PSA: An iPhone 15 Can Charge Another iPhone

[antibolo]

A few months ago during a major power outage I've used my iPad Pro to charge my iPhone. Was pretty useful.

Unfortunately when it comes to USB-C to USB-C, it seems hardcoded on which "category" of device takes priority as the host, with computer then tablet then phone as the priority order (or so I've seen from experimenting, I'm not sure what the exact rules are?). I would like Apple to allow us to define which side charges, or no side at all. For instance, if I plug my iPad and my MBP together for wired communication (ie. Sidecar), I don't want my iPad to start siphoning power from my MBP, and end up with an empty MBP battery and a full iPad battery. Furthermore, it might also be useful in a pinch for the iPad to charge the MBP. But as far as I know, there's no way of doing either of those two.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Pretty pog if you ask me. I hope we get reverse wireless charging like the Google Pixel has so we can use our iPhones as charging mats for another phone or a AirPods case.

 

[omenatarhuri]

They’ll never run out of battery charging each other 💕

 

[Attirex]

But will it stop at 80%?

TOO SOON.

 

[Radin.Y]

You need a USB-C cable to do this?

Meanwhile...

I guess it shouldn't be necessary. BUT, that said, wireless charging is inefficient in comparison to wired mode. So maybe that's something they considered when only enabling this feature in wired mode?

 

[mystery hill]

4.5W is enough to power an external SSD from the iPhone’s USB-C port.

 

[mystery hill]

And what about iPhone 15 (usb c) to AirPods (lightning)?

That should be possible also.

 

[surfzen21]

Everyone getting a 15, get ready for your low power vampire friends to pounce on you now.🧛‍♂️
🧛‍♀️🦇

 

[coolfactor]

Yeah I don't see any kind of benefit here. Sure, you can charge up another device...and in the process drain the battery in the other. Big "win" there

Could be very useful in some situations. Can't really generalize the usefulness of something like this. It's there when you need it the most.

 

[Apple_Robert]

will they make little baby iPhones doing this ?

Always practice safe phone usage.

 

[I7guy]

You need a USB-C cable to do this?

Meanwhile...

Let’s make an inefficient task even more inefficient….

 

[locoboi187]

That's a great new feature provided by the change to USB-C.

Not really unless it can charge wireless charge the AirPods

 

[dsusanj]

Never checked can a iPad Pro charge a phone

Yes.

 

[gbc204]

will they make little baby iPhones doing this ?

It's a female-to-female plug, so they'd have to adopt.

 

[Mac_The_Ripper]

Mind blowing tech right here. Apple must've invented it. To think you can do this (and charge ear buds) from other phones wirelessly, and have been able to for years.

 

[iGeek2019]

Deleted

 

[SigurTom]

That's cool, can it be used to do a wired data transfer to a new phone? ie- a USBC-Lightning without the previously required camera dongle.

 

[JulianL]

You need a USB-C cable to do this?

Meanwhile...

So true. Especially for Apple Watch users it would be a really nice feature to know that if you lost/forgot/broke your charging puck you could use your phone instead. If you could do that then I would do that as my default when travelling - one less thing to pack if I don’t need to have the Apple Watch charger with me.

 

[cicalinarrot]

I was raised a catholic, this feels so wrong to me.

 

[mrmister]

In the wireless world of wireless charging this is just embarrassing.

You can actually use two phones while this is happening, as opposed to wireless charging, where you can use neither. Wireless reverse charging always seems like a gimmick to me. We complain all the time about Magic Mice needing to be plugged in—this is much worse.

 

[Onelifenofear]

I see absolutely zero benefit to this (in my use cases, anyway). Never once have I been in a situation where this would be "useful".

So many "perks" that USB-C was supposed to bring to iPhone and so far I'm finding exactly zero of them that would actually be useful to me. This has only brought inconvenience instead as I now need yet another cable to use CarPlay A cable that won't be useful for anything else except for that, unlike all the cables I currently have. All I'm seeing from this forced USB-C change so far...are useless gimmicks.

How about Potentially 240W charging speed vs 24W.
10x the transfer speed.
One cable for any divice in the future. Even monitors.

Presumably your car has USB-A then... so a A > C cable is what you need and that's useful anywhere. Also you leave your cable in the car... so it's always there.

 

[techwhiz]

Truly revolutionary

Years ago.
My Samsung phone and other Androids with USB-C have been doing this for years along with wireless charging of other devices.

Yawn....

 

[JeffNT326]

Never checked can a iPad Pro charge a phone

Yes it can!! I’ve also used it as a portable power bank for the HomePod Mini. Works great!!

 

[alexandr]

You can actually use two phones while this is happening, as opposed to wireless charging, where you can use neither. Wireless reverse charging always seems like a gimmick to me. We complain all the time about Magic Mice needing to be plugged in—this is much worse.

Well, I'd appreciate being able to choose how I do this, and if I don't carry a cable with me — that should be ok)

 

[orbital~debris]

Since iPhone is already predisposed to look good on the silver screen, I wouldn't be surprised to see this feature forming the basis of a 'meet-cute' scene.