Android smartphone makers have improved their software update policies to support phones for a much longer time. So, phone buyers can keep their devices for a long time before needing to upgrade to newer phones. The devices will get newer features with software updates. However, one of the first hardware components of a phone to age is its battery, and it isn't easy to check battery health on Android. Google is trying to make it easier to check battery health so you can know when to get it replaced once it starts aging.
Google trying to bring battery health information to Android
With Android 14, Google has created a framework to track long-term battery statistics, such as charge cycles and battery manufacturing dates. With the Pixel Feature Drop update released in December 2023, Google has added a new ‘Battery Information' page to Pixel smartphones running Android 14. It can be accessed from Settings » About phone » Battery information. As reported by Android Authority and Mishaal Rahman (via Nail Sadykov), it shows the manufacturing date and charge cycle count of the phone's battery.
The information displayed on this page is acquired by the APIs introduced with Android 14. Although the battery health percentage isn't shown on this page, Google has introduced it with the Android 14 QPR2 Beta 2 update that is available for Pixel smartphones and tablets. Under Settings » Battery » Battery Health, users can see the estimated battery health percentage. This is the battery’s current full charge capacity compared to the original full charge capacity.
For example, if a phone's rated battery charge capacity is 5,000mAh and its current charge capacity is rated at 90%, then it can only charge up to 4,500mAh if you charge it to 100%. The new page currently doesn't display actual charge capacity, but Google is testing it, and it could come to Android with the Android 15 update. And Samsung could bring the same information to its Galaxy devices with the Android 15-based One UI 7.0 update.
Strings within the relevant code reveal that this page will display the “estimated percentage of charge the battery can currently hold compared to when it was new,” and the recalibration “process may take a few weeks.” Recalibration could be the phone collecting enough data after the first boot to display battery health conditions. The Settings app will also display certain messages to let the users know that the battery is getting calibrated or if it is time to replace the battery.
Google is also said to be offering more battery information to Android, including its serial number and part status. There could be three values: Original, Replaced, and Unsupported. Original states that it is the battery that the device originally shipped with. Replaced could indicate that the device's original battery has been replaced with a newer one, while Unsupported could mean the phone can't differentiate between the original and the replaced battery. At least some of these new features could be a part of Android 15 when it gets announced next year.
