Running navigation on a long drive only to watch your battery tank halfway through is frustrating. Google just solved that problem for Pixel 10 owners with a new Maps Power Saving Mode that can extend battery life by up to four hours.
The feature arrived with the November 2025 Pixel Drop and works exclusively on Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and Pixel 10 Pro Fold. When you activate Maps Power Saving Mode during turn-by-turn driving directions, your phone switches to a simplified black-and-white display on the lock screen showing only essentials like your next turn, estimated arrival time, and route overview.
How to Enable Maps Power Saving Mode
Getting started takes just a few taps.
- Open Google Maps
- Tap your profile icon
- Go to Settings > Navigation
- Toggle “Power Saving Mode” on
- Once enabled, start your driving directions as usual, then press your phone’s power button. The display switches to a stripped-down monochrome interface that dramatically cuts power consumption.
The mode uses Android 17’s Min Mode for ultra-efficient always-on display functionality. Instead of the full-color, high-refresh-rate map that guzzles battery, you get a low-power view that dims brightness, drops the refresh rate, and skips unnecessary visual updates. Audio navigation continues normally, so you won’t miss important turn alerts.
Right now, Maps Power Saving Mode only works in portrait mode for driving navigation, not walking or biking. Google designed this specifically to tackle one of the top complaints about navigation apps: they destroy your battery on road trips when you need directions but can’t access a charger. For commuters mounting their phone as a dash display or travelers on long highway drives, this could be the difference between arriving with juice left or scrambling for a gas station charger.
This builds on earlier Maps power saving features Google has been testing. The Pixel 10 exclusive status suggests this taps into hardware optimizations specific to the latest Pixel series, though it’s unclear if Google plans to expand availability to older Pixels or other Android devices. For now, if you own a Pixel 10 and regularly use Maps for navigation, toggling this feature on should be a no-brainer.
