Google Pixel 9 just lost this wireless charging feature — what you need to know

Reverse wireless charging is one of the best things about current phones. That way, if you can’t find another power source, you can wirelessly charge other things, like speaker cases or another phone. This feature is also on the Google Pixel 9, but there is one big difference between it and earlier Pixel phones.

The issue with sharing power wirelessly backwards is that all the power has to come from your phone’s battery. Which isn’t always the best. With older Pixels, you could share power while your phone was plugged in, which helped with this issue.

That was helpful if you had a USB-C charger but needed to charge something that didn’t work with USB-C. Like an iPhone or something you wear. With the Pixel 9, though, you can’t do that anymore.

It’s as easy as ever to turn on Battery Share on the Pixel 9. Just go to the Battery Share menu in the settings. But as soon as you connect a charging cable to your phone, the function will turn off by itself, showing the message “Battery Share is not possible while charging.”

If the charging cord is already plugged in when you go into the menu, the Battery Share switch will be grayed out and show the same message. Naturally, you can’t use Battery Share if you’re already charging wirelessly, since the coils can’t be used for reverse charging while they’re already charged.

While Google hasn’t said why this change happened with the Pixel 9, it’s possible that it’s to save battery life in the long run. It gets pretty hot when you charge your phone wirelessly, and the Pixel 9 Pro gets even hotter than I’d like it to be.

Also, charging wirelessly can make heat, especially at high speeds. Adding to the phone’s heat isn’t good, especially for the battery, which is already sensitive to big changes in temperature.

Aside from that, it’s hard to find a device that can charge wirelessly but also supports USB-C charging these days. Most of the time, you’ll need to charge your smartwatch or wireless earbuds, which don’t have big batteries. Because of this, giving them power won’t really drain your battery.

If any of your friends with an iPhone 14 or older runs out of power, they might not be able to get more. They likely should have thought about things more before hand.

 

 

5 thoughts on “Google Pixel 9 just lost this wireless charging feature — what you need to know”

  1. You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic
    to be really something that I think I would never understand.
    It seems too complicated and extremely broad for me.
    I’m looking forward for your next post, I’ll try
    to get the hang of it!

    Reply

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