How To: Extend Battery Life by Seamlessly Managing Wireless Radio Connections on Your Samsung Galaxy S3

You don't need to be a robot to be overly concerned with battery life, especially if we're talking about Terminators, which have nuclear or hydrogen fuel cells that keep them running for years straight.

It will be a long time before smartphones get that upgrade, so in the meantime, we have to figure out how to make them last more than a couple hours in a single charge.

Now, my Samsung Galaxy S3 does fairly well with battery life, but there is always room for improvement. One of the biggest battery drains on it and any mobile device is when it's using and constantly searching for radio networks like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but this can be improved with a little app called Wireless Minder.

Installing Wireless Minder

Wireless Minder by One Nose Peace extends battery life by managing the wireless radios on your Samsung Galaxy S3. Instead of having your GS3 continuously searching for Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth signals, it shuts off unused radios and periodically checks for a connection.

After installing Wireless Minder from Google Play, it goes to work immediately. As developer chefp puts it "Think of it as an up periscope: if no connections are available, the radio powers off, but if a connection is available, the radio stays on."

Turning Wireless Minder Off & On

For immediate control on what Wireless Minder controls, open the app and tap on each icon to stop Wireless Minder from monitoring each signal.

You can also access the application settings by hitting the menu button.

Wireless Minder's Settings

In the app's menu, you'll have access to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Mobile settings. You can schedule active hours for Minder to begin and stop.

Here is my Dynamic Notification of Wireless Minder checking my GS3's Bluetooth status.

You can also change the intervals of how often Wireless Minder checks these signals for even better battery life.

Wireless Minder is a free, ad-supported app that you should make sure to check out if you are looking to improve your battery life.

Wireless Minder Compatibility

It works for most smartphones and tablets running Android 2.1 and higher, but if you're running Android 4.2 or higher, you will need to be rooted for it to work, since there are restrictions on controlling the mobile radio. But since your GS3 is probably still running 4.1.2, you should be fine as is.

Questions or feedback? Let us know in the comments section. For more battery saving advice for your GS3, you can try using offline Google Maps, fixing Android system usage, using a better lock screen, and many, many other things.