Innovation

How Apple’s iOS 18 Extends Your iPhone Battery Life

19 June 2024

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Zaker Adham

Summary

Earlier this week, Apple launched the iOS 18 developer beta, introducing several new features to help you better manage and extend your iPhone's battery life. These updates include improved battery health insights and more customizable charging options.

By navigating to Settings - Battery on your iPhone, you may notice sections of your charging graph highlighted in orange, indicating when your phone was charged using a slow charger. Additionally, your iPhone might display a notification when connected to a slow charger, though the specific threshold for triggering this message remains unclear. Despite testing various chargers on an iPhone 15 Pro Max with iOS 18 installed, the notification did not appear. However, MacRumors confirms the feature's existence, noting that the notification includes a button for more information, which currently links to a non-existent support document.

The latest update also allows users to set a customizable charging limit. Previously, the only available option was an 80 percent limit. Now, you can choose a limit between 80 and 100 percent in five percent increments. Battery health experts suggest maintaining a charge between 20 and 80 percent for optimal battery longevity. However, for some users, 80 percent may not suffice, making the new adjustable limits of 85, 90, and 95 percent more beneficial.

In addition, iOS 18 introduces a one-time override feature, allowing users to temporarily charge their iPhone to the maximum limit before reverting to the previously set limit. This flexibility ensures your battery health settings are tailored to your needs, helping you avoid unexpected battery performance issues.

Although not directly related to battery health, iOS 18's new Dark Look feature darkens all on-screen elements, including icons, potentially conserving battery life. While the savings might be minimal, every bit of power preservation helps.

Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has been working since 2007. He has an extensive collection of battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts. He writes about groundbreaking technology, often focusing on phones, coins, or cars. His ultimate goal is to have a broad knowledge base on various subjects.