Older Pixel phones might be left behind as a new Android 16 feature heads to newer Google devices.
Google appears set to roll out a hotly anticipated Battery Health menu as part of Android 16 for Pixel smartphones – but only those released in the past year or so.
The new Battery Health menu has been cropping up in Android code for some time now, before appearing in full as part of the Android 16 Beta 3.
It promises to offer a handy breakdown of how much a phone’s battery cell has degraded with use and time – a facility that Apple’s iPhone range has offered for years.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
When questioned on Google’s Issue Tracker why this feature wasn’t showing up on older Pixel devices – and by ‘older’ we mean up to and including the Google Pixel 8 Pro, launched in late 2023 – a Google representative responded with the following:
“The Battery Health Indicator feature is currently supported in Beta 3 on Pixel 8a and Pixel 9 products including 9 Pro Fold. Due to product limitations, this feature will not be available on older in-market Pixel devices.”
This doesn’t completely preclude the new Battery Health menu appearing on older Pixel devices at some point. Google’s response was specifically in relation to the Android 16 beta, not the full release.
However, the phrase “this feature will not be available on older in-market Pixel devices” comes with the implication that the company isn’t looking any back further than the Google Pixel 8a, which launched just over a year ago.
Would it be strange and deeply annoying if Google’s last-gen entry model packed a new UI feature that its ‘Pro’ big brother, running on the same chip, did not? You bet it would.
