To maintain the health of your smartphone’s battery, it’s advisable to charge it up to 80% and then unplug it. However, managing this manually can be quite cumbersome. For this reason, many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) offer the option to cap the charging limit at 80%. Unfortunately, Pixel phones have not included this feature—until now. At last, Pixel users can look forward to the eagerly anticipated battery charging limit functionality.
Discovered initially in Android 15 QPR1, there’s a new Limit to 80% option available in Settings under Battery > Charging Optimization, positioned right next to the standard Adaptive Charging. Unfortunately, this feature wasn’t included in the stable version of Android 15, which was released on Pixel phones just last month.
However, there’s a silver lining: a Telegram user by the name of @SlimRock has provided Android Authority with screenshots that display the feature on the stable Android 15 AP3A.241105.007 build. Despite updating to the latest November build, Android Authority did not receive the feature on their Pixel 8 Pro, nor did we on ours. This suggests the rollout may be happening gradually.
What confounds me is that Pixels still lack this functionality, especially when nearly every other manufacturer provides it. For instance, OnePlus introduced the “Optimized Charging” feature as early as 2020. This feature is now known as the Charging Limit on OxygenOS 15.
Conversely, Realme phones introduced the Wise Charging feature in Realme UI 4.0 this year. Similarly, Samsung added a new “Battery Protection” feature to OneUI 6.1 earlier this year. For years, Motorola has also offered this capability, known as “Overcharge Protection,” to its users.
It’s quite unexpected to find that the very developers of Android are lagging in this area, particularly when it comes to such a fundamental feature. Although I get that Google doesn’t offer lightning-fast charging on its Pixel phones (which it arguably should) and therefore isn’t as concerned about accelerated battery degradation, this remains a basic functionality that would be advantageous for every user. Notably, even Apple has rolled out the “Charge Limit” feature in its iPhone 15 series.
In any case, let’s hope that other useful Android 15 features, such as Notification Cooldown and Adaptive Screen Timeout, roll out gradually as the Pixel’s battery charging limit feature did. As the saying goes, better late than never. It would be even more advantageous if these features were not restricted to the latest Pixel phones (yes, Apple, I’m talking about you).
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