Android May Support Showing Remaining Bluetooth Battery Level

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Published 31 Jul 2017

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Technically speaking, some manufacturers like Samsung and OnePlus already support showing how much battery life remains in Bluetooth-connected accessories, but it isn’t a built-in Android feature. Yet.

XDA-Developers has discovered that “[retrieving] battery level information of [a] remote device” has officially been added to the Android Open Source Project, or AOSP. This means that Android devices in the future will be able to indicate to the user just how much battery level is remaining in their Bluetooth-connected wireless headphones, speakers, or other wireless accessories. As mentioned above, this is a feature that some manufacturers have already implemented in their own user interfaces, so Google is simply adding the feature into the stock version of the operating system.

Unfortunately, there’s no telling when this particular feature will make it out into the real world for the end user to use. As noted by The Verge, though, Android engineers are certainly working on it, as noted in a Reddit Q&A earlier this month. And while the engineer pointed out that hardware partners already support the feature in their own devices, it’s still good to hear, and see, that Google is working on the feature for stock Android, too.

Especially considering there are rumors suggesting the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 will drop the 3.5mm headphone jack from its design, which means users will have to rely either one wireless headphones or those that use a USB-C connection. Adding support for quickly telling how much battery life is remaining would be a big step in the right direction for owners of those devices if they do remove the jack.

[via The Verge; XDA-Developers]