Apple will measure temperature MacBook batteries to improve lifespan

Apple is working on the Battery Health Management feature for macOS Catalina to extend the battery life of MacBook laptops. Among other things, the tool analyzes the temperature of the battery and the charging patterns.

Battery Health Management is part of the developer preview of macOS Catalina 10.15.5 and this update should eventually come to all Catalina users. However, the battery health boost feature is only for MacBooks with a Thunderbolt 3 port, Six Colors writes.

The management tool means that the battery is no longer fully charged. The feature is enabled by default but Apple would clearly communicate the change and the user will be given the option to disable it in the Energy Saver section of the system settings.

According to Apple, Battery Health Management is intended to reduce the rate of chemical degradation of MacBooks’ batteries. For analysis, the function measures the temperature and patterns of charging and discharging, in order to determine, for example, whether a user frequently connects his laptop to the charger for a short time or has continuously connected it to the power supply.

The function is reminiscent of the ‘Battery Condition’ of iPhones, which gives users insight into what percentage of the battery capacity is left compared to when the battery was first used. That function also makes clear with iOS whether a power management function has been applied, or whether the performance has been reduced. Apple does this to prevent peaks in power demand from overloading the battery. Apple was criticized for this because the company had not communicated the implementation of the feature.