PSA: An iPhone 15 Can Charge Another iPhone

Wednesday September 20, 2023 11:16 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple's iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models use a USB-C port instead of a Lightning port for charging and data transfer purposes, and the new port allows the iPhones to charge a wide range of USB-C devices, including another iPhone.

iphone 15 to iphone charging marques brownlee
As demonstrated by Marques Brownlee, plugging a Lightning based iPhone into a USB-C iPhone 15 with a USB-C to Lightning cable lets the iPhone 15 provide power to the older iPhone.

When you plug a Lightning iPhone into an iPhone 15, the iPhone 15 will always provide power to the Lightning iPhone, even if the iPhone 15's battery is lower.

Have you ever wondered what happened when you plugged random things into the iPhone 15's new USB port? Well wonder no more Full iPhone 15/15 Pro Unboxing and first looks is now live: https://t.co/Q5loMQGoh1 pic.twitter.com/TUGh7jlg08 — Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) September 19, 2023

If you plug an iPhone 15 into another iPhone 15, the two devices communicate with one another, determine which iPhone has the lower battery, and transfer power that way. So if you have a low battery and a friend with an iPhone 15 has a full battery, you can plug your iPhone into your friend's iPhone and get yours to charge.

With a USB-C Android phone, if the Android device has USB Power Delivery support and you connect to an iPhone with a lower battery level, the Android device will be able to provide battery power. If the Android phone does not have USB PD, the result is inconsistent and there's no way to predict which phone will be the charger and which will get the charge.

The iPhone 15's USB-C port can be used to charge an Apple Watch or the AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C Charging Case using a USB-C to USB-C cord, and it should also be able to work with most other USB-C devices in some capacity.

Unfortunately, when charging another device with an iPhone 15, the charge is limited to 4.5W. That's appropriate for small devices like the Apple Watch, but it's not going to provide much power for an iPhone, so expect slow charging speeds when using iPhone to iPhone charging functionality.

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Top Rated Comments

alexandr

40 months ago

will they make little baby iPhones doing this ?

Yes — that is the only way to get a mini model this year :D

Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)

madmin

40 months ago

will they make little baby iPhones doing this ?

Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)

macduke

40 months ago

I still want to know if the iPhone 15 can charge itself via MagSafe.

Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)

antiprotest

40 months ago

I see absolutely zero benefit to this (in my use cases, anyway). 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.

Plus now when your friend's phone is out of battery and he glances at the phone in your hand, you'd have to lie and say, "Sorry, it's an iPhone 14 Pro".

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)