Is your iPhone charging differently? Here’s Why.

You may have noticed that instead of seeing an already full battery or ‘charging’ indicator on your iPhone, you see something different, perhaps a message at the bottom of the screen that says your phone is “scheduled to finish charging” sometime later.

Thanks to a Clean Energy Charging feature built into recent versions of Apple’s iOS 16 software, iPhones in the United States are using electricity generated through supposedly cleaner methods.

Broadly speaking, it’s meant to reduce your carbon footprint – if only just – by charging your iPhone at specific times of the day. Follow SpotLife ASIA for the latest news and updates.

A support page on Apple’s website spells out how the feature is supposed to work, at least a little: When clean energy charging is enabled and your iPhone is plugged in, it will access a “forecast of carbon emissions in your local energy grid.”

Using that forecast, your device will try to fully charge itself when “lower carbon emission electricity” is most available from the power grid. Apple also says your iPhone “learns from your daily charging routine,” so this more selective approach to charging should, but may not always, result in a full battery when you need it.

“Clean energy charging engages only where you spend the most time and regularly charge your iPhone for long periods of time, such as your home and place of work,” Apple’s support page says. “The feature doesn’t engage if your charging habits are variable or you’re in a new location.”

There are a few other things to keep in mind about this feature. If you’ve installed Apple’s iOS 16.1 update or newer on your iPhone, clean energy charging is already on unless you’ve specifically turned it off.

The feature is also only available on U.S. iPhones, and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll know when it’s running – you’ll see a clean energy charging notification on your lock screen when it’s active.