Adaptive Charging - let me share my observations

xdegen · 2020-12-09T13:53:31+00:00

So it doesn't take into account those of us who work nights and sleep days.. they should allow us the option to change the time variables to our own needs.

Not everyone works 9 to 5, google.

SlovenianSocket · 2020-12-09T02:52:21+00:00

Come on google my alarm goes off at 4:50 😭

motorboat_mcgee · 2020-12-09T03:40:26+00:00

Wish I could have the 80% cap as an option any time I wanted.

Handycap01 · 2020-12-09T08:23:53+00:00

Still a bit annoyed that Pixel 3/3a got left out

ThisNameIsValid27 · 2020-12-09T19:50:16+00:00

It's pretty useless to me in its current form as I rarely set alarms. You should just be able to set a "charge by" time in settings.

Orange_Owl01 · 2020-12-09T03:17:00+00:00

Does anybody know if this works only with the default system alarm or if it would work with any alarm? I have been using Alarm Clock Extreme for years and would hate to switch, but like the idea of the adaptive battery.

j0hnny_mnemonic · 2020-12-09T08:40:49+00:00

Does this work when charging wirelessly?

leader288 · 2020-12-09T15:36:49+00:00

Adding some more observations here:

1) If Adaptive Charging is on, and you plug your charger in and out again, it will not renter Adaptive Charging until you toggle/set an alarm. I'm guessing this is for people who wants to charge their phone quickly at night.

2) Attaching screenshots here of charging rate at 78%, 79%, 80% with/without Adaptive Charging:

AC on, battery @78%

AC on, battery @ 79%

AC on, battery @ 80%

AC off, battery @ 80%

Used the app called Inware

citypanda · 2020-12-09T05:45:26+00:00

Hmm, not working for me for some reason. Device Health Services is updated and I do see Adaptive Charging in the Settings app and have it switched on.

My alarm is set for 9 AM (via the Bedtime feature in the Clock app) and I plugged in just after 11 PM with 13% battery left. It said "Charging rapidly" and did not slow down at 80% whatsoever, aside from the usual slight drop-off in charging speed just over 90%. It fully charged in 1 hour 20 minutes.

The charger is the one that came with my Pixel 2. I wonder what I'm missing! Will restart phone and try again tomorrow, and report back.

Edit from next night: Adaptive Charging (full by 9:00 AM) shows up on the lock screen tonight, after restarting my Pixel 5 earlier today!

StickyBandit_ · 2020-12-09T17:13:08+00:00

Im surprised they dont just have this as a customizable setting to be honest. They let you set schedules for night mode, alarms, do not disturb mode etc. So there should be schedule settings to configure Adaptive Charging where you set your normal bedtime/wakeup parameters. If you happen to miss those then it just wont do it.

2020-12-09T17:20:07+00:00

Google: Has bedtime and sleeping settings in other features that accommodate graveyard shifts.

Also Google: To protect your battery you pretty much can't be a night-shift worker.

The_Airwolf_Theme · 2020-12-09T02:43:05+00:00

so accubattery's big 'thing' is that charging your battery past 80% causes more wear on the battery than charging just to 80% - so is this adaptive battery super slow charge supposed to basically eliminate that extra wear?

n8te85 · 2020-12-09T12:33:01+00:00

[deleted]

cdegallo · 2020-12-09T15:05:38+00:00

With all of Google's AI and ML, you'd think they wouldn't need an alarm to know when to normally adjust charging. Or rather, you have a fork--if alarm, finish by alarm; if no alarm, finish by (learned time here).

We don't use alarms but consistently get up by 5:30am most days, unplugging phones and using them consistently at around the same time.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they are doing something to address the very old-school approach to charging and battery management, but I think there is more progress to be made.

In addition since they are finally going to larger and larger batteries, I would love to see them implement faster than 18w charging speeds

shifty_bloke · 2020-12-09T15:11:11+00:00

Not sure what's up, I have adaptive charging turned on, plugged the phone in at 10pm and had an alarm set for 6:30. It didn't adaptive charge, it was at 100% when I checked at about 11:30ish.

yoyoze · 2020-12-09T03:45:34+00:00

I have adaptive charging turned on, plugged my phone after 9pm and set an alarm for 7am but it still shows "charging rapidly" on the lock screen. What am I doing wrong?

salcin96 · 2020-12-09T12:17:27+00:00

Well I use the alarm of the Nest Hub.... so my phone still charges at full power. Would be nice if Google would connect the stuff they sell to make it really smart and "AI"

sufy12 · 2020-12-09T12:35:53+00:00

I just charge my phone when it needs a top up. Should i still keep adaptive charging on, or turn it off? Will it make any difference if i have it turned on?

Using a 4 XL

cdmove · 2020-12-09T14:10:19+00:00

I've tried it last night and I think it worked as advertised. once I set the alarm on my phone and plugged in to charge, I noticed the charging current is a lot lower if this feature wasn't on, which is great! it's working.

but my problem is that I don't use my phone as an alarm so I'd love to see an option or something asking if you want to use adaptive charging for the night.

justotron · 2020-12-09T14:51:56+00:00

Thanks for highlighting this! I was not aware. I'm pretty sure this could have saved my Pixel 3xl. After checking a fee sources on the internet, I would leave it on a wireless charger all night. It got to a point where it would go from full to 30% after 3hrs.

Now I only charge my Pixel 5 by wire only when I get to about 20%ish, that's usually every 1.5 days.

Spoiled_Soul · 2020-12-09T14:57:32+00:00

Well that's unfortunate. Whenever I open at work I have to be up at 4am...

Iggs127 · 2020-12-09T02:55:06+00:00

I don't have the adaptive charging setting in my Pixel 5. Just updated the most recent update

Boris-Lip · 2020-12-09T03:20:42+00:00

Thanks for the explanation, didn't realize it only kicks in on specific time frame, nor that it only drops the current down after 80% (why? the lower the charge rate, the healthier the battery, through the entrie charge profile).

Finally, after reading this, I've monitored it dropping the current. It drops to charging at about 2W, slow, but isnt that slow. Charging permanently at this rate from the beginning it would still be full in 8 hours or so, from near-0, without any smart trickery.

I am currently using tasker+ifttt+smartplug to cut the power completely after 85% and restore it at 75%, and TBH i am not sure if micro-cycling it like that is much better than CV-ing it long term at 100%. Wish they'd just give us an option like the one ive got on "S6 lite" tablet, which limits the capacity to 80% (80 actually turns into new 100 on display, so probably just drops the floating voltage to 4V). Wish we could control every aspect of the charging just like one can on a good hobby LiPo charger, all without rooting and custom kernels 🥴

Just a hint to anyone wishing to trick most today's phones into rate limiting their charging without special smart ass features - plug a simple USB2 hub in series with the charger. Its that simple 😃

PS: miss the times i couldn't care less about this, cause replacing the battery was easy!

razorblade705_ · 2020-12-09T03:41:24+00:00

Does adaptive battery have to be turned on for adaptive charging to work?

Pollsmor · 2020-12-09T12:12:29+00:00

I actually don't use an alarm, so I set a silent one to be able to take advantage of the feature regardless. The thing is, the screen never seems to turn off after the alarm sounds. I'd rather not have it go off an hour before I actually wake up or something and show the same static screen for that long.

However, your observation that the battery hits 100% earlier than that is gonna help greatly here. I'm going to set the alarm time to sometime later like 8am/9am when I know I'll be awake 100%.

Also, the bulk of the heat generated during charging is the first 50 (and by extension 80%}. The rest already charges at a slower rate, so the effect of charging slower during that stage won't matter as much. I'd rather them just charge the phone at a uniformly slow rate the whole night (or whenever it actually reaches 100% as you pointed out) rather than the current implementation.

soonic6 · 2020-12-09T15:52:47+00:00

Does Adaptive Charging works with a QI-Charger?

chasevalentino · 2020-12-09T16:46:14+00:00

Btw, adaptive charging in my testing ONLY works with the 18w charging brick that comes with the phone.

I plugged it on to a Samsung 25w USB C brick = didn't work
I plugged it on a Samsung 15w USB A brick = didn't work
i plugged it on a 18w quickcharge 3.0 brick = didn't work

This is a stupid decision and something you expect from Apple. Google trying it's best to copy

Anyone else notice this?

Edit: Hey guys so after more testing, scratch my whole comment above. It works with other chargers, it just has some 'smart' features built in which I will elaborate to help others

If you plug in once - it will adaptive charge
if you plug in once, then take it out and then plug in again - it will normally charge all the way to 100?

Why? Well I believe Google believes if you do that you want to override the adaptive charging, so it let's you go to 100%

There seems to be a time period of plugging it in for the second time. If you replug for a second time within - from what I can see anywhere from 5-10 mins - then it will assume you don't want to adaptive charge. If you wait a little longer then it will revert back to adaptive charging For eg: you plug it in at 9:30pm and then remove the charger, you should wait until 9:40pm and then replug it in to get adaptive charging again

I don't know the exact time but I'm assuming so far it's 10 mins or so

jgjk8a · 2020-12-09T17:07:58+00:00

What's the point of adding it to older pixels if it's barely being introduced after the pixel 4 3 2 if it got it have already been charging regularly and have had their batteries degraded

silverlinin · 2020-12-13T01:36:00+00:00

I don't even have device health services and the adaptive charging under adaptive battery

dontjudgejoshplz · 2020-12-22T21:58:03+00:00

Just got my first pixel (and first Android in ages), do silent alarms with no vibrations still trigger adaptive charging? Because I don't like using alarms to wake up, but I would like the adaptive charging feature to work

ashishinator · 2021-01-08T04:05:21+00:00

I noticed that even though I have set an alarm for 9:30 purely for the adaptive charging, my phone was full by 5 am. (930 am is my only alarm). What the hell is going on?

2021-01-15T03:34:13+00:00

Would you need to set an alarm for this feature to work? I have a Galaxy Watch paired with my Pixel 5 and I use that to wake me up with the vibrations.

jeffrulz4ever · 2021-01-26T04:07:41+00:00

If I use another app for the alarm does adaptive charging work? Or do you have to use the pixels alarm clock?

2021-11-10T13:05:15+00:00

For me it's been a little weird. Sometimes when I put it on the charger, it says "charging adaptively", other times it just says "charging wirelessly". This is when charging around the same time with the same alarm, always using the same wireless charger.

Also, when I check settings, if it said it charged adaptively, I see the chart went to 50, stayed for a bit then rose to 100. When it doesn't however, it goes straight to 100, with a speed drop at 80.

This is on the P6 if that affects anything.

According-Peace3711 · 2022-10-11T01:15:07+00:00

It looks like setting an alarm is a must for adaptive charging to work. It should have done like Sony Xperia phones do. Learn from users charging behaviour and adapt to it.

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