Adaptive charging is a feature present on most smartphones, including iPhones and Androids, dedicated to battery health and essentially making sure your battery capacity remains as close to 100% for as long as possible. It is an effort from manufacturers to combat battery degradation with little impact on the user. Adaptive charging is important because it helps the battery last longer at full capacity, translating to consistent battery life over months if not years of use. The feature works by stopping your phone from hitting a full 100% charge when plugged in overnight until just before you wake up. This is because lithium-ion batteries can decline in performance based on temperature, usage patterns, and age. Adaptive charging aims to optimize how your battery charges, keeping the battery at 80% for most of the night and then allowing the battery to finally charge to 100% right before you wake up. This means you avoid the constant cycling between 99-100% all night, which can harm the batterys charge-holding capacity and reduce its lifespan. Adaptive charging is also known as optimized charging and adaptive battery tech, and goes by different names depending on the brand of smartphone you’re using. For example, Google calls the tech Adaptive Charging on its Pixel smartphones, but OnePlus devices refer to it as Optimized Charging while Samsung devices go with Adaptive Battery branding.