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AirPods Gain Optimized Charging to Preserve Battery Health in iOS 14

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Apple in iOS 14 added an Optimized Battery Charging feature for the AirPods, which is designed to preserve the battery of the AirPods to maximize longevity.

airpodsoptimizedcharging

Image via Twitter

The new AirPods charging feature lets the AirPods learn a person's daily charging routine, and will wait to finish charging past 80 percent until they're needed.

So, for example, if the AirPods are charged at night while you sleep, the optimization feature might charge them up to 80 percent right away, but wait until an hour or so before you wake up to charge the remaining 20 percent.

Apple uses a similar battery health optimization system for iPhones and Macs to extend the total battery life of the devices. Avoiding topping up a lithium ion battery continually while it sits on the charger reduces the amount of time that a device spends at maximum capacity, and over a long period of time, this better preserves the health of your battery.

Optimized Battery Charging was added to the iPhone in iOS 13 and a similar Battery Health Management feature was added to macOS in macOS Catalina 10.15.5.

Related Roundup: AirPods 4
Buyer's Guide: AirPods (Caution)
Related Forums: AirPods, iOS 14

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Top Rated Comments

GubbyMan Avatar
GubbyMan
79 months ago
I enabled this on my iPhone last year and I've never seen it stop charging at 80%, not even before sleep. I want an option that gives me a choice to stop at 80% when I plug them in instead.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lucas284 Avatar
Lucas284
79 months ago
This learn system makes absolutely no sense. We should be able to decide when it stops charging at 80%, not AI.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Devnul0 Avatar
Devnul0
79 months ago
How many people use and charge their AirPods (or even their iPhone) on a consistent enough schedule for the AI to figure out how to charge them usefully? For that matter, is it the case, or the pods themselves?
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
Sasparilla
79 months ago
This is good to hear. I'd like a user setting to just toggle off charging at 80% automatically with a user override alert for all my Apple chargeable devices (till we get batteries that last the life the device) - make the machine think version another option.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
E
edwrap
79 months ago
I realize these “smart” features are probably better for the average user, but I wish Apple would put in a toggle somewhere to let me always just stop charging at 80%
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
M
macos68
79 months ago
This is going to be interesting. I'd expect Airpods charging habits to be a mess to figure out. The airpods themselves get constantly dropped in / out of the case through my workday. So basically here we're saying: Apple is supposed to understand that after 6-7pm, I likely won't be on phone calls till tomorrow so it's ok to wait till tomorrow morning to top off 80%? Unless I call a friend. Good luck, Apple.

I turned on the battery optimization feature on my iPhone a year ago and saw it activate ONCE. I have NEVER, EVER used my phone between 2am and 6am during a weekday, and ALWAYS have it plugged in to charge, yet Apple hasn't figured that part out... I really am disappointed with their machine learning for a device that should be much easier to learn as far as charging habits go.

I'd side with the manual toggle as well. Let me just create a schedule myself in some advanced settings, so that users that care can make it work while you fine tune your ML with everyone else.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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