Android 13 gets battery “health” monitoring feature

Already available on Samsung phones, the battery “health” monitoring feature is officially implemented on the Android platform. But for now, only on Pixel phones running Android 13.

Google is adding the new functionality with so-called QPR (Quarterly Platform Releases), firmware patches that improve or extend the functionality of official Android releases. Following the beta testing stage, the new functionality will probably be enabled globally, and for the rest of Android 13 phone users.

Certainly this isn’t exactly new to the Android ecosystem, Samsung has for some time now offered a section where owners of Samsung phones and tablets can find a battery health estimate, showing how much of the capacity listed on the label is actually still available, and possibly whether they should consider a preemptive replacement intervention. Helping owners of older generation phones, Samsung also offers this functionality via the Samsung Members app, distributed through the Google Play Store and Galaxy Store.

Unlike the similar feature available to users of iOS phones and tablets, the battery diagnostic feature offered on Samsung phones does not show the actual percentage of battery degradation, or the actual capacity remaining. We can only hope that Google will add to this by providing the detailed information most users expect.