones, I want the battery to last as long as possible — especially on my Pixel devices, since Google's latest flagship smartphone is often my daily device. Several obvious things drain my Pixel 11 Pro's battery, including cranking up the display brightness, using the always-on display, and apps that constantly ping my data connection and pull information, like social media platforms or even weather apps. In most cases, I don't want to change settings that limit what my Pixel 11 Pro can do. After all, that's the entire point of a smartphone, right? That said, a few lesser-known features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Scanning can contribute to your Pixel's battery draining, and if you're like me and want to extend it as much as possible, they're worth turning off, though there are trade-offs. Wi-Fi Scanning eats up more battery life than you might think Map apps might be slightly less accurate, though On the surface, Wi-Fi Scanning seems pretty basic. You definitely want your phone to search for Wi-Fi networks, right? Otherwise, how would it connect to a nearby network? Well, that's not actually what this feature does (turning on Wi-Fi scans for Wi-Fi networks already). Wi-Fi scanning happens all the time, including even when Wi-Fi scanning is off. Here's how it works: when your Pixel detects a network, it uses it for location services. This helps apps that require your location, like Google Maps or Uber, figure out where you are more accurately if you're indoors and your GPS reception is poor. At the same time, Wi-Fi Scanning can also hurt battery life, since apps can use it to improve that location accuracy. To turn off Wi-Fi scanning on my Pixel 11 Pro, I head to Settings > Location > Location Services > Wi-Fi scanning. You'll still be able to find Wi-Fi networks like normal, and map apps will continue to track your location using only GPS. However, they'll likely be a bit less accurate at indicating your location. Bluetooth Scanning also improves GPS location accuracy Turning off Bluetooth Scanning can help save battery life Along with Wi-Fi Scanning, Pixel devices also use Bluetooth Scanning to improve location accuracy. In this case, Bluetooth scanning uses nearby devices to gather information about where you are, then passes it to apps. Like Wi-Fi scanning, Bluetooth Scanning runs constantly in the background, regardless of whether Bluetooth is on or off. This means the feature constantly wakes up your phone's Bluetooth sensor. While Bluetooth doesn't consume as much power as Wi-Fi, it still uses a fair amount of battery. Plus, disabling both Wi-Fi Scanning and Bluetooth Scanning helps you save even more juice. To turn off Bluetooth scanning, head to Settings > Location > Location services > Bluetooth scanning. Turning off both features won't really break anything You might not even notice a difference While both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Scanning offer more accurate location data to apps, especially when it comes to apps that need to pinpoint your location, depending on what apps you use on your phone, you might not even notice much of a performance difference. At the same time, there's a trade-off, especially since GPS likely isn't as precise as some people assume. You might run into a situation where Google Maps takes a few more seconds to locate you, or the Uber app can't precisely place your pick-up spot. It's tough to put a number on how much battery life turning features like this off can save, but it won't give you a massive boost. At the same time, 5-10% isn't insignificant either, especially if you don't charge your Pixel device very often. Of course, the battery-life benefits you'll get from turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning will depend on other factors, including which apps you use most often and other key settings like display brightness and background app usage. Still, if you're looking to save a bit of extra battery life, turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Scanning is a solid option.