Apple this week brought back one of the most highly requested features from iOS users since the launch of the iPhone X in 2017: the ability to see your battery percentage directly in the status bar.
Ever since the launch of the iPhone X with the notch, Apple has not allowed users to show their battery percentage directly in the status bar, forcing them to swipe down into Control Center to glance at their current battery level.
With the launch of iOS 16 in just a few weeks, that's set to change. The fifth developer beta of iOS 16 includes a new toggle that allows users to always show their battery percentage in the status bar.
When Low Power Mode is enabled, the battery glyph and the percentage turn yellow, and when low on battery, it turns red. When charging your iPhone, it turns green. The battery percentage is visible in the status bar across the system, including on the Lock Screen.
All flagship iPhones since the iPhone X have had a notch, yet not all customers with notched iPhones will gain this new feature.
Here is the list of iPhones that will gain the ability to display the battery percentage directly in the status bar:
- iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 13 Pro
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XS
- iPhone X
All other iPhones, including the smaller iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 12 mini, the iPhone 11, and the iPhone XR, do not have the battery percentage option. As iOS 16 is still in beta testing, Apple may decide to expand the list to include other iPhones in the future so we'll have to wait and see.
While it's not entirely clear why Apple has chosen to limit the availability of this feature, it may be due to space constraints on the smaller displays.
