Soon it will be very easy to know when to change your mobile battery: Android will inform you of its state of health
Our phones are lasting longer and longer, and the latest moves by manufacturers, which offer more and more updates – the latest Pixels promise seven years of Android versions – only suggest even longer renewal cycles.
The problem is that during that time it is likely that our smartphone’s battery will degrade significantly, and at some point, it will be a good idea to change it. Now, how to detect that moment?
We can use independent applications or study battery performance , but soon we won’t have to. The Android system itself is responsible for collecting data on the state of the battery since we started using it, and now Google is preparing a feature that will allow us to resolve that issue optimally.
Android 14 already offered options to manage battery health, but Android 15 could be much more ambitious in that regard. In the feature update for the December 2023 Pixels, a new section of the settings called ” Battery information ” is already offered. The manufacturing date and recharge cycle count are displayed there .
In addition to the data shown on that screen, Android 14 allows you to offer more details through the new APIs. These include the date of first use, the charging policy, the state of charge, or the health status of the battery.
The latter is especially interesting because it estimates the current capacity at maximum load, expressed as a percentage relative to the capacity labeled on the battery. Thus, 90% of a 5,000 mAh battery would mean that the maximum estimated capacity would be 4,500 mAh.
Although this percentage is not shown in the settings at the moment, it is expected that this will happen soon. Android 14 QPR2 Beta 2 has a new “battery health” screen that does show that health, although it is not activated by default at the moment. What does exist are apps that take advantage of these new options and show said health.
In the APK of that update they show that information will be offered about “the estimated percentage of charge that the battery can hold compared to when it was new.”
The Android settings application will also show the user “tips” and warnings about whether the battery capacity has degraded or cannot be detected, and from all that information we can determine if it is advisable to change the battery . These changes are expected to arrive with Android 15, and that will strengthen the long longevity that we can now enjoy on our Android devices.