Android 15 could bring comprehensive battery health information to users،
For years, Android users have had to rely on third-party apps and shady fortune tellers to get more information about one of their phone's most important pieces of hardware: the battery.
Soon there might be something to ease this pain and it might be Android 15, says Android expert Mishaal Rahman and the Android Authority.
He highlights three major points, here they are (paraphrased):
- A phone's battery capacity is naturally lost over time;
- Android will soon give information on the remaining capacity of your battery;
- The new battery health statistics can also indicate whether your battery has been replaced.
Even if you treat your device and battery gently, even if you take precautions and don't abuse your phone, it doesn't matter because sooner or later you will need a battery change . If you are particularly lucky, it will be “later”. Batteries, like all other technological elements, tend to degrade over time. Their maximum load capacity is reduced and your screen usage time is significantly reduced. Or (and) your battery starts behaving abnormally, causing your phone to suddenly crash and so on.
There is a light in the tunnel: “Android 14 laid the initial foundation for the operating system to track battery health information, but Android 15 could actually make this information available to users,” explains Mishaal in his report.
There is a new “Battery Info” page under Settings > About Phone that is part of the Pixel Feature Drop for December 2023. This page displays the device's manufacturing date and battery cycle count. The details are obtained thanks to the new APIs introduced in Android 14.
There are more details about the battery status: date of first use, charging policy, charging status and health status. Health status is of particular interest because it is an estimate of the battery's current full charge capacity, expressed as a percentage of the battery's rated capacity. For example, if your Pixel 8's battery health is measured at 90%, that means its remaining full charge capacity is estimated at around 4,118 mAh (compared to a nominal 4,575 mAh).
The Settings app doesn't currently show battery health status – like an iPhone does – but that's set to change in the future. Google will also expose more battery information, such as whether the device contains an “unsupported,” “original,” or “replaced” battery.
