Android could quickly inform you when it is time to change your cellphone’s battery

Android telephones are receiving software program updates for longer than ever, with gadgets just like the Google Pixel 8 collection receiving seven years of updates. Plus, machine makers are increasing restore choices and components availability, with some even providing self-repair applications so you may repair your machine your self. When you’re planning to make use of the identical cellphone for so long as it’s formally supported, then likelihood is you’ll want to switch its battery in some unspecified time in the future.

That’s as a result of batteries degrade over time, decreasing the utmost cost capability and thus your cellphone’s runtime on a single cost. Understanding when you must change your cellphone’s battery is hard, although, as a result of there’s no simple technique to truly measure the remaining capability. There are apps that may present a tough estimate, however they should gather information over days and even weeks to reach at a considerably correct measurement. Even then, these apps could arrive at a completely inaccurate consequence.

The Android OS already collects many battery-related statistics within the background proper from the primary boot, so it’s higher suited to offering this type of estimate somewhat than a third-party app that solely begins amassing information as soon as it’s put in months or years after the machine was first arrange. A fair higher supply for this data could be the battery itself, supplied it may share such data with the OS. Fortuitously, that’s precisely what Google has been engaged on prior to now yr. Android 14 laid the preliminary groundwork for the OS to trace battery well being data, however Android 15 may truly deliver that data in entrance of customers.

With the discharge of the Pixel Characteristic Drop for December 2023, Google launched a brand new “battery data” web page underneath Settings > About cellphone. This web page, as proven beneath, exhibits the manufacture date and cycle depend of the machine’s battery. Underneath the hood, Settings is pulling this data by way of new APIs launched in Android 14.

The manufacture date and cycle depend aren’t the one battery-related statistics that Android 14 exposes to apps by way of new APIs, although. Different battery well being particulars just like the date of first use, charging coverage, charging standing, and state of well being are additionally obtainable. The state of well being is especially attention-grabbing as a result of it’s an estimate of the battery’s present full cost capability, expressed as a share relative to the battery’s rated capability. For instance, in case your Pixel 8 battery’s state of well being is measured at 90%, which means its remaining full cost capability is estimated to be about 4118mAh (in comparison with the rated 4575mAh).

The Settings app presently doesn’t present the battery state of well being, however that’s set to alter sooner or later, as the newest model of the Settings Providers app (an extension to the Settings app on Pixel and different gadgets) discovered inside Android 14 QPR2 Beta 2 has a brand new “battery well being” web page that’s set to point out the state of well being. This new web page isn’t reside but, so we needed to manually activate it to get it to look underneath Settings > Battery, because of a tip from the editor of the Google Information Telegram group, Nail Sadykov. At the moment, the web page doesn’t present the precise state of well being however does warn that “batteries degrade over time and final fewer hours between expenses.”

Strings throughout the APK recommend this web page will present you the “estimated share of cost the battery can presently maintain in comparison with when it was new” (i.e. the state of well being) earlier than and after “recalibration” of the battery. We don’t have the precise particulars on what “recalibration” entails, however on condition that one string suggests the “course of could take a couple of weeks,” we’re guessing that it’s merely the system amassing information over an extended interval to supply a extra correct estimate of the battery capability. In the meantime, the “preliminary battery well being values” are “based mostly on lab outcomes” and therefore “could differ out of your precise battery state.”

Though we don’t have any screenshots of the “battery well being” web page displaying, effectively, any precise battery well being information, we did discover these icons that correspond to the battery capability being decreased, the battery being recalibrated, and the battery capability not being detected. We additionally discovered that the Settings app itself will floor “suggestions” to the consumer when both the battery capability is degraded or can’t be detected, so the consumer doesn’t should manually examine the “battery well being” web page.

Lastly, we discovered that Google is engaged on exposing extra battery-related data to the OS, such because the half standing and the serial quantity. The half standing has three values: UNSUPPORTED (the machine can’t differentiate an authentic battery from a changed battery), ORIGINAL (the machine has the unique battery it was manufactured with), or REPLACED (the machine has a changed battery). The serial quantity is a string of 6 or extra alphanumeric characters that uniquely identifies the battery.

We don’t know whether or not Google plans to make use of this new data for something, and we hesitate to invest that they are going to, on condition that at this stage, they’ve but to even commit this code to AOSP. On the very least, we do know that Android will help studying the battery’s half standing and serial quantity, supplied the battery exposes that data to the OS, and the seller implements the new model of the Android well being HAL.

The well being HAL is the software program liable for bridging the hole between the OS APIs that learn battery/charging data (i.e. all the pieces we talked about earlier than) with the software program that controls the battery/charging chips. Model 2.0 of the well being HAL must be applied to help all the brand new Android 14 battery well being APIs like state of well being, which is why so few gadgets help that proper now. Hopefully as soon as Android 15 rolls out subsequent yr, Google’s Pixel gadgets will be capable of present battery health-related data just like the state of cost however not use the half standing or serial quantity to discourage self-repair like Apple presently does.