Apple is on the verge of introducing a minor change that will have a massive impact on the quality of life of iPhone users everywhere who are sick of helplessly watching as their device’s life drains in unquantifiable increments.
But there’s good news: in the latest iOS 16 beta, the battery icon now displays the actual numerical percentage of juice left in an iPhone or iPad’s battery, providing consumers with a more precise measure of how soon they’ll be clutching a lifeless hunk of precious metals.
The battery indicator is back in iOS 16 beta 5, but it must still be enabled for anyone using the beta (through the Settings menu). The Battery Percentage toggle is in the Settings menu’s “battery” section, above the Low Power Mode toggle.
For the time being, the update is only available in beta, but if history is any guide, it should eventually make its way into a full iOS release. The battery percentage indicator first appeared on the iPhone 3GS before disappearing with introduction the notch on the iPhone X in iOS 11 in 2017.
As one of our resident Android apologists, it is my sworn duty to point out that the battery indicator on Android never went away and has remained functional despite the operating system’s numerous recent iterations, but you already knew that. As we all know, the Cupertino company is a capricious divine entity that does whatever it wants with the devices it issues from on high.
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Apple doesn’t always include every beta feature in a final release — especially if early feedback is negative — but the battery percentage icon is likely to return in late September with the official release of iOS 16.
