Because battery life is one of the most important aspects of a smartphone, many owners want a better old-school visual indicator and somewhat inaccurate battery health meter found on most smartphones. For those running Google’s latest operating system, you can finally do exactly that. There are many apps ready to give users a widget or display it on the lock screen and now Google has added its own option. A kind of.
Android 4.4 KitKat introduced many new features and changes to Google’s mobile operating system, and it’s a battery percentage meter that many 3rd party manufacturers like Samsung already offer. Giving owners a much better visual representation or indication of battery life rather than a battery symbol that only offers 4-5 different capacity levels. Below we will explain how to quickly enable battery percentage option in Android 4.4 KitKat without hacking or rooting (like jailbreaking) your Android smartphone or tablet.
With Android 4.4 KitKat, Google has finally added a battery percentage meter that is nicely visible in the notification bar at the top of your smartphone or tablet, but for whatever reason it’s not the best app. Unlike others, Google put the battery case in it, then didn’t change its color. That means it’s the same new white font that replaced Holo Blue in previous versions of Android. As a result, you can enable the feature, but you will only see the meter when the battery is low enough to actually display the numbers. As shown below.
Samsung Galaxy S4 and other newer smartphones have this option in the settings menu which will either add a percentage value next to the battery or replace the classic battery meter all together. For whatever reason, Google didn’t go that route and instead put it inside the battery. Being white on white hides it until you reach about 75% where you’ll start to see the top of the numbers. It’s weird and probably only for developers, so it’s hidden and not a feature in settings. Instead of a quick option, we’ll have to explain how to add it.
How to Enable Battery Percentage
Most smartphones need to be rooted and hacked for users to change things like battery meters, color, and other things in the notification bar, and it looks like Google will gradually add such changes to stock Android. We can’t do much for now, but more options are coming. Without rooting or hacking your device, the simple instructions below will add the battery meter.
There are two different ways to add battery percentage to Android 4.4 KitKat, but the first option we will talk about is the easiest. Instead of using the developer tool called ADB to hack your phone or send a command to your smartphone, XDA Developers published a simple application To complete this with a single tap.
You will have to go to the Google Play Store and search for its app. Battery Percentage for KitKatit will only run on Android 4.4 KitKat and it’s pretty self explanatory from here. You will download and open the app, click enable battery percentage and restart, that’s it. It’s that simple and now when your battery is low enough you will see a battery percentage number.
This much. Unfortunately, we can’t change colors or do anything else exciting without rooting and hacking the device, but at least the option is now extremely easy to access on Android 4.4 KitKat. According to multiple reports, this is primarily a developer feature and has not yet been completed by Google; this explains why it’s not an option in settings and why it’s hidden.
For those who don’t want to download one more app to their smartphone, a simple line of code in ADB will enable this feature as well. For the average user this is not ideal, so we mentioned the system first above, but the more advanced user can turn it on or off with ADB. This is a tool for developers to access Android and therefore we can easily enable the battery indicator here as well.
this ADB command Enabling the battery percentage meter in KitKat is simple, just copy and paste it into the command prompt.
add adb shell context –uri context://settings/system –binding name:s:status_bar_show_battery_percent –binding value:i:1
then fast
adb reboot
and that’s it. This will enable the same battery percentage indicator shown in the images above. It is a simple step for advanced users, but we recommend the above application because it is very simple. Of course, if you want to disable it, the provided app is also your best bet. Simply fire up and uncheck the box shown above, then reboot again and you’ll be back to normal.
You should do it?
The battery percentage indicator is a nice addition to give you a better idea of how much juice your smartphone has left, but personally I find myself relying too much on it rather than enjoying my smartphone and its features. The option is not available by default because it is not fully ready or is a developer-only feature. Still, Android’s openness means you can try it with our simple instructions above.
I’ve relied on 3rd party apps in the past, but this simple and quick tool is one of the best ever, even if the color is the same, making the battery percentage meter hard to see. Give it a try and enjoy a more accurate battery meter moving forward. This works on all Android 4.4+ devices.
