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iOS 13 Introduces New 'Optimized Battery Charging' Feature

Wednesday June 5, 2019 11:11 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple in iOS 13 introduced a new "Optimized Battery Charging" feature, which is designed to extend the total battery life of your iOS device.

Found in the Battery section of Settings under "Battery Health," the optional toggle learns from your personal habits and waits to finish charging all the way up until you need your iPhone.


For example, if you often charge your phone up at night while you sleep, Apple might charge it to 80 percent right away, but wait until an hour or so before you wake up to charge the remaining 20 percent.

That keeps your iPhone at an optimal capacity for battery health, rather than keeping it close to 100 percent on the charger.

Avoiding topping up the battery continually while it sits on the charger reduces the amount of time that your device spends at maximum capacity, and over time, this could extend the life of your battery.

Battery health has been a hot topic over the course of the last year, after Apple was found throttling the processor speeds of iOS devices with degraded batteries to prolong device life as long as possible.

That issue spurred Apple to be more forthcoming about overall battery health, providing details about capacity and performance in the Battery portion of Settings. Aside from the new toggle to optimize charging, there are no major changes to the Battery Health feature in the first ‌iOS 13‌ beta.

Related Roundups: iOS 13, iPadOS
[ 89 comments ]

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KazKam
19 weeks ago
I'm all for anything they can do to optimize battery performance and extend life, so well done on this one. However, at the end of the day, the one thing they could do to really make a difference is make all the phones just a mm thicker and fill it with battery. Bigger battery is what I want, as much as they can spare.
Rating: 24 Votes
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BtradI1
19 weeks ago
This is awesome. I've been waiting for a feature like this! I wonder if there will be a setting in control center to override this setting and charge to 100%, or if this needs to be turned off in settings to charge to 100%.
Rating: 17 Votes
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twocents
19 weeks ago
I'm impressed with how Apple has been incorporating machine learning. Features like this and Siri suggestions that really tailor your experience with the system has so much potential :D
Rating: 13 Votes
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baryon
19 weeks ago
Sounds great, but what happens if there's the odd day when you have to get up at 3am for a long day of work? Having that 20% missing will be particularly important on a particularly long day.

I mean it could just adjust it to my alarm, but since you can have multiple alarms set, it could get a bit messy.
Rating: 12 Votes
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archer75
19 weeks ago

Sounds great, but what happens if there's the odd day when you have to get up at 3am for a long day of work? Having that 20% missing will be particularly important if I get up earlier than usual.

I mean it could just adjust it to my alarm, but since you can have multiple alarms set, it could get a bit messy.

Then turn the feature off on those days. I mean, since it's an odd day you're already changing your alarm right? Change this along with it.
Yes, it would be nice if it tied to the alarm though. Maybe it will.
Rating: 8 Votes
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bobob
19 weeks ago

Apple was found throttling the processor speeds of iOS devices with degraded batteries to prolong device life as long as possible.

Those bastards!
Rating: 8 Votes
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apolloa
19 weeks ago
Seems like a cool feature, will give it a go once iOS 13 is released.
Rating: 6 Votes
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alexandr
19 weeks ago
if this actually works well it will be a great feature!
Rating: 6 Votes
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BootsWalking
19 weeks ago
It's a good start but I'd much rather have a configurable threshold where I tell the phone what charge level it should stop charging at. Many PC notebooks have this feature and it allows for easy adherence to the 80/20 rule for maximizing LiIon battery lifespans. I never charge my iPhone beyond 80% unless I'm traveling and need a full charge to get through the day without access to a charger.
Rating: 5 Votes
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coolfactor
19 weeks ago
A forum conversation with 99% excitement and positive comments! Wow, someone mark this day on a calendar!

Kudos to Apple for continuing to find ways to make life better... for our batteries.
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I wonder how this will work with the smartbattery cases? Will it only apply 80% to the internal battery or both the internal battery and case? Guess I’ll test it when it comes out.


Does the device have the ability to control the external case batteries? Through an app? API? I have no experience with these.

I can't see how iOS can control the charging of an external case unless they talk to each other.
Rating: 5 Votes

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