For reasons nobody can fathom, Apple nixed the iPhone’s battery percentage five years ago. But the breakup wasn’t meant to be, and now, with iOS 16, Apple is giving customers what they want — hopefully for good this time.
If you want more precision on just how much juice your iPhone’s battery has left, here’s how to enable iOS 16’s resurrected battery percentage feature.
How to turn on your iPhone’s battery percentage
Putting a battery percentage at the top of your iPhone’s screen is easy and can be enabled and disabled whenever you like.
Remember: No mini iPhones are supported due to their smaller screen size,
so battery percentage is only available on the following iPhones:
- iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max
- iPhone X
Follow these steps to enable your iPhone’s battery percentage indicator.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap “Battery.”
- Toggle the battery percentage option to the “On” position to enable the new feature. You can toggle the option to the “Off” position to disable it again.
Reading the battery percentage indicator
Your iPhone now shows you its battery status in percentage form, but the display changes slightly depending on a number of factors.
- The battery indicator turns yellow when the iPhone is in Low Power Mode.
- The battery indicator turns red if your iPhone’s battery is below 20 percent and not in Low Power Mode.
- A small charging icon appears beside the battery percentage when the iPhone is charging.
The battery indicator has a full white background at all other times and displays the percentage in black.
Battery anxiety is real
With battery percentage, you’ll benefit from seeing exactly how much power is left in your iPhone’s battery. But not everyone likes to know; some people find that the percentage actually makes them more anxious, and choose to use the less accurate picture-based indicator instead. You can probably leave it turned off if you always have a charger nearby, but everyone’s circumstances are different. Think deep and let your level of inner battery neurosis be the judge.
