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Here's why the Android 15 update does not include the battery charging limit feature
- The stable Android 15 update doesn’t arrive with a battery charging limit feature spotted in testing earlier this year.
- That’s because the feature applied to the Android 15 QPR1 beta rather than the initial Android 15 release.
- You should, therefore, expect this charging feature to arrive in a few months.
Google’s been working on a battery charging limit feature for Android 15 that allows your phone to stop charging once it reaches 80% capacity. We took a look at progress towards it earlier this year, but now that the stable Android 15 software has been released, the feature still isn’t here — so what happened?
Well, as Redditor JMPesce notes on the GooglePixel subreddit, this charging feature appeared in the Android 15 QPR1 betas rather than the standard Android 15 betas. Android Authority contributor Mishaal Rahman also looked into this possibility back in July.
QPR updates are typically minor updates that follow the initial stable Android release. For example, Android 14 was released in October 2023, while Android 14 QPR 1 landed in December 2023 and Android 14 QPR2 arrived in March 2024.
In other words, this was never really in the works for Google’s initial Android 15 release, and the battery charging limit feature will likely arrive in December, when Android 15 QPR1 is expected to launch. So we have a couple of months to wait at the very least.
What battery management tricks do you use?
This feature is a handy solution for people who are concerned about their phone’s battery health. Every phone battery is rated for a certain number of charging cycles before it effectively reaches 80% of its initial capacity, resulting in noticeably shorter endurance after a couple of years. However, charging to 80% reduces the number of charging cycles your phone battery is subjected to, resulting in a phone battery that degrades at a slower rate.
This charging limit feature is especially important for Pixel phones, as Google offers seven years of OS and security patches. Many phone batteries tend to significantly degrade after two or three years of usage, so slowing this degradation could help you eke out an extra year or two before you need to replace the battery.
Update, October 17, 2024 (04:06PM ET): Re-emphasizing that charging limits are a QPR feature, and not a part of core Android 15.