How to enable the Battery Share feature on your new Pixel 6 to charge other devices

With the Pixel 6 phones, there’s a feature (which debuted on the Pixel 5) that allows you to use the phone to charge other wireless-charge-enabled devices (such as other phones or Pixelbud headphones). This can come in handy if you have a fully charged phone and another device that’s about to run out of power. To avoid such a problem, you can simply enable Battery Share, charge the device until it’s out of the danger zone, and go about your business. This could easily be the difference between getting through your day or not with your devices.

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Understand, however, that Battery Share does drain your Pixel phone of precious charge. Because of that, you’ll want to use it wisely. That being said, let’s find out how to enable the feature.

What you’ll need

As I said, this feature first appeared on the Pixel 5, so you’ll need either a Pixel 5 or Pixel 6 to make this work. Of course, you’ll also need another device that works with wireless charging. With those things in hand, let’s make Battery Share work.

How to enable Battery Share on a Pixel 5 or Pixel 6

To enable Battery Share, open the Settings app and tap on Battery. In the resulting window (Figure A), tap Battery Share.

Figure A

In the resulting window (Figure B), tap the On/Off slider until it’s in the On position.

Figure B

At the bottom of the screen is an important option. By default, Battery Share will continue charging the other devices until the phone reaches 10% battery. That’s a pretty hefty drain on your phone and might not leave you with enough juice to get through the day. To avoid your phone from running on empty, you might want to drag that to 25 or even 50%. Of course, that means the device you’re charging might not reach full capacity, but if you’re charging headphones, you’re better off placing a priority on your phone battery and not that of the peripheral.

How to use Battery Share on a Pixel 5 or Pixel 6

All you have to do to use Battery Share is place the device to be charged on the back of the phone. The to-be-charged device should instantly start receiving a charge from your Pixel phone.

How to use the Quick Tile option on Pixel 5 or Pixel 6

Once you’ve enabled and configured Battery Share, you’ll find it much easier to enable/disable the feature from the Quick Tiles section of the notification screen. To use that option, drag the notification screen down twice and swipe to the left until you find the Battery Share tile (Figure C).

Figure C

After you’ve finished charging the device in question, make sure to disable Battery Share, so you don’t accidentally further drain your battery and prevent others from draining your juice.

And that’s all there is to using the Pixel Battery Share feature. Use it wisely, and it will serve you well.

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