Some phones are about to get hours of extra battery life after next free update

If you're an iPhone user, look away now - Google might be adding a killer new feature in the next version of Android.

In fact, it's not so much a new feature as just an improvement to an existing one, and it might just mean that people on Android can enjoy potentially hours more from their phone each day.

Last week, Google kicked off its annual I/O developer conference, to talk about the many software updates and changes it's bringing to a range of products and apps.

This involved showing off new AI snippets in Search, which are rolling out in North America now, but also updates to Google Maps, Google Drive and more.

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The section on Android actually wasn't as huge as it can sometimes be, thanks to the overarching focus on AI features, but it led to one mention that has some fans really excited.

During the week, Android’s VP of engineering Dave Burke appeared on the Android Faithful podcast, and explained that Android 15, the next full version of Android, has one massive benefit that people might experience when it arrives.

He said that the new software is up to 50% faster than Android 14 when it comes to switching your phone into doze mode, and therefore saving battery life. Doze mode basically detects when your phone hasn't been used in a while and spins down background apps to avoid draining your battery as if you might pick it up any second now.

It's already a handy feature that you might not even realize is on your phone, but thanks to the improvement it's had in Android 15, Burke said that some Google team members had seen their Pixel phones get an extra three hours of battery life per day.

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That's a massive margin - normally, these sorts of battery-saving changes in software might get you a few percentage points more use out of your phone, or a 30-minute boost, but getting multiple hours of it is really impressive if it's accurate.

Of course, this begs the question - when will most people actually get to update to Android 15?

Well, it's still quite a way off, sadly, with I/O acting as an early preview rather than a launch event. We got Android 14 in October 2023, so it's quite unlikely that we see Android 15 much before October 2024.

Google tends to avoid launching in September, after all, since that's a little close to Apple's launch window for its new iPhone models, which typically land in early September each year.

So, you might have another handful of months to wait, but when Android 15 finally arrives, your phone's battery life might just be noticeably boosted.