iPhone Battery Life Could Improve in iOS 19 — Thanks to AI
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While today’s iPhone models offer decent battery life, they still fall short of the two-day battery life that some rival Android smartphones provide. It’s also fair to say that Apple hasn’t moved the needle much in this area over the last few years, with improvements in each new iPhone lineup that can best be described as incremental.
However, this could be the year that all changes, not because of better battery technology but because of better artificial intelligence.
According to a report this week from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is planning to add an AI-powered battery management mode in iOS 19 that will automatically adjust power consumption to conserve energy based on how you use your iPhone.
Since this will be part of iOS 19, it could theoretically also help improve battery life on older iPhone models that are eligible for the update. However, it’s also possible it could require newer power management chips or other battery technology that may be exclusive to this year’s iPhone 17 lineup or be limited by other constraints, such as requiring the more powerful Neural Engines and Apple Intelligence features of Apple’s newer A-series chips.
Gurman’s sources describe the technology as “part of the Apple Intelligence platform,” which suggests that it may only be available on devices capable of supporting the rest of Apple’s AI suite. That would be the iPhone 15 Pro, at the very least. Apple also made some notable battery changes in the iPhone 15 lineup two years ago, adding a new charge limit feature and additional battery health metrics that aren’t available on older models. The batteries in those and later models are also rated for 1,000 charge cycles instead of the 500 that has long been the norm for iPhones.
It’s also notable that Apple’s primary motivation for this isn’t to give iPhone 17 Pro Max users two-day battery life but rather to ensure that its newest entry in the lineup — the so-called “iPhone 17 Air” — will be able to get you through a whole day.
The driving force behind the battery feature is the company’s upcoming slimmed-down iPhone 17, which will be offered as an alternative to the standard and Pro models. Because of its thinner design, the new iPhone will have a much smaller battery — and fewer hours of life than other models.
Mark Gurman
Nevertheless, “the battery function will be available for all iPhones that have iOS 19,” Gurman said. It’s unclear whether this feature will be automatically enabled for all compatible iPhones running iOS 19 or if it will be an additional power management mode that users can toggle on manually.
Sources indicate that Apple is developing a new AI power-saving mode using years of battery data collected from users’ devices (presumably anonymously, considering Apple’s firm stance on privacy) so that it can train AI models on when to reduce the power draw of specific applications or features.
Gurman notes that users will also be able to see an estimated charging time on the iOS 19 Lock Screen. Apple has seemingly been laying the groundwork for this since at least iOS 18.2 when a new “BatteryIntelligence” framework was discovered with that specific purpose in mind. It’s never been enabled, but it suggests that Apple may have been hoping to release this in an iOS 18 point release before ultimately deciding to push it off until iOS 19.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
