You can (and should) stop charging your phone once it reaches 80 percent charge

Plugging your phone in before going to bed and leaving it to charge overnight is a daily ritual for many of us. But it’s actually better for your battery’s long-term health if you don’t hit 100 percent with every charge.

With that in mind, phone makers have begun adding technology that manages battery charging more carefully. For Android phones, that means the ability to get custom alerts at specific charging points, like 80 percent.

You have a few different options, depending on your phone’s make and model. We’ll focus on Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones, but if you have another type of phone, there may be something similar you can do. You can also set your iPhone to charge at 80 percent.

The Science of Not Fully Charging Your Phone

It’s perfectly safe to keep your phone charged to 100 percent every time you plug in the charger, and you won’t damage it or cause it to explode. However, because of the way lithium-ion batteries work, in terms of their long-term health, around 80-85 percent is the ideal level when it comes to getting the most out of them.

It’s basically just the chemical aging process that Samsung, Apple, and others talk about when it comes to their gadgets. If you keep charging your phone after its battery is already full, it’s a bit like pouring more water onto an already-soaked sponge, and that means your battery will wear out faster.

The role of a battery is to store electrical energy as chemical energy until it is ready to be used again as electrical energy, and modern gadgets use rechargeable batteries that can be reused over and over again (imagine having to replace the battery in your smartphone every time it runs out). However, this charging capacity gradually degrades over time.

The transfer of energy from the battery to the smartphone and back is mainly done by electrons, and keeping the phone from fully charging (or fully discharging) too often reduces some of the electron “load.” Ultimately, this means that more of the energy the battery stores ends up in the phone.

Over the years, lithium-ion batteries and the phones they’re connected to have gotten better at handling this stress and limiting its impact. But there are steps you can take to keep your phone battery in a healthier state for longer — and limiting full charging is one of those steps.

Set up

If you’re using a Pixel phone, open Settings, then tap Battery AND Adaptive chargingTurning this feature on means your phone will learn your habits and only fully charge the battery when you really need it (for example, on days when you don’t typically charge for a full day or more).

On Galaxy phones, if you choose Battery and then Battery protection in Settings you will see that it is the same Adaptive option. You can also choose Maximummeaning your phone will never charge above 80 percent — keep that in mind when deciding when to switch to this mode.

Another option on Galaxy phones is to continue charging your phone as normal, then get an alert when it reaches 80 percent – ​​so you can decide whether to continue charging. To get started, open Settings, then tap Modes and procedures. Click on + (plus) in the upper right corner to create a new routine.

To choose Battery level as a trigger and set the routine to activate when the level reaches 80 percent or more. To perform the action, select Notifications AND Show custom notification—you can then create your own alarm that will ring when your phone reaches 80 percent. You can also simply set the ringtone via Sounds and vibrations.

This routine setting option is only available on Samsung Galaxy phones. If you have another Android phone, you can try an app like the free Battery Guru from the Play Store: Select Battery Information from the home screen and then Battery level alarmand you can receive notifications when your phone reaches a certain charge level.