Google may finally be making some progress on the iPhone-style battery health menu for Pixel phones. While the company has added a bunch of battery-related features, there’s still no dedicated battery health page in the settings menu.
But progress is still happening, and the Android 16 beta seemingly proves it.
Battery Health coming to Android 16
9to5Google was able to enable the battery health menu on a Pixel running Android 16 beta 2, in the Battery section of the Settings menu. However, I was unable to replicate that on my Pixel 8a, suggesting that there are other factors at play — and the new menu isn’t easily available to every beta tester right now.
The site notes that this page now features a “Battery health articles” dropdown menu, and links to various battery-centric pages on Google’s support site. There's all sorts of tips and tricks to help maintain the lifespan of your phone’s battery.
Another section called Battery Capacity seems to be a reflection of your Pixel’s overall battery health. 100% is obviously the best, suggesting that the battery is still at maximum capacity (or close enough to it).
The lower that number the worse the power reserves are, and that could be the deciding factor between you replacing your battery or trying to figure out the problem.
Charging optimizations
Finally, there’s also a charging optimization setting within the Android 16 beta, which can adjust charging speed based on your own usage or cap the total at 80%.
Leaving your phone beyond 80% for long periods of time has shown to speed up battery degradation. The same is true of leaving your phone below 20% for too long as well.
There’s also a charging optimization setting within the Android 16 beta, which can adjust charging speed based on your own usage or cap the total at 80%
While the battery health menu clearly isn’t ready just yet, the fact that it is accessible to some beta users suggests that Google may finally be preparing to release it for everyone.
That's a good thing, since preserving battery health over the lifespan of your phone is pretty important — especially if you intend to hold on to your phone for several years. Plus, knowing when a battery should be replaced, could add a new lease of life to an aging handset and help you avoid upgrading for a little while longer.
Hopefully that means we’ll see these features as part of Android 16, which is currently expected to arrive at some point before the end of June. The sooner the better, I say.
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