Ever wish you could check the battery life of a Bluetooth device connected to your phone?
Well, if you own an Android, such a feature is likely coming your way. As discovered by XDA Developers, the Android Open Source Project has added support for retrieving battery level information for a remote device. In other words, when this becomes fully available in Android, it'll allow your phone to show the battery level of any connected Bluetooth device, like headphones, speakers, etc.
Those devices will have to be configured to share their battery information, so don't expect the feature to work with many products at launch. We also have no clue when Google will move the feature from Android’s open-source development into something available for all consumers. But during a Reddit Q&A earlier this month, Android O’s engineering team teased that the feature is in the works.
“We’re looking at this and are happy to report that some of our hardware manufacturing partners already support this," the team said, while also noting some Android phones already support this feature, including Samsung, LG, OnePlus, and more, thanks to their own custom support. Although Google itself hasn't made it a standard yet, it allows companies to adjust Android to offer different features.
It'll be interesting to see Google's take on battery level indicators for Bluetooth devices. Will they appear as notifications, in the status bar, or buried in a menu somewhere? All we know so far is that Android O is almost finished, but as to whether this feature will be part of Android O is unclear. In the meantime, check out our guide on all the known features coming with Android O.