Samsung introduced the Pause USB Power Delivery feature with the Galaxy S23 series, or at least that's when we discovered the feature exists. It's been available on some older flagships for some time, though we cannot say exactly when it was introduced.
When enabled, it stops charging the battery and bypasses the power directly to the processor. This reduces heat generated by the battery charging process, which makes the whole phone cooler, thereby improving the phone's performance while gaming and also ensuring your phone's battery doesn't drain and stays at the same charge level throughout your gaming session.
The Pause USB Power Delivery feature works only while playing games. It works through the Game Booster plugin for the Game Launcher app on Samsung phones. It is now available via Game Booster on many older high-end and some mid-range Galaxy smartphones like the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+, Galaxy S22 Ultra, Galaxy A73, Galaxy Z Flip 4, and the Galaxy Z Fold 4, in addition to the Galaxy S23 series.
While we haven't checked it personally, people claim that they've got it working on the Galaxy A33 5G and the Galaxy Tab S8, so we can only assume the feature is gradually making its way to more and more Galaxy devices, and we've put together a guide to show you how you can access and enable it.
How to enable battery bypass feature on Galaxy devices
- Install the Game Booster plugin (version 5.0.03.0) on your Galaxy phone. On most Samsung phones launched in the last 3-4 years, it should be installed out of the box, but you might need to update it from the Galaxy Store.
- Plug in the charging cable to your Galaxy phone to start charging it. For this feature to work, you need at least a 25W USB PD/PPS charger and, naturally, a Samsung phone that supports 25W charging.
- Open any game from the Game Launcher app on your phone.
- Now, minimize the game and access Game Booster from the Game Launcher app's More menu or access it by swiping up from the bottom of the screen while the game is running and hitting the Game Booster icon (the icon has a cross and four dots).
- You can now see the Pause USB Power Delivery feature by scrolling to the bottom. Turn it on and your phone should stop charging while a game is active (once you exit or minimize the game, charging will resume normally).
This feature was initially spotted by YouTuber NL Tech (credit to them for the photo you see at the top of the article). They tested to check how much power is passed to the phone when the bypass feature is enabled. When it was disabled, the phone was getting anywhere between 15W and 20W of power. When we tested the feature and enabled it while playing Call Of Duty Mobile on the Galaxy S22+, the power draw from the charger dropped down to around 6W as opposed to 18W when it was disabled.
Even if it isn't a true battery charging bypass feature like some ASUS ROG gaming phones, it will still help the phone reduce heat generated by the fast charging process, so you might want to check it out, especially if you play games that are graphically intensive, like Call of Duty or Genshin Impact, for long periods of time.
One last note: As mentioned above, the Pause USB Power Delivery feature seems to be gradually making its way to more and more Galaxy devices that support 25W super fast charging, so don't be disappointed if you can't see it on your phone at the moment as your particular model may not have been included in the feature's rollout just yet.
