Tired of your phone overheating while gaming? Did you know your Samsung Galaxy has a hidden bypass charging feature? Bypass charging allows your Galaxy phone to draw power directly from the charger instead of the battery, keeping it cool and extending its battery life. Today, I’ll tell you how to unlock this hidden feature and keep your phone running cooler for longer.
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What Is Bypass Charging?
Normally, when you plug in your phone, the charger sends power to the battery. This power is then used to run your phone’s functions, such as the display and apps. This is why your phone sometimes charges slowly while in use, as the battery is simultaneously charging and discharging to power the device.
With Bypass Charging, your phone draws power directly from the charger, bypassing the battery entirely. This means the battery is not involved in powering the device and remains inactive; it neither charges nor discharges.
Essentially, your battery becomes a backup power source, similar to a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply), with the charging adapter as the primary power source. As soon as you disconnect the charger, the phone seamlessly switches to the battery, allowing you to continue using the phone without interruption.
Why Should You Use Bypass Charging?
You might wonder why you’d want your phone to bypass charging and power up directly from the adapter. Here’s why:
- Reduced Heat Generation: Charging generates heat, which can stress the battery over time and lead to faster degradation. Bypass charging significantly reduces this heat because the battery is no longer actively charging and discharging. This allows you to comfortably hold and use your phone even during extended gaming or other demanding tasks.
- Fewer Charge Cycles: Since your battery is neither discharging nor charging during bypass charging, it reduces the number of charge cycles the battery undergoes. This can maintain battery health and significantly extend its lifespan, as batteries degrade with each charge cycle.
- Prevention of Thermal Throttling: When your phone’s battery gets hot while charging, especially when using a fast charger or using the phone simultaneously, the phone’s processor (SoC) automatically throttles down performance to keep temperatures under control. This can make the phone feel sluggish and cause apps or games to lag. Bypass charging prevents this excess heating and, therefore, thermal throttling.
- You’re Always Ready: Imagine you have to leave for an emergency or urgently need to go somewhere, but you’ve been playing on your phone for the last 3 hours, and the battery is almost dead. Normally, you’d need a power bank to quickly top up the battery. But with bypass charging, you can simply plug in your phone and continue using it while the charger provides the power. Even if you need to leave immediately, you won’t be stuck with a dead battery.
Sony and Asus Popularized Bypass Charging
It was Sony that first introduced bypass charging with the Sony Xperia 1 II in 2020. The phone had an H.S. Power Control (Heat Suppression Power Control) option in its Game mode settings. Enabling this prevented the battery from charging, allowing the phone to draw power directly from the charger.
Later, Asus popularized the feature with its gaming phone, the ROG 3, followed by the Asus Zenfone 7 in the same year. Soon after, Samsung introduced it as part of the Game Booster settings on its flagship phones. With a recent update, even Google Pixel phones have got bypass charging, showing how widely it’s being used.
Samsung’s Bypass Charging Isn’t as Straightforward
In Google’s implementation of this feature, the phone first charges to 80%, after which the charging adapter directly powers the phone, keeping the battery level constant at 80% whether you’re using an app, playing a game, or simply idling. However, Samsung’s approach is a bit different.
Samsung’s bypass charging works only when gaming. Yes, Samsung’s bypass charging is tucked away in Game Booster settings, and while it doesn’t need your battery to be charged to 80% before bypassing, it does make it work only when you’re playing a game, which is also where you’d probably need it most.
Here’s what Samsung bypass charging requires:
- Your battery must be at least at 20% to enable this feature (otherwise, the phone will prioritize charging the battery).
- You’ll also need to use a compatible Power Delivery charger with PPS (25W or more).
Samsung Galaxy Phones That Support Bypass Charging
While not all Samsung phones support the feature, I’m happy to see it’s available on major Galaxy S series phones and foldables. It’s available natively on the Galaxy S23 series and was released to some older devices through the Game Launcher app’s v5.0.03.0 update.
While Samsung doesn’t officially reveal a list of phones that support bypass charging, here are the ones we know do:
- Galaxy S24 series
- Galaxy S23 series
- Galaxy S22 series
- Galaxy Z Fold 5
- Galaxy Z Fold 4
- Galaxy Z Fold 3
- Galaxy Z Fold 2
- Galaxy Z Flip 5
- Galaxy A73 5G
- Galaxy A33 5G
- Galaxy Tab S8 series
How to Turn On Bypass Charging on Your Samsung Phone
Samsung calls bypass charging “Pause USB PD Charging when gaming,” and it is available in Game Booster settings. Here’s how to enable it:
Method 1: Through Gaming Hub
- Open Gaming Hub on your Samsung Galaxy phone. You’ll find it in the app drawer, but if you cannot, enable Gaming Hub in Settings > Advanced Features.
- Tap the three dots on the top right and choose Game Booster.
- Scroll down and toggle on Pause USB PD Charging when gaming. This option will be grayed out if your phone isn’t already plugged in.
Method 2: Via Game Booster Settings
- Open Settings on your Samsung Galaxy phone.
- Search for “game booster” and tap Game Booster settings.
- Here, scroll down and toggle on Pause USB PD charging when gaming.
Now, whenever you play a game on your phone while charging, it will pause USB PD charging, directly bypassing the power from the charger to your phone’s components. The battery percentage will stay at the same level; it will neither increase nor decrease.
I’d reiterate that this only applies to games. While you can manually add any other app to Game Booster, it will simply show a toast message saying, “This app isn’t a game. Some features will not work.” So, when you use a non-game app like WhatsApp, Instagram, Notes, or anything that is not recognized as a game, bypass charging won’t work, and the battery percentage will increase.
If Bypass Charging Is Not Working
- Make sure you’re playing a game and not using any non-game app. Bypass charging will pause for those.
- Ensure Gaming Hub is enabled in Settings > Advanced Features. This lets you access it from the app drawer and enable bypass charging as shown earlier.
- Ensure fast charging is enabled in Settings > Battery and device care > Battery > Charging > Fast charging. A blue charging ring animation should appear when you plug in your phone (not the green one).
- Note that the option can only be enabled after you’ve plugged in your phone; otherwise, it will be grayed out. Once enabled, it will automatically trigger bypass charging every time you plug in your phone and open a game.
- You must be using a 25W or higher PD charger that supports PPS (programmable power supply).
- Your charging cable must support fast charging.
- Check that you’re on Game Launcher app version 5.0.03.0 or above.
I wish Samsung would let users activate bypass charging with a simple quick toggle, irrespective of the apps running. Not everyone plays games with their phones plugged in. Some may want to write notes, some may want to use GPS navigation, while others may want to scroll through social media. This would help prevent battery degradation over the long run.
