Battery, the one piece of tech that everyone seems to have so many contradictory information about. Be it a laptop, a smartphone or anything else with a Lithium-ion battery everyone seems to be an expert on the best charging habits. Most of those expert pieces of advice is, not so expert actually. So let’s clear the air a bit before we begin. Lithium-ion batteries are the same batteries used in your smartphones and mostly every other portable gadget with a rechargeable battery. And charging them to 100% every time is not a good habit. You can actually increase Android battery life span by setting a charge limit.
We know this because of Researchgate which is a social networking site for scientists and researchers has found that charging a battery to only 85% yielded a longer lifespan than charging to the full 100%. Another factor leading to degradation of the battery is heating, which is an altogether different problem.
So now that we know charging the battery to a full 100% isn’t the best of practices, how to stop it from charging beyond a certain limit? You can’t always keep wondering and checking if the battery has charged enough. So developer harsha1397 created a root app called Battery Charge Limit that lets you choose your own charging limit. Sony, the company behind the Xperia lineup has also started shipping its phones with a smart battery charging software that does something similar, but in a smarter way.
The catch here is that this root app is not compatible with every smartphone out there. It only works on devices running Android 4.4 and above and that still is no guarantee that it will work on yours.
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How to check if Battery Charge Limit is compatible with your phone
First of all, your device should be running Android 4.4 or above as already mentioned. If it does, then you can check if the app works with your phone. To do this, plug your phone into charging. While it is charging, launch your favorite root enabled file browser and go to the /sys/class/power_supply/battery folder. Open the file named charging_enabled with a text editor. You should see the number “1” here. Change it to “0” and save the file.
Your phone should stop charging as soon as you save the file. If it does then congratulations, you can make use of this nice app called Battery Charge Limit. If not, tough luck. The app essentially does the same thing when your device’s battery is charged over a pre-set limit. So if this doesn’t stop charging on your phone, the app won’t either.
How to use Battery Charge Limit
So now that you know if the app works for your device, it is time you download and install it. Battery Charge Limit is not available on the Google Play Store so you’ll have to download the apk. Rest assured, the app is completely safe. Use the link below to download the apk, and install it once the download is complete.
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Once installed, launch the app and tap the Change button next to the Limit entry. Then type in a number between 50 and 95 and tap the Apply button. This is the percentage charge after which your battery will stop charging any further. Next, toggle on the first option that is aptly named as Enable. You will now be asked to allow Superuser permission to the app, and you must grant it that of course.
From now on, anytime you plug the phone into charging, you will see an ongoing notification from Battery Charge Limit. This is the only time the app runs in the background, monitoring your battery charge. At any other time when your phone is not charging, the app won’t be silently killing your battery. Once your battery hits the pre-set limit, the charging will be cut off.
If you somehow leave the phone on charging and forget about it for days, Battery Charge Limit will make sure it doesn’t charge at all once the threshold has been reached. So over time, the battery percentage might begin to fall down. Once it reaches 3%, the app will allow charging temporarily so the device doesn’t shut down due to low battery.
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