iPhone 15: How to charge your Apple Watch, AirPods, or another iPhone

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 also allows the iPhone 15 to charge AirPods or Apple Watch directly.

If your AirPods or Apple Watch battery runs out and you don’t have access to a charger, you can now use your ‌iPhone‌ battery to get a little extra power instead of carrying a battery pack.

Additionally, if you connect an iPhone 15 to another iPhone 15, the two devices will communicate with each other, determine which iPhone has a lower battery, and transfer power that way. So, if you have a low battery and your friend’s iPhone 15 has a full battery, you can connect your iPhone to your friend’s iPhone and charge your device.

With a USB-C Android phone, if your 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 save battery power. However, if your Android phone doesn’t have USB PD, keep in mind that the results will be inconsistent — there’s no way to predict which phone will have the charger and which phone will get the charge.

what do you need

You’ll need a suitable cable to charge with an ‌iPhone‌, such as a USB-C to USB-C cable for the new AirPods Pro 2 USB-C charging case, or a USB-C Apple Watch charging puck, but it’s useful for functionality that wasn’t available with Lightning.

Unfortunately, when charging another device with the ‌‌iPhone 15‌‌, charging is limited to 4.5 watts. This is fine for small devices like the Apple Watch, but it won’t provide much power for your iPhone, so expect slow charging speeds when using the iPhone to iPhone charging function.