December's Quarterly Feature Drop will improve Android 13's battery stats page

If there is one component of a smartphone that the average person can understand, it is the battery. The battery is full, empty, or somewhere in between. And if you know that the number 4 is greater than the number 2, you can understand that a 5000mAh battery is a larger capacity battery than a 2500mAh battery and would be normally expected to last longer.

Johnny Appleseed might not understand the different process nodes that are used to manufacture chips, but a battery is used on the most simple of products like a flashlight, for example. Mr. Appleseed might never have had the opportunity to touch a chipset but almost everyone has had to replace a battery sometime during their lives.

When Google released Android 12, the company changed the "battery usage" page so that instead of showing battery stats from the last full charge, users would see this data from over the last 24 hours. This led to data that was misleading since the user could have charged his handset multiple times over 24 hours and metrics like screen time would be inflated.

With the Android 13 QPR1 beta 2 update (more on what this is in a second. Please stand by), Google shows app usage and system usage since the last full charge rather than over a 24-hour period. This should give you a more legitimate look at how well you can trust the battery on your Android handset and also gives you a more legit idea about how much battery life you have left on your Android phone.

The Android 13 QPR1 beta program makes you a beta tester for the December Pixel Quarterly Feature Drop which is expected to be released on December 5th, the first Monday in December. If you can't wait and must have the new battery stats based on the last full charge instead of the last 24-hour period, you can join the Android beta program and install the beta as this writer has for his Pixel 6 Pro.

There is only one more beta release left (expected on November 7th) before the stable version of the December Pixel Quarterly Feature Drop is, well, dropped. Keep in mind that if you do join the beta program and you're not happy because a certain app isn't working right, you can leave the beta program at a cost. You will have to wipe all of the data off of your phone. But there is a way around this, although it will require you to stick with the beta update until the Quarterly Feature Drop is released.

If you want to join the beta program, go to www.google.com/android/beta. Tap on the box that says "View your eligible devices" and you'll be taken to a page that shows a picture of your Pixel with a box that says Opt in underneath. Click on it and go to Settings > System > System update. You should have received the update that will allow you to join Android 13 QPR1 beta 2.

Now here's the part that you need to remember. To avoid a data wipe, once the final version of the December Pixel Feature Drop is installed on your phone, you can then return to google.com/android/beta, and once again tap the box that reads "View your eligible devices." This time, underneath a picture of your Pixel model, will be a box that says Opt-out. Tap on it and you will be removed from the beta program with no penalty. But you need to make sure that you have installed the final version of the December Feature Drop before you Opt-out.

If you find joining the Quarterly Platform Release (QPR) beta painless, the next one will be the Android 13 QPR2 beta program for the March 2023 Quarterly Pixel Feature Drop.