Guide to what it is and how to use it
The batteries in our phones used to be cut and dry, doing all the heavy lifting to power our devices. Now the SoC of our phone plays a big role in regulating the power delivery so that we can extend the battery life to the maximum. This guide will dive a little deeper into how Android’s Adaptive Battery feature works and how to make sure it’s enabled for your device.
How does Adaptive Battery work?
When a phone is in use, it’s not just the app on the screen that’s taking up valuable battery life. There are many background processes running in modern devices. For example, most apps are constantly sending information back and forth; Additionally, background processes have to work non-stop to keep your device running as expected.
All of these processes require energy to be completed. While some are much more efficient in usage, others, like background location tracking, can consume quite a bit of power. Unregulated, you would see a big difference between an optimized battery and a device without a battery.
Adaptive Battery is the key to getting the most out of your device and using it all day long. The feature works in conjunction with other system tools to regulate battery life. There are a few key features that the feature uses to improve it.
Learn your patterns
True to its name, Adaptive Battery’s main function is to learn your phone usage habits. As strange as it may sound, it takes into account which apps you use most, how long you use them, and all other important information about how quickly your battery drains when it’s not optimized.
After a learning period, your Android phone will find it easy to use this information to optimize how it needs to approach and maintain a full battery throughout your use. Part of the information it learns is when you typically plug it in to charge. With a learned pattern, Android can prolong your battery drain until it assumes you’re likely to charge the device.
Reduce power to save power
One way to increase battery life is to reduce the power on your phone. While this change is often not drastic, and often even noticeable, reducing the power at which your processor runs can dramatically increase your device’s battery life. Chips use a lot of power, and if that power is somewhat limited, your battery can save a lot of power.
On Samsung’s Galaxy devices, there is a separate option in the settings next to Adaptive Battery that allows you to choose your device’s processing speed. You can use this tool to save yourself even more battery life than Android’s Adaptive Battery, although you’re far more likely to notice a change in performance. It is worth noting that with the Exynos processor found in high-end S devices, excellent performance can still be achieved even in the “optimized” state.
Limit background app usage
The third way Android’s Adaptive Battery saves minutes to hours of juice is by limiting the number of apps running in the background. As mentioned above, a lot goes beyond what you see on your device’s screen. Apps and processes run in the background and if left unchecked can drain your battery in no time.
Adaptive Battery remembers which apps are used the most in the background and limits what they can actually do. This doesn’t have a huge impact on your phone’s performance, and any performance difference is negligible.
The benefit of this is that you often won’t see a large amount of battery drain while idling when Adaptive Battery is running correctly. Recently we got a taste of what the idle battery drain might look like if it’s not activated, and it wasn’t great.
How to turn on Android’s adaptive battery…
On a Google Pixel phone
- On your Pixel go into the settings of swipe twice from top to bottom and tap the Settings gear.
- Find and tap on it battery.
- blow Adaptive Preferences.
- Switch Adaptive Battery.
On a Samsung Galaxy phone
- Go to Settings of on your Galaxy device swipe down and beat them Settings gear.
- Find and tap on it Battery and device care.
- Tap the battery reading up.
- Scroll down and press More battery settings.
- Switch Adaptive Battery.
Below that, you can choose to further limit or limit your processor speed by tapping Processing Speed and selection of one of the options.
Overall, Adaptive Battery is a fantastic feature that pays dividends in our devices. If your device doesn’t have it enabled by default, give it a try and see if it works for you. It might not work right away as it takes time to learn your use, but after that Android’s Adaptive Battery feature should work like a charm.
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