Android 15 might include a battery health percentage, just like the iPhone 15

Date:
Fri, 22 Dec 2023 10:42:54 +0000

Description:
A hidden menu in an Android beta suggests proper battery health monitoring features are on the way.

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One of the more useful iOS features that you dont get on Android is a battery health screen, which shows the maximum capacity of the battery as a percentage, relative to how it was when the phone was new. This provides a clear idea of how much your phones battery has degraded, and its something that might soon be added to Android too.

Android Authority and Nail Sadykov (the editor of the Google News Telegram group) have found a battery health screen hidden away in the Android 14 QPR2 (Quarterly Platform Release 2) beta 2 update.

The screen isnt actually live in this beta, so they had to jump through some hoops to activate it, and even then it doesnt currently show your phones battery health. But within the code they found mention that this screen will show the estimated percentage of charge the battery can currently hold compared to when it was new. The battery health screen hidden in Android 14 QPR2 beta 2 (Image credit: Android Authority / Mishaal Rahman)

So in other words, very much like what iOS can do now. Its not clear exactly when this feature will launch, but its presence in Android software suggests it probably will be coming soon.

Android Authority speculates that the feature might land with Android 15, and that it might initially be exclusive to Pixel phones , but that remains to be seen.

Theres also a chance that it will never launch, and could simply be
abandoned, but wed think thats unlikely, especially as Google seems to have been building towards this. After all, the latest Pixel Feature Drop adds a battery information screen, which shows the cycle count of the battery (that being how many times it has been fully charged and discharged), and its manufacture date.

Prior to that, Google gave third-party app developers access to some battery APIs as part of Android 14, which allowed for apps that could estimate
battery health. So similar to what Google seems to be building into Android, but probably less accurate, and requiring a third-party app. An important feature

Adding a battery health screen could be enormously beneficial for anyone who keeps their phone for a long time which is all the more viable now that Google is promising seven years of software updates for the Pixel 8 line.

After all, the battery is likely to wear out faster than the rest of the hardware, so may need replacing, and this tool would give you a clearer idea of just how degraded your phones battery is.

It would also help you tell whether your battery is actually heavily
degraded, or whether there are software issues causing a reduction in life.
So this battery health screen could be one of the best features of Android
15. You might also like Android 14 : new features and everything you need to know Best Android phones : top Google-powered phones for every budget Best Pixel phones : we've ranked all the Google Pixel handsets worth buying



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/android/android-15-might-include-a-battery-he alth-percentage-just-like-the-iphone-15


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