When it comes to tips for improving the battery life of your phone, you will find that there are so many conflicting opinions. Some reports say that it is okay to keep the phone connected all night, while others say that it can speed up the aging of the battery. However, one thing that most battery experts agree is that charging the battery at full capacity is less likely to extend battery life. This is why many laptop OEMs offer a built-in battery charging software so that users can stop charging when the battery reaches a certain level. On the smartphone side, Sony offers a similar feature on its Xperia smartphones under the Battery Care tool. Interestingly, a few Google Pixel phones also have this functionality, but most users are not aware of its existence.
It is unclear exactly when Google launched the charging limit feature for Pixel phones. But based on the user reports, we suspect it has been around since April or May this year. The feature is available on all Pixel phones, starting with the Pixel 3, and it automatically stops charging the devices when the battery reaches 80%. A Google support page about the feature mentions that it only triggers under the following conditions:
- Continuous charging under high battery draining conditions, such as games.
- Continuous charge for four days or more.
When the above conditions are met, charging is automatically limited to 80%, and a warning saying “optimization for battery health” is displayed on the Always on screen and in the Battery section of the Settings app. Unfortunately, unlike Sony’s implementation, Google does not offer a user-facing setting to control the feature. It is triggered automatically when the given conditions are met and can only be deactivated by disconnecting the phone from the charger or restarting it.
XDA’s Mishaal Rahman recently discovered this feature on his Pixel 3 XL running Android 12 Beta. But according to the support page and user reports, it is also available on Pixel phones running Android 11.
It is worth noting that the cost-limiting feature is not the same as Google’s Adaptive Charging feature, which rolled out to Pixel 4 and later as part of the December 2020 Pixel Feature Drop. Both functions have a similar goal: to reduce battery wear, but the way they go about achieving it is different. Adaptive charging uses the alarm settings to fully charge the phone before you wake up, and it only works for certain hours. Adaptive charging is also only available on the Pixel 4 and later, as we just mentioned, while the “battery health optimization” feature is available on the Pixel 3 series.
Featured Image: Google Pixel 5
Google is not making it easy for its own Pixel devices to cope up with the recently released Android 12 beta update.
From installing the update [Update 8] to minor issues that keep paying visits, some Pixel devices are certainly not enjoying Android 12.
Google just dropped another bug to the already long list of Android 12 bugs that won’t let the Google Pixel battery go past 80% during charging.
This, as per the reports, appeared only after installing the Android 12 beta 1 update. Device owners couldn’t wait and started reaching out to Google reps to understand what’s going on.
When the matter was escalated via the Issue Tracker, the team of engineers noticed the ongoing fuss and released a statement.
To help preserve battery health, your phone automatically limits charging to about 80% under certain conditions:
– Continuous charge under high battery drain conditions, like game play.
– Continuous charge for 4 days or more.
The optimization automatically shifts to the normal mode when the above conditions are not met and the battery goes beyond 80% to its maximum capacity in those conditions on Android 12.
The best way to know if this optimization feature has kicked in is by taking a look at the Always-On Display which should say “Optimizing for battery health” and the same can be found under the Battery section in settings.
This phenomenon may not seem normal to many but Google finds it important in this era where battery lives are actively being talked about.
In case this makes it difficult for you instead of making it good, here’s how you can disable it right away.
To stop using “Optimizing for battery health”:
– Unplug your Pixel phone from its charger or remove it from Pixel Stand.
– Either restart your Pixel phone or wait about 10 minutes.
But don’t confuse it for a permanent settlement. The optimization feature will again kick in as soon as the above criteria are met.
The extension of this battery optimization functionality to more devices on Android 12 and for how long will this stay as a feature, still remains a question.
This behavior was reportedly rolled out back with the March build and feedback about how this feature has been communicated has been shared with the teams.
Engineers are working on it with the aim of improving things so that it is easier and more understandable for users to learn about this feature.
In any scenario, we will surely hear from Google about the developments here. The implementation and future of this will be decided as Android 12 grows more stable.
That said, we will continue to track this and update here as soon as we have more developments to note.
Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated Google Section so be sure to follow them as well.
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Battery technology these days generally means a phone will last a few years before longevity issues arise. However, a well-known trick to conserving battery life is to stop charging about 80% of its capacity, and that is what Google has quietly done on Pixel phones in some situations.
In late 2020, Google introduced a new feature for Pixel phones known as “Adaptive Charging” that can change the charging speed of your Pixel device to improve the condition of the battery. The feature works with your phone’s alarm clock to make sure you wake up on a 100% charge, but the phone doesn’t get to this point any faster than it needs to. Slower charging speeds help reduce the load on the batteries.
Now it seems that Google has quietly rolled out a similar, but not directly related, feature for Pixel phones. This new behavior, which is described on a support page, means that Pixel devices are only charged to 80% before the battery charge is limited. The feature was introduced on Pixel 3 and newer devices and appears to have been made available in April of this year, according to user reports discovered by XDA. It seems to work on both Android 11 and Android 12.
The temporary function is automatically deactivated if the phone no longer meets the conditions listed above. You know that the feature will no longer work when the phone is 100% charged.
When this function is activated, a notification with the inscription “Optimization for battery condition” is displayed on the “Always On Display” and in the “Settings” app under “Battery”.
There are only two scenarios that Google lists for triggering the 80% battery limit on pixels. The first is charging in a scenario where the battery is also draining quickly. A good example of this could be intense gameplay. The other place this restriction can be imposed is when you leave your phone plugged in for an extended period of time. Specifically, it is triggered after the phone has been charged for at least four days.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a user-side switch to maintain this 80 percent behavior all the time, but these two measures should help in some niche scenarios to extend the battery life on Pixel devices. When the limit is imposed, Google shows a constant notification on the always-on display and in the settings under “Battery”.
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Pixel phones can automatically stop charging at 80% to improve battery longevity from Android