These two new charging features will improve your Pixel's battery lifespan

Summary

You can now set an 80 percent charge limit on your Pixel phone.
Additionally, Android 15 QPR1 on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 series enables bypass charging.
Both features will improve your Pixel’s battery lifespan by reducing the amount of charge and discharge cycles.

Google recently released its December Pixel Feature Drop, which is filled with goodies for Pixel phone users. However, one feature that has caught the eye of many is its new charging capabilities.

With the update, Google rolled out a new feature that lets you set your Pixel’s battery charge limit to 80 percent to help extend the lifespan of the battery. Additionally, with Android 15 QPR1, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 series now support bypass charging. This means once your device has hit its 80 percent charge limit, it will be powered only by the DC power from the charger, bypassing the battery altogether.

Google’s December Pixel Feature Drop is bigger than I expected

Google is rolling out its December Pixel Drop, with new features for the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and more.

How to set a charge limit on your Pixel

Bypass charging works automatically with a charge limit set

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold's frong screen on a table

To set your Pixel’s charging limit to 80 percent, head to the Settings app and select Battery > Charging optimization. With the charging limit set to 80 percent, your phone will automatically stop charging once it reaches that threshold and resort to bypassing charging to power it.

Enabling this feature helps prolong your phone’s battery life by reducing the amount of charge and discharge cycles the battery has. Admittedly, bypass charging is only convenient if you use your phone a lot while it’s plugged in. I already see myself using this feature at night when watching YouTube videos or playing games. Bypass charging should also lower the heat your phone generates while charging, since it directly powers your phone and does not generate heat from continuously charging the battery.

Other Android phones, like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, also support bypass charging. According to Android Authority, the feature works back to the S22 series. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 series support setting a custom charge limit but don’t support bypass charging. Apple should look into this to help extend the iPhone’s battery life as well, though it may not feel the need to, especially if it wants to sell more iPhones to people.