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iOS 18's Battery Section Tells You If You Used a Slow Charger

Apple updated the Battery section of the Settings app in iOS 18 to add a feature that lets you know if you charged your iPhone with a "slow" charger.

ios 18 battery slow charging
Periods of slow charging are shown with an orange bar in the portion of the Battery settings that show battery usage and charging over the past 24 hours or the past 10 days.

We saw the slow charging notice after charging with a 5W wireless charger, as did a Redditor who highlighted the feature. It's not clear what exactly is considered "slow," but the designation is useful for those who are seeing slow charging speeds and aren't sure why.

ios 18 slow charger

Image via Reddit

Many wireless chargers claim to be MagSafe while being limited to Qi speeds or below, so this feature could help iPhone users understand why their devices aren't charging at optimum speed. There does not appear to be an option to enable an alert when charging from a slow charger, which could be an arguably better feature because the battery settings are somewhat hidden.

There is a tappable information button that accompanies slow charging notices, but as of right now, it goes to a support document that does not yet exist.

Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

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Top Rated Comments

Populus Avatar
25 months ago
I always use the 5W power adapter for my iPhone SE3 and the 12W power adapter for the iPad 9… this new feature makes it look like it is a bad thing to charge your device slowly, but I think it’s quite the contrary, right?
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JPack Avatar
25 months ago
Another feature that demands the quantum processing power of the A17 Pro in iPhone 15 Pro Max?
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
25 months ago
Few people know that slow charging is better than Fast for battery life.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
25 months ago

Yes...iOS 18 uses advanced on-device machine learning combined with the power of Apple’s latest chips to determine exactly what speed your phone is charging at. This is Something Only Apple Can Do™
What is wrong with you all... This feature is on ALL iPhones with iOS 18. I have it on my iPhone 13 in the beta.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
needsomecoffee Avatar
25 months ago
Faster charging == Faster Battery Decline == Faster Replacment. Tim Apple approves. Mother Earth did not reply when requested for her thoughts.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zorinlynx Avatar
25 months ago
I don't get why they can't just tell you WHEN YOU PLUG IN THE CHARGER. A lot of Android phones will say "Charging rapidly" when you connect a good charger so you know you're all set, or they'll say "Charging slowly" when it's a crap charger.

I've always found it weird how Apple likes to withhold useful information. They've gotten a little better about it in the past few years but there's still much to do.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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