Samsung’s new ‘Battery Protection’ feature

 Samsung’s new ‘Battery Protection’ feature 

Battery health has long been a top concern for smartphone users. While iPhone users have been enjoying a dedicated feature for monitoring battery health and lifespan, Android users have been left waiting. However, the wait is finally over, especially for Samsung users. Responding to the growing demand for extending battery life and overall performance of smartphones, Samsung is introducing a new feature called "Battery Protection" in its upcoming One UI update. We don’t know much about One UI 6.1 besides that Samsung will likely launch it on the Galaxy S24 series, but a recent leak did uncover a new “Battery Protection” section in the Settings menu.

As our smartphones are tasked with longer lifetimes, battery health is one of the things at the front of mind for many. Samsung is adding a new “Battery Protection” feature to its next big One UI update, but Galaxy users on Android 14 can check it out early. According to a reports, Samsung Galaxy users running Android 14 on their devices can get a sneak peek at a new battery protection feature. The feature appears in a new "Battery Protection" section within the Settings menu of the upcoming One UI 6.1. Notably, but official information is expected to be unveiled with the debut of the highly anticipated Galaxy S24 series early next year. The battery protection feature in Galaxy devices is embedded within One UI 6.0 (Android 14) patches, which will also power the new Galaxy S24 series, although hidden from casual users. To access the app, users are required to manually launch an app "activity" through specialised apps like "Activity Launcher." The specific activity to activate is called "BatteryProtectionActivity."

Now, it’s been revealed that Samsung’s new “Battery Protection” feature already exists in One UI 6.0 based on Android 14. Available in the latest One UI 6.0 patches, the feature is hidden from view but available through apps that can manually launch app “activities.” There are multiple ways of doing this, such as with the simply named “Activity Launcher” app, but the activity you’ll need to turn on is listed as “BatteryProtectionActivity.” Upon launching this activity, a new menu is revealed, allowing users to toggle on the feature and choose from three levels of protection. These three levels are:-

- "Basic protection" prevents the charger from keeping the device at 100% charge but ensures a minimum of 95 per cent.

- "Adaptive protection" halts fast charging at 80 per cent and gradually charges to 100 per cent based on the user's typical phone usage habits. This is similar to a feature found in Google Pixel phones, which is based on an active alarm.

- "Maximum protection" simply limits charging to 80%.

Your battery will completely stop charging when it reaches 80% and will not resume unless the battery level drops below 80% This provides the most protection for your battery, but your tablet will be never charged higher than 80%. However, there's a catch: Reportedly, the feature is not currently functional. Although the settings display correctly and allow users to toggle between options, there's no actual impact on battery behaviour. Enabling battery protection merely limits the battery to a maximum of 85 per cent-a functionality that has been available since Samsung's Android 13 update. But the feature will be available soon for everyone. Meanwhile, the availability of a dedicated battery health feature is also backed by reports stating that Google is working on a solution to allow Android users to check their battery health. Reports suggest that Google will bring this update with the new OS update.

While the settings show up properly and you can switch between options, nothing actually works. The device charges at full speed on all settings, so it’s hard to say anything for certain this early on. It does seem things are unfinished, though, based on some of the English translations being a little messy. One UI 6.1 is expected to arrive with Battery Protection as soon as January 2024. A report by the Android Authority suggests that Google has already started the groundwork in Android 14 to display battery status, and future upgrades, particularly for Android 15. These updates are aimed at providing users with more comprehensive information about their phone's battery health.

Moreover, the December update for Pixel phones also introduced a new "battery information" page in phone settings, revealing details such as the battery's manufacturing date and charge count. Android 14 also brought additional tools offering insights into the phone's battery usage history, charging patterns, and current health. And as the next step, Google is reportedly working on integrating a battery health feature into the settings of Android phones. The update focuses on prominently displaying battery health information through an enhancement to the Settings Services app, responsible for managing various functions on Pixel and some other devices.