To connect the mobile to Android Auto there are two options: via cable or wirelessly and in my case I prefer to pull the cable to gain reliability. However, if you use Android Auto relatively often, there is one issue that may concern you: charge your mobile battery when you don’t need it, which can be scary in terms of its deterioration and useful life. Well, yes and no: although it is true that having the mobile phone plugged in increases the temperature and makes charging possible, only in some specific cases can it be truly problematic.
The key is optimized loadingso that we understand each other, is the same reason why we can leave your phone charging all night without fear. This optimized charging is what makes it possible for your phone to only charge up to 80% while you sleep and reach 100% just before you wake up. This heterogeneous load is not a failure, but rather a feature present in iPhones (which are obviously not compatible with Android Auto, since Android Auto acts as a mirror of our phone’s operating system) and on a long list of Android phones.
Optimized charging, to the rescue of your Android mobile
The potential problem with having your cell phone always connected is that it stays fully charged for too long. But here comes the operation of optimized charging. Considering how charging cycles work, charging your phone up to 100% is not good for the battery. Thus, it is more advisable to charge the mobile in small sections so that it costs more to complete that 100%, which implies consuming one cycle.
Having clarified this point, the optimized load consists of automatic learning systems integrated into the phone so that the mobile learns your habits, so that your mobile know when to charge up to 100%.
Thus, if, for example, it costs you an hour by car to travel from your home to your workplace from Monday to Friday from 7 to 8 in the morning and the same at 5 p.m. on the way back, theoretically if you have optimized the load to that it does not exceed 80% until you are going to use the phone, Android will learn from the journeys to avoid constantly recharging.
Furthermore, there is a unexpected advantage in this car – mobile system: In general, vehicle loading is usually quite slow.
However, optimized loading has an important disadvantage: we have talked about behavioral patterns that the system learns to adjust the load, but does not usually understand exceptional casessomething that applies to those who do not have fixed schedules or to people who directly change every day, for example in professions such as salespeople and transporters, in which you are in the car all day.
If this is your case or your mobile phone is not compatible with optimized charging, in that case the simplest and most effective solution is to alternate the use of wireless Android Auto with the connected mode. This recommendation also makes sense because another factor that contributes to further deterioration of batteries is heat, something that occurs more with cable connection. What if my car is not compatible with wireless charging? Then there is always the option of buying a dongle for Android Auto.
Cover | Montage with own photo and Fabián Alexis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In Xataka Android | Android Auto, no thanks: this way you can deactivate it to only charge the phone with the car’s USB