Android users have long been missing a native Battery Health feature similar to iOS, which displays the maximum remaining capacity of the device’s battery. However, with the upcoming release of Android 14, this feature could finally become available on all Android devices.
According to Mishaal Rahman, former EIC of XDA-Developers, Google has introduced new BatteryManager APIs in the Android 14 beta version. These APIs include public ones that provide information about cycle count and charging status, as well as system APIs that offer details such as manufacturing date, first use date, charging policy, and health status.
Rahman notes that any app with the BATTERY_STATS permission can utilize these system APIs, but currently, they are only accessible on Pixel devices running Android 14 Beta 2 or later. Developer Narek has created an app called Batt, which utilizes these new APIs to report battery health and charge cycles. Interested users can download the app from GitLab and test it on their Android 14-powered devices.
It should be noted that the accuracy of the data provided by the Batt app cannot be guaranteed, as it relies on the information returned by the APIs, which is contingent on the tracking capabilities of the charging IC and the support of the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL).
Hopefully, in the stable release of Android 14, Google will introduce a dedicated battery health feature that eliminates the need for third-party apps like Batt to assess the battery health status of Android devices.
