Android May Soon Introduce A Battery Health Indicator

Android May Soon Introduce A Battery Health Indicator

This might be a surprise for some – but did you know that Android by default doesn’t give you any information regarding your smartphone battery’s lifespan? In most cases, this can only be done through a third-party app or through OEM diagnostic tools, which aren’t necessarily accessible to novice users. It looks like Google is implementing this feature in the future version of Andoird, according to Android Authority.

The nature of Li-ion batteries and their chemical reaction process means that they have a finite lifespan and do wear out over time, or more specifically, through every charge cycle. This metric is something that Android already records in the background, so it’s only a matter of bringing that telemetry to be presented to users in more digestible data. In the Android 14 beta, Google has been implementing some of the groundwork for this feature to work in future versions of Android (such as the Battery Health page in Settings).

Google’s own Pixel lineup of phones is also getting a first taste of new battery-related features. In the latest Pixel Feature Drop for December 2023, the company has introduced a new “Battery Information” page under Settings > About Phone section, though the information currently presented is relatively limited, with battery manufacture date and charge cycle count being shown so far.

Details of the new battery health feature, however, have been scarce at best. The references can only be found through code and some incomplete sections of the app that may point to various information presented to the end user, including indicating that the battery is either unsupported, original, or has been replaced. Another section of the code points to battery recalibration, which apparently may take several weeks to complete.

It’s worth noting that Apple had a similar feature implemented in iPhones many years ago – though it was as a result of ‘Batterygate’ where Apple was found to be throttling phone performance to reduce battery wear on older iPhones, without informing the users of such change.

Pokdepinion: That’d be a nice addition of course – I’m surprised it took Google that many years to implement it.