what is optimized battery charging?

The lithium-ion battery on our mobile devices is the critical failure point. They have a finite amount of life, and a rapidly depleting battery can significantly cause dissatisfaction on an expensive iPhone. Optimized Battery Charging is a default feature on all iPhones running iOS 13 and later.

Optimized Battery Charging helps to improve battery health with these steps:

Optimized Battery Charging stops the electrical current making the chemicals react inside the lithium-ion battery. Then, it uses an algorithm to estimate when to recharge the battery entirely to 100% when it needs to. Optimizing the chemical behavior of the battery helps to slow the natural aging of the battery.

To enable or disable Optimized Battery Charging, select Settings > Battery > Battery Health > Optimized Battery Charging.

Keeping the battery at 100% charge while plugged into a power outlet for a long time is an unnecessary strain on the battery. An Apple article about Lithium-ion batteries explains an Apple lithium-ion battery charges fast for convenience and slow for longevity.

The Optimized Battery Charging feature on iOS 13 improves how Apple batteries behave. It stops charging the phone beyond 80% even with trickle charge as it has learned you may not need a fully charged phone right now. Instead, the charge is activated just before you take it off the charger.

The feature works well overnight if you have regular sleeping habits. It will activate just before your usual wake-up time to give you a fully charged phone.

Optimized Battery Charging stops charging at 80%. It will only charge the remaining 20% at a predetermined time, depending on when you wake up. So, this method is much slower than fast charging, which can charge your phone in minutes but at the cost of long-term battery health.

When you want to charge your phone to 100% immediately, disable Optimized Battery Charging from iPhone's Settings and let it finish charging.

To make Optimized Battery Charging work, allow iOS to learn daily behavior and especially your sleeping habits over time. As this data is at the core of the technology, Optimized Battery Charging can fail if you have irregular sleeping hours. It also won't work if you don't keep it connected to a charger for an extended period when asleep.

Apple also says optimized charging is triggered only in locations where you spend the most time, like your home and office. You must enable location services for optimized charging to work correctly.

With iOS 13 and later, Optimized Battery Charging is designed to reduce the wear on your battery and improve its lifespan by reducing the time your iPhone spends fully charged. When the feature is enabled, your iPhone will delay charging past 80% in certain situations.