Skip to main content

iOS 18.2 may make charging your iPhone even easier. Here’s how

A close-up view of the App Library page on the iPhone 16.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends

We’ve all been in a situation where we need to charge our phone quickly, but it can be hard to gauge just how much time it needs to spend on the charger before it gets a usable amount of juice. A feature coming to iOS 18.2 will tell you how much more time your phone needs, although we aren’t quite sure yet when it will be released.

On Monday, iOS 18.2 beta 2 was released to developers. 9to5Mac spotted the codebase for this feature in their breakdown, stating that it will calculate the amount of time needed to reach a certain charge threshold based on how powerful the charger is. The framework was dubbed “BatteryIntelligence” within the code, but although it was present, the feature isn’t finished. That likely means it has been added in for testing purposes, but won’t be ready for full deployment for some time yet.

Recommended Videos

Although iPhones can already provide an estimate of how long it will take to reach full charge, this new feature will make it possible to receive a rough estimate of how long it will take the battery to reach a specific charge level.

iOS 18 logo on the iPhone 16 Pro
Nirave Gondhia / Digital Trends

This change comes on the heels of previous updates that allow users to adjust the maximum charge from the default 80% to 85%, 90%, or 95% to preserve battery life over time. Your iPhone can also tell you if you’re using a slow charger or not.

Apple introduced iOS 18 with a lot of powerful new perks like Apple Intelligence, but some of the best quality of life features are the smaller, behind-the-scenes changes that users are only now discovering. While asking Siri to help rewrite an email is one thing, the function doesn’t mean a whole lot if your battery goes caput halfway through.

Patrick Hearn
Patrick Hearn writes about smart home technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, smart light bulbs, and more. If it's a…
There may not be an iPhone in 10 years’ time, says top Apple exec
A person holding the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Well, whouda thunk it. A top Apple executive positing the idea that in 10 years from now, the iPhone -- your beloved iPhone (unless you have a beloved Android phone, that is) -- may no longer exist.

Before your head explodes at the mere thought of Apple abandoning the iPhone in 10 years’ time, there’s also a chance that in 2035 there will be an iPhone 27, or whatever’s Apple’s calling it by then.

Read more
iPhone 17 Air: everything you need to know
Alleged concept render of the iPhone 17 Air in black.

The iPhone 17 Air is set to become the first iPhone that's as light as a feather -- or light as air, as its name suggests. Not because it's as tiny as the oldest iPhone models, but rather it's because it's as thin as the MacBook Air that inspired it and thinner than the rest of the iPhone 17 line.

Although the iPhone 17 Air is months away from being officially announced by Apple, let alone the standard iPhone 17, the leaks and rumors swirling around the ultra-slim model have iPhone users excited about the prospect of holding it in their hands and anxious about its fragility because of its thinness. Here's everything you need to know about the iPhone 17 Air.

Read more
The iPhone 18 Pro could see a major design change
A person holding the Apple iPhone 16e showing the screen.

If the iPhone 18 release schedule wasn't enough of a shift, it looks like the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models could switch to under-screen Face ID and have only a small camera in the top-left corner of the screen. The news comes from Digital Chat Station on Weibo, a leaker with an inside hook into Apple's supply chain.

"Well, I checked with the Apple supply chain a few days ago. The iPhone 18/18 Pro Max is indeed testing 3D faces under the screen, with a single HIAA hole; the iPhone 8/18 Air is a regular 2+1 hole," they write (as translated by Google.)

Read more