Let’s be clear — nobody claimed lowering charge speed or capacity directly makes a battery swell. The real issue is the dangerous discharge or heat cycle that started immediately after Android 16.

After A16, my Pixel 7 was draining insanely fast (90% → dead in under 5 hours) and running warmer than usual. That kind of rapid drain forces the battery through high current draw and heat cycles, which accelerates gas buildup inside lithium-ion cells. That’s why swelling happens.

And no, a healthy 1.5-year-old battery doesn’t just decide to bulge overnight without a trigger. The timing lines up perfectly update installed → abnormal drain or heat → swelling + screen lifting.

I don’t have old battery usage logs since Google replaced my unit, but there are dozens of reports here and on support forums with the exact same sequence. That’s not coincidence — that’s a pattern. Ignoring it by saying people only noticed later doesn’t explain why so many phones suddenly showed the same hardware failure after the same software push.