Your Google Pixel already offers several measures to preserve battery life, both during the day, and also in the long run.
Features like standard and extreme battery saver can help you get through the day if your phone is running low, while charging optimization features like ‘Adaptive Charging’ and ‘Limit to 80%’ prevent early battery degradation. However, there’s one device in the Pixel lineup that goes one step further with long-term battery health in mind.
Released in April earlier this year, Google’s latest mid-ranger, the Pixel 9a, offers a novel ‘Battery health assistance’ feature. The tool, which helps manage your device’s long-term battery health and performance, essentially reduces the max voltage of the battery and the max capacity your device can charge to in an effort to protect battery health. “As your battery ages, you may notice slight changes in charging performance and battery capacity,” reads the tool’s description.
The tool reduces your Pixel 9a’s max voltage when it reaches specific charge cycle thresholds. This starts at 200 and continues gradually until 1,000 charge cycles, as highlighted by Google in a support post.
At the time of launch, Google alluded that the feature would eventually make its way to the rest of the Pixel lineup, and it appears that promise is now being fulfilled.
Expect the feature to land in stable later this year
The feature, as highlighted by the folks over at Android Authority, is now going live for older Pixel devices running the latest Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2.
For what it’s worth, the tool isn’t showing up for Android Police News Editor Dallas Thomas and I, but that’s likely because our Pixels haven’t reached 200 charge cycles and their battery health hasn’t dipped below a certain threshold. According to the report, which quotes a Telegram user, the tool showed up on their Pixel 7 Pro.
To check whether the feature has rolled out to you, hop onto Android 16 QPR1 Beta 2 if you’re already in the beta update channel and navigate to Battery settings > Battery health > Battery health assistance. The feature should likely land in the stable channel with QPR1 in September.
