The next version of Android introduces battery-saving features for developers and users alike You can never have enough battery power. Battery life is one of the main areas of smartphone performance in which there's still a huge amount of room for improvement. Batteries in the leading Android phones are getting bigger all the time, and that's one way to make things better. But the Android L developer preview also brings software improvements aimed to boost longevity, including new battery stats and a battery-saving mode for users, and tools to help developers make more battery-friendly apps. Let's take a closer look.

First, let's look at the user-facing changes to power management in Android L. Under Settings > Battery you'll now see a projection of how long your battery has left, based on your recent usage. It'll appear after a few minutes of use, as the system gets a feel for how you're using your phone or tablet. Verizon is offering the Pixel 4a for just $10/mo on new Unlimited lines

Next is battery saver mode, long included in manufacturer-customized Android phones, but new to the stock OS. It's found in Settings > Battery, under the overflow menu at the top right corner of the screen. Battery saver can be turned on automatically when your battery reaches a certain level, or enabled manually at any time. As we've seen in customized phones from Samsung, Sony, HTC, LG and others, this mode reduces the backlight and clocks down the CPU speed to save power. This isn't an "ultra" or "extreme" battery saving mode, though, and as such all your apps are still available when it's turned on. (When it's enabled you'll see a persistent notification in your notification shade.) Google's "Project Volta" also introduces a couple of important developer-focused power features, and these should eventually allow devs to create more battery-friendly apps. The first is a power consumption analysis tool called Battery Historian, a new part of the Android SDK. Similar to the way developers can analyse graphical performance with the "Profile GPU rendering" tool, Battery Historian lets devs see detailed visualizations of the impact their app's actions have on a particular device's battery life.