This guide explains the optimized battery charging feature on iPhones. All the latest Apple iPhones come with Lithium-ion batteries. iPhones are designed to give their best performance to cater to the user requirements. However, this affects the battery life in the long run.
Charging an iPhone every day and heavily using it, depletes the half-life period of the lithium-ion battery. At a point in the future, the iPhone battery won’t hold charge for a longer duration. It is possible to improve the battery performance by enabling optimized battery charging on iOS.
Understanding the Degradation of Lithium-ion Batteries
The more an iPhone is put to use, the capacity of its battery to hold charge will reduce over time. Also, how you put the iPhone to charge plays a crucial role in determining its battery health. This is called the chemical aging of the battery on a phone.
If you set the iPhone on charging for over the night, at one point it will get to a hundred percent battery. As the charging process is not stopped, the battery remains charging all through the night. This is detrimental to the battery health in the long run.
While you can swap batteries on an iPhone, it is an expensive affair unless your device is under the warranty period. This is where the Optimized charging facility changes the game and preserves the battery health for longer use.
How Optimized Battery Charging Works in iOS?
Once the feature is turned on, Optimized battery charging observes the pattern of your iPhone use, and follows the pattern of charging your iPhone. It can sense at what point of time and for how long the iPhone is being set to charge. This feature uses machine learning to deduce this information.
Optimized charging will stop the recharge when the iPhone reaches 80 percent of the battery. A notification on the screen will mention the time by which the charging will be finished.
Normally, Apple considers that when an iPhone is charged beyond 80 percent over a long period can result in battery degradation. Similarly, when the charge drops below 20 percent regularly, it can deteriorate the iPhone battery.
Enable Optimized Battery Charging on an iPhone
The optimized battery charging feature was introduced in iOS 13. In all the later versions of IOS, you can find the feature in the Settings app.
To enable optimized battery charging on iPhone 14 or other previous models,
- Launch the Settings app.
- Go to Battery > Battery Health and Charging.
- Press the toggle beside Optimized Battery Charging.
iPhone 15 users can follow these steps.
- Open the iPhone Settings.
- Go to Battery > Charging Optimization.
- You may select Optimized Battery Charging or 80% Limit.
NOTE: Optimized battery charging in iOS is enabled by default when you start setting up your iPhone. You can turn off the feature, but it is not recommended to avoid early wear out of the battery life.
Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs)
Optimized Charging is not Working on iPhone?
Optimized charging relies on the pattern of iPhone usage and charging. If you are traveling, iOS notices the discrepancy in the pattern and may not engage even if you have enabled it. Turn on Location Services and Precise Location in the iOS settings. Also, upgrade your iPhone to the latest build of iOS.
iPhone Optimized Charging is Supported on which version of iOS?
Optimized Battery Charging was introduced with iOS 13. Your iPhone should run iOS 13 or higher build of iOS to experience this feature.
I have Selected the 80% Limit Option but my iPhone is Charging to 100%
Even with the 80% charging limit enabled, occasionally the iPhone charges to 100% to maintain the state-of-charge of the battery. There is no problem with that.
How to know the Battery Health Status of an iPhone?
Go to iPhone Settings app > Battery > Battery Health and Charging. You can view the current capacity of the battery, and whether it needs a replacement.
Bottom Line
Optimized battery charging preserves the battery health on iPhone to facilitate longer use. Apple also offers this feature on the iPadOS and macOS battery settings. Replacing batteries on an iPhone/iPad can be quite expensive. It is wise to utilize the optimized charging feature on your devices to extract good performance without experiencing battery depletion.