Oliver Haslam on January 4, 2023, 6:25 pm

Apple’s MagSafe Is Forming The Core Of A Whole New Qi Charging Standard

The Qi wireless charging standard has served us well for years now, but it’s time for something new. That thing is the Qi2 standard, and it’s expected to feature on phones and chargers this holiday season.

That isn’t even the most interesting part, either — this new standard is based on the Apple MagSafe wireless charger that was introduced with the iPhone 12.

The new Qi2 standard was announced via a press release by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) and it was quick to note that Apple has helped out by offering the MagSafe charger at its core.

WPC member, Apple, provided the basis for the new Qi2 standard building on its MagSafe technology. Apple and other WPC members developed the new Magnetic Power Profile, which is at the core of Qi2. Qi2’s Magnetic Power Profile will ensure that phones or other rechargeable battery-powered mobile products are perfectly aligned with charging devices, thus providing improved energy efficiency and faster charging.

The use of magnetic connections ensures that chargers correctly align with the phones they’re connected to, allowing for improved charging speeds and less wasted energy. It also allows for things like magnetic power banks, like Apple’s own MagSafe Battery Pack.

The most notable takeaway here is of course that the WPC is effectively now bringing MagSafe to Android for the first time, although it will obviously be under the Qi2 branding rather than anything Apple-branded.