Android will no longer call slow chargers ‘fast,’ but only on Pixel 9 so far

It’s been over two weeks since Google unveiled the Google Pixel 9 series, and we’re still learning new things about the devices that the company didn’t mention at its Made by Google event. While it’s unfortunate it didn’t get around to mentioning neat features like Adaptive Touch, it’s understandable that it didn’t have time to mention some of the really minor quality-of-life changes. That’s what we’re here for, though.

Earlier today, APKMirror founder Artem Russakovskii posted on X about an aspect of his Pixel 9 Pro XL that he found annoying. He mentioned that his Pixel 9 Pro XL no longer shows the “charging rapidly” text on the lock screen. Instead, the lock screen shows an ETA for when his phone will complete charging. The reason this is annoying is because it makes it harder to tell if the phone is connected to a fast charger.

As it turns out, though, the “charging rapidly” text hasn’t disappeared from the lock screen. It still shows up if you use the Google 45W USB-C Charger, as mentioned by some users in the replies to Artem’s post. However, you don’t need a 45W charger for the Google Pixel 9 to make the “charging rapidly” text appear on the lock screen, and you certainly don’t need to use Google’s official charger to make it appear, either.

In fact, any charger that can deliver at least 20W of power to the Pixel 9 will trigger the “charging rapidly” text to appear on the lock screen. This is thanks to a recent change in Android that’s currently only enabled on the Pixel 9 series.

We reported earlier this year that Android was preparing to increase the fast charging threshold from 7.5W to 20W. The OS on all other Pixel phones still uses the old fast charging threshold of 7.5W, but the OS on the Pixel 9 series uses the higher 20W threshold because Google set the system property charging_string.apply_v2 to true. When this system property is set to true, the 20W fast charging threshold is used to determine whether to show the “charging rapidly” text on the lock screen. Although my initial reporting on this change was based on code I found within the third beta of Android 15, I examined the Android 14 firmware for the Pixel 9 series and found it was enabled there, too.

Even though the fastest charging speeds are only guaranteed if you use Google’s official 45W charger, you should be able to rapidly charge any phone in the Pixel 9 series using a fast USB-PD PPS charger, as Google’s phones don’t use a proprietary wired charging standard. However, it’ll need to deliver at least 20W of power for the Pixel 9 to consider it as “fast,” as the Android OS on the device no longer uses the old, outdated fast charging threshold.