Latest iOS beta reintroduces battery percentage

With the advancement in the designs and features of smartphones, battery readability shouldn’t be an issue anymore for iPhone owners. That, however, is not the case for iPhone users, especially when Apple removed the battery percentage in the status bar during the release of the iPhone X. Thankfully, that will change with the arrival of the iOS 16 beta 5, which reintroduces the battery percentage. The catch, however, is that Apple made a tweak in its placement, which others might find rather awkward and inconvenient.

Formerly, the battery percentage figure used to sit comfortably at the left of the battery icon of iPhone devices. However, with the latest iOS 16 beta, Apple has decided to place the numbers inside the battery. The problem? The battery figure itself stays in the full image regardless of how low the number percentage is. Somehow, this defies the purpose of making the battery status readable, especially for those who have visual impairments. It is not really glanceable to the point you have to look closely just to read the numbers.

It is far from the convenience of the current iPhone battery design, which, despite the absence of numbers, will let you determine the amount of juice left with just a glance at the draining icon. There could be a solution for this troubling design, nonetheless. Apple could consider a fusion of the battery percentage and the draining battery icon (with a different color of the icon to make the numbers readable), just like what we are seeing now in almost all Android phones. But, of course, that might be impossible since we’re talking about Apple.

For those who have the new iOS 16 beta, the feature won’t automatically appear. It should be enabled manually by going into the Battery menu in Settings and toggling on the Battery Percentage option. As for whether it will be available in the full iOS release, we’re still clueless since not all beta features make it to the general public’s access.