How-To

How to Share Battery on iPhone

By Adam Davidson

Updated January 10, 2024

Battery running low and wondering how to share battery on iPhone? This guide explains everything you need to know about iPhone battery sharing.

You and your friend are lost in the desert with no food or water. You’ve got a strong signal to call for help, but your phone battery is down to 1%. Your friend has no signal at all, but their battery is 100%. If only there were some way for them to share their battery with you.

Well, depending on the phones you’re both using, you just may be able to do exactly that. If you want to know how to share battery on an iPhone, read on to learn if it’s possible to share power to or from an iPhone.

What is Battery Sharing?

Many smartphones offer wireless charging. This allows you to charge your phone without plugging in a charging cable. Instead, you lay your phone on top of a charging pad, and your phone is charged wirelessly.

Battery sharing allows some phones to do this in reverse. By turning on battery sharing function, also known as reverse charging, the phone turns into a charging pad. You can then place another phone on top, and it will start charging as if it were lying on a charging pad rather than another phone.

Charging via battery sharing is much slower than using a charging pad or wired charger, and it will quickly use up the battery of the phone that is sharing power, but it can be a useful feature if your phone is dead and you don’t have access to a charger.

Can You Share Battery from an iPhone?

Yes—kinda. If you search the internet, you will find plenty of articles explaining how to share battery from an iPhone. Unfortunately, they’re all wildly inaccurate. As of October 1, 2023,  only the iPhone 15 series of iPhones can be used to charge other devices, including Phones, AirPods, Apple Watch, and other small devices. Unlike Android devices, however, iPhone 15 series phones cannot charge other devices wirelessly. You need to use a USB-C to USB-C or a USB-C to Lightning cable (depending on the connection to the target device—the one you want to charge.

Interestingly, it appears as if Apple is preparing to allow us to charge other devices wirelessly from its iPhones, at least to some extent. Apple has not yet unlocked this feature, however, so as it stands, you can only share your battery via a cable.

Can Another Phone Share Battery With an iPhone?

Huawei was the first brand to release a phone that offered reverse charging, and since then, other brands have followed suit, including Samsung.

The good news is that you can use other phones to share battery with an iPhone since more recent iPhone models allow wireless charging using the Qi wireless charging standard. As long as the phone you’re sharing battery from uses this same standard, you should be able to charge your iPhone from it. Once the other phone has battery sharing turned on, you can place your iPhone back to back with that phone to charge it up.

Which Phones Allow Battery Sharing?

New phones are being released all the time from a wide range of brands, so keeping track of exactly which models offer reverse charging isn’t always easy. However, many of the major brands offer phones that can allow battery sharing.

We won’t create an exhaustive list; however, here are the more popular devices that support battery sharing:

Battery Sharing with Cable:

• iPhone 15
• iPhone 15 Plus
• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max

Battery Sharing using Reverse Charging (Wireless)

• Samsung Galaxy S23 Series
• Samsung Galaxy S22 Series
• Samsung Galaxy S21 Series
• Samsung Galaxy S20 Series
• Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Series
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2
• Samsung Galaxy Fold
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Series
• Google Pixel 8
• Google Pixel 7
• Google Pixel 6
• Google Pixel 5
• Xiaomi 13 Series
• Xiaomi 12 Series
• Xiaomi Mi 12 Series
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Series
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Series
• Xiaomi Mi 9 Pro
• Huawei Mate 20 Pro
• OnePlus 11 Pro
• OnePlus 10 Pro
• OnePlus 9 Pro
• OnePlus 8 Pro

In order to charge an iPhone with one of the phones listed above, it must allow wireless charging. Apple phones that allow wireless charging include:

• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Plus
• iPhone 15
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 14 Pro
• iPhone 14 Plus
• iPhone 14
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13
• iPhone 13 Mini
• iPhone SE (3^rd Gen)
• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 Mini
• iPhone SE (2^nd Gen)
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11
• iPhone XR
• iPhone XS Max
• iPhone XS
• iPhone X
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone 8

If your phone is an iPhone 7 or older, then it doesn’t allow wireless charging, and you won’t be able to charge it from another phone.

How to Share Battery from an Android Phone

The exact method of sharing your battery will depend on the phone that you’re using, as many brands often include their own OS with the phone. However, the steps below should be similar for most phones.

To share battery from an Android phone:

1. Swipe up and open the Settings app.
   
2. Select Battery.
   
3. In the Battery menu, tap Battery Share.
   
4. Toggle Allow Battery Share to the On position.
   
5. Place the two phones back to back. You will probably need to remove any cases for the best charging speeds.

Get More From Your iPhone Battery

Learning how to share the battery on an iPhone is just one way to help keep your iPhone battery topped up and in prime condition.

If you want to be able to keep an accurate eye on your iPhone battery, then you’ll want to know how to check the battery percentage on your iPhone. If you find that your battery life isn’t what it should be, there are plenty of tips and tricks for extending your iPhone battery life.

You might also want to consider enabling or disabling optimized battery charging on your iPhone, too.