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One of the smaller changes worth knowing about in the latest version of Android Q relates to the Battery Saver mode.
Android users will already be aware of Battery Saver and how once enabled it turns on automatically when a device’s battery reaches a critical level. With the latest version of Android Q, the opposite is also now true as Battery Saver in Android Q can now automatically switch off again once the phone is close to a full charge.
There’s a new “Turn off when fully charged” option buried within the settings which when toggled on will turn off Battery Saver once a phone is on charge and reaches a 90-percent charge level.
This might be a simple addition, but it is also one which will prove useful. For example, if the phone reaches a critical level late at night and the Battery Saver mode automatically kicks in (or the user manually activates it) before the phone is put on charge, this would result in the phone remaining in Battery Saver mode until the user interacts with it again and manually switches it of.
Even though the phone is on charge, and technically the phone suspends Battery Saver mode while charging, when the user removes the phone from a charge, the Battery Saver mode reactivates again – this happens irrespective of how much charge the phone has at the time.
With the new change in effect, the phone will now revert to standard mode long before the user removes the device from the charge and manually disables the feature, ensuring it is up to date and all services/features are operational and ready to use.
Even though the feature is now present, it does seem as though there’s room for improvement still.
Using the “Set a schedule” option in settings, device owners are able to curate when Battery Saver mode activates. This can either be automatically set so the software best-guesses whether the phone will last until the next expected time it is on charge, or by setting the activation based on a certain percentage. In fact, users are able to actually set the percentage they would like Battery Saver to take effect at.
The same is not the case with the new ‘automatic turn off’ feature. In other words, users are not able to choose the percentage the phone must reach before Battery Saver mode turns off again. It is 90-percent by default, and 90-percent is the only option available.
This percentage is pretty high considering it is almost fully-charged and it might be the case some users would prefer a change like this to happen far earlier than it currently does. Some may even want the change to take effect at the same percentage the Battery Saver mode is due to activate at, and especially considering the phone is already on charge.
It might be the case Google will further tweak the feature in the future and include the option to customize the experience further. After all, this is a beta version of Android Q and there are a few more beta versions expected to arrive before the final consumer-ready version of Android Q becomes available.
