One of the common suggestions to charge your smartphone quickly is to switch on the airplane mode while charging. The practice apparently helps to reduce the power consumption during the charging process, allowing your phone to charge faster than it would otherwise. But is there any truth to this idea?

The answer is a bit complicated, and it depends on a variety of factors. In general, enabling airplane mode does reduce the amount of power that your phone is using when connected to a charger. This is because airplane mode disables all wireless connectivity features, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular data, which consume battery power even when not in use.

When these features are switched off, the phone’s processor won’t be busy looking for signals or maintaining connectivity with other devices, thus freeing up energy to focus entirely on the charging process. So, it’s not entirely untrue that airplan mode can speed up the charging time in some cases.

However, the difference in charging time may not be significant enough to notice. The amount of time saved by enabling airplane mode is usually not significant, perhaps between a few minutes to half an hour in some cases. The impact of airplane mode on charging is highly dependent on the battery type and the charger used. A high-quality charger or a fast-charging adapter is likely to deliver the power it needs to the battery a lot faster, making airplane mode somewhat redundant.

Additionally, airplane mode will not make a difference in the charging time spent on phones with large batteries. A smaller battery capacity phone may charge 20–30% faster with airplane mode on, while a bigger battery phone may see only minor benefits.

One harmful effect of using airplane mode when charging is that you’ll be unable to make or receive phone calls, send texts, or use mobile data. While it might be a small sacrifice if you need your phone to charge quickly, it can’t be denied that it can be a real inconvenience if you need your phone to stay connected throughout the charging process.