You’re leaving in twenty minutes and your phone is at twelve percent. You plug it in and stare at the battery icon, willing it to move faster. It doesn’t.

There are only a few things that actually speed up charging, and most of the “hacks” you see online are nonsense. Here’s what works, ranked by how much difference it makes.

Use the right charger and cable

This is number one by a mile. The tiny cube that came with your phone five years ago probably delivers 5 watts. A modern fast charger delivers 20, 30, even 65 watts. You cannot fast-charge with a slow charger, period. The cable matters too — cheap cables can bottleneck power delivery even with a fast charger.

If your phone supports USB-C Power Delivery (most modern Android phones and iPhones from the 12 onward), get a PD charger. For Samsung, look for PPS support. Your phone and charger negotiate the fastest safe speed automatically — you just need both ends to support it.

Turn on airplane mode

Your phone’s radios — cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth — are constantly searching for signals and draining power. Airplane mode kills all of them. This means less power being consumed while you’re trying to fill the battery, so more of the incoming charge goes to the battery instead of running background processes.

Test this yourself: charge for 15 minutes with airplane mode on vs. off and compare the percentage gained. The difference is usually 5-10 percentage points over 15 minutes, which can be the difference between your phone dying on the way to the airport or lasting the whole trip.

Stop using the phone while it charges

Screen-on time is the biggest battery drain. If you’re scrolling while charging, you’re filling a bucket with a hole in the bottom. Put the phone down. Better yet, turn it off entirely — zero power consumption means every watt from the charger goes into the battery.

What doesn’t help

Putting your phone in the fridge: don’t. Condensation kills electronics. The “rice trick”: that’s for water damage, not charging. Taking the case off: helps marginally with heat dissipation but the difference is negligible unless your phone is already overheating.

Heat is actually the enemy here. Fast charging generates heat, and excessive heat makes the phone throttle charging speed to protect itself. If your phone is hot to the touch while fast charging, take the case off and keep it in a cool, ventilated spot — not under a pillow, not on a sunny windowsill.