Android 14 Might Introduce Battery Health Feature, Apps Could Use APIs to Reveal Health Statistics

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Android 14 might add help for a brand new characteristic that would give customers insights into their machine’s battery well being. New software programming interfaces (APIs) discovered on the newest Android 14 beta might present particulars such because the well being of the telephone’s battery, the manufacturing date, when it was first used, what number of charging cycles have been accomplished, and the charging coverage. As these are supplied utilizing APIs, third occasion apps may also entry a number of the statistics, forward of the anticipated arrival of battery well being monitoring options when Android 14 is launched later this yr.

The brand new BatteryManager APIs have been noticed by Esper’s Mishaal Rahman on the newest Android 14 beta. Two of those APIs that monitor battery cost cycles and the battery’s charging standing are public, which signifies that third-party apps can entry them. However, particulars reminiscent of charging coverage, well being state, and charging coverage can solely be accessed by system apps.

A number of days again, I commented on some new BatteryManager APIs Google added in Android 14. Two of the APIs (cycle depend & charging standing) are public whereas the remaining (manufacturing date, date of first use, charging coverage, state of well being) are system APIs. https://t.co/3ujezWsLg2

— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) June 1, 2023

Battery well being monitoring apps have existed on the Play Retailer for a number of years, with apps like AccuBattery and BatteryGuru providing estimates of battery well being, with none APIs to depend on. In the meantime, iPhone house owners have had entry to a battery well being monitoring characteristic constructed into the settings app since iOS 11.3.

To ensure that a third-party app to achieve entry to those system APIs, you have to to grant it the BATTERY_STATS Android permission, based on Rahman. It is a permission which you can grant through a command line interface and a USB cable.

Whereas Android 14 continues to be just a few months away, developer Narek (Twitter: @narektor) has already revealed an open-source app that’s able to studying these statistics from the general public and system APIs. If you’re working Android 14 Beta 2 in your Pixel smartphone, you may obtain the open-source Batt app from GitLab.

It’s value noting that the app is merely a proof-of-concept and you shouldn’t depend on these particulars till Android 14 is launched later this yr. Rahman additionally factors out that apps like Tasker can even add support for automation primarily based on battery statistics supplied by the system on Android 14. Equally, if Google gives an inbuilt system like iOS to offer battery well being statistics, it’s going to curtail the necessity for third occasion apps to supply comparable performance.

Apple’s annual developer convention is simply across the nook. From the corporate’s first combined actuality headset to new software program updates, we talk about all of the issues we’re wanting ahead to seeing at WWDC 2023 on Orbital, the Devices 360 podcast. Orbital is obtainable on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.