The Pixel phones are about to be more battery efficient than ever. An employee of Google has stated that the company has enabled a new feature for the phones to gauge battery usage and will aim to provide a personalized estimate of battery usage for each user. The new feature is called Smart Battery and should be a hit for those who have trouble guessing their phone’s battery life.
Smart Battery does not simply estimate a single usage pattern for which the battery will be drained, which would be inaccurate as the phone will simply be basing its battery estimate off a single session of usage that may be intensive or non-intensive on the phone’s battery. This method is what current Android phones do, and do not really offer a customized experience that is centered around the user’s own usage habits.
The new method evaluates the user’s phone over a period of time to gauge the activities being done on it. Daily usage will be used as an indicator for how much batter is being consumed for every additional usage that goes beyond just the daily habits, for a more precise reading of battery life. The new feature is located in the battery section under settings to forecast battery life based on behaviour.
Google’s intention is proactively to help users of the phone to manage their battery so that they can better prioritize activity on the phone as the day goes by. The Pixel phones are the only phones to have received the update so far, and we are unsure whether the new update will go to other phones as well, but it will be a feature that is likely going to be appreciated, given that usage patterns and battery life expectancies are important factors that determine whether the phone can last a busy day or not.
The battery section will now open out to sure precise data on where the usage is coming from and how much estimated battery life can be expected based on the current usage, through graphs and app usage percentages. Google has not provided information as to what kind of update this will be, but since it is a minor Oreo-based update, whether it will be part of Google’s Treble program and port to other Oreo devices, is still under speculation.
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