William Gallagher
It's now claimed that Apple's previously rumored AI-based battery management system for iOS 26 will be introduced at the iPhone 17 Air launch.
In May 2025, it was reported that a new Apple Intelligence feature would update the current battery management system so that it works around a user's typical usage. So if the user's calendar shows an early appointment, the iPhone's optimized charging will complete sooner than usual.
Now a new update to this detail is that Bloomberg says the feature will debut in iOS 26 in September. Specifically, it will be released when the expected iPhone 17 Air, or iPhone 17 Slim, is launched along with the rest of the iPhone 17 range.
As spotted by MacRumors, this is a prediction more than a confirmed leak. But it does fit with how it's believed that the whole battery management improvement was prompted by how the iPhone 17 Air will necessarily have a lower-capacity battery.
The rumored iPhone 17 Air will have markedly less room for a battery. It's expected to be 5.5mm thick, according to the latest rumors, and offer a display that will be either 6.6-inches or 6.7-inches.
Even with the thinner than usual dimensions, it is possible that the iPhone 17 Air will last longer on a charge than expected. That's because it's possible that the model may be the first iPhone to use advanced silicon-anode battery technology for more efficient charging.
Manufacturer TDK has confirmed that such batteries will be shipping by the end of June 2025, meaning that it's conceivable it will be in time for mass production of the iPhone 17 Air.
It's also conceivable that if the new batteries have yet to enter mass manufacturing, that Apple's AI-based battery management is still being developed to work with them.
If the Apple Intelligence battery health technology is ready for iOS 26, though, there seems no obvious reason why it couldn't be announced at WWDC. Nor any clear reason why the feature itself couldn't be included in the developer betas that will be launched after the event's keynote.
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Mike Peterson
Wesley Hilliard
Marko Zivkovic
Amber Neely
Oliver Haslam
2 Comments
No one needs "artificial inflation" (or "AI") battery management. Adding a few no-brainer options to iOS like letting a phone stay permanently in Low Power Mode, giving a few more controls on how to save power and allow iPhones older than iPhone 15 to also limit charging to less than 100% would be a good start.
It's an arms race between the user wanting to use the minimum amount of power and the ads wanting to use the maximum amount of power. If the system can determine which thread is for serving ads, tracking, etc, and put those threads on e-cores, including their network request threads, I think it would be great.
It would be like being in low power mode while having the p-cores available for the user.
Knowing when to charge the battery to full is not a big feature to me.