Google’s new Pixel battery feature is worthwhile, but only if it’s optional

According to a new support document update published on Google’s Pixel Phone Help page, the company’s upcoming mid-range Pixel 9a smartphone will ship with a battery health feature not seen on previous Google handsets to this point.

This battery health feature, which was first spotted by 9to5Google, is officially referred to by Google as Battery Health Assistance. The feature is designed to prevent undue wear and tear on your Pixel phone’s battery, which is subject to a natural chemical degradation process as more charge cycles take place over time.

“Your Pixel 9a will receive a software update that automatically helps manage the long term health and performance of its battery as it ages. This software will adjust the battery’s maximum voltage in stages that start at 200 charge cycles and continue gradually until 1000 charge cycles to help stabilize battery performance and aging,” Google’s support document reads.

Google says that for Pixel 9a users, a small decrease in battery runtime might occur as the power pack ages. The new Battery Health Assistance tool will automatically tune the phone’s charging speed based on the battery’s performance capacity, as determined by the software. In other words, the feature won’t be customizable from a user-facing perspective.

In a statement provided to Android Police, a Google spokesperson clarified that Battery Health Assistance will be made available to a “selection of Pixel devices” sometime later this year, confirming that the feature won’t remain exclusive to newly-released Pixel hardware for long. Additionally, the statement confirms that the feature will be “voluntary for any customers using previously launched devices.”

Pixel 9a

Google’s mid-range Pixel 9a offers impressive high-end features like a 48-megapixel main shooter, a 13-megapixel ultrawide camera with macro, its Tensor G4 chip, and 8GB of RAM, all in a cost-effective $500 package.

In principle, Battery Health Assistance is a useful feature

Google is working to extend the shelf life of your Pixel phone’s battery pack, but it might be taking a heavy-handed approach

Pocket-lint / Google

It’s a well-known fact that the lithium-ion batteries powering our modern smartphones are consumable products with a limited shelf life. We’ve seen other phone makers fiddle with charging voltages and performance profiles to mitigate degradation in the past, including a high-profile Apple “Batterygate” scandal from a few years back.

Unlike with BatteryGate, Google’s upcoming Battery Health Assistance feature doesn’t appear to alter processor performance. Rather, it appears to simply throttle down the charging speed and voltage capacity on the battery side, doing so in stages of 200 charge cycles a piece.

While the potential to experience decreases in battery charging performance and battery runtime is unfortunate, it’s a net positive for overall battery integrity and sytem stability. Google’s relative transparency on the matter is appreciated, and I’m happy to hear that Battery Health Assistance will be a toggleable setting when it hits older Pixel devices later this year.

Unfortunately, it looks like Pixel 9a users won’t be able to opt out of the feature at all — a win for Google from a control standpoint, but a loss for consumer agency. I’m all for providing advanced battery-saving tools and in-built voltage monitoring in our gadgets, but I’d love to remain in control of my hardware’s destiny — even if it means making the wrong choice from a health and longevity standpoint.

Related

The latest Pixel update recalibrates this battery feature (that you should be using)

With its latest Pixel Drop, Google has tidied up the recalibration logic on its charging limit feature – here’s how to enable the useful battery tool.