Battery widgets are some of the most essential “extras” anyone can add to their smartphone. As both Android and iPhone devices evolve, we see them get batteries with bigger and bigger capacities that are built into the phone. At the same time, the power requirements of these devices also get higher and higher, leading to even more battery wear. So, what can you do about it? There are actually a few ways to address this, short of installing a new battery into your phone. One of the simplest ones to do is to understand how your phone charges and discharges. That is where battery widgets come in, which this article will explain while giving you a few other battery-saving suggestions as well.
Also See: Best Phones with Removable Battery
Inside this Article
- What Are Battery Widgets?
- Best Battery Widgets
- Why Do You Need a Battery Widget?
- How to Add Battery Widgets to Your Homescreen
- Other Battery Saving Tips
What Are Battery Widgets?
We went over it a little bit in our opening, but what exactly are battery widgets? Battery widgets are, quite simply, apps you can install that places a readout window on your smartphone’s home screen. Like clock and weather widgets showing you the forecast at a glance, battery widgets shows a fair bit about your phone’s battery percentage, like its remaining operating hours on a charge, at the bare minimum. Some advanced battery widgets even show your phone charging and discharging rate, overcharging, and overvoltage. While this seems like a lot of features, you would need all of it to understand and preserve the lifespan of your battery.
Do note that not all battery widgets have all of these installed due to requiring specific phone hardware. The different battery widgets each have a way to calculate the rates and percentages they display and may be different between each of them and from how your phone calculates it. Battery widget apps are also not meant to be replacements for scientific instruments to precisely measure electric current.
Also read: Why Is Your Phone Battery Draining So Fast?
Best Battery Widgets of All Time
For this list, we have selected battery widgets with as many features as we can find to help analyze your phone. Alongside this, we will also note the app’s developer, price, what platform it is meant to run on, and link the download page of the app in the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, whichever is appropriate.
1. Ampere
Developer: Braintrapp
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Platform: Android
Ampere is our first pick for the best battery widget and one that is exclusive to Android phones. This app has all the bells and whistles anyone would want from a battery app, although you do need to upgrade to the app’s PRO feature to access the battery widget feature. With that said, Ampere provides a stable ground for users to learn about their phones. The information it presents includes knowing your phone’s current temperature, the maximum and minimum battery capacity, voltage input, battery type (Li-ion, LiPo, etc.), and a general battery “health” display. Overall, you can’t go wrong with Ampere and should be a standard app for any Android user.
Get Ampere on the Google Play Store
2. Smart Battery Widget
Developer: Omid Tavanaei
Price: Free
Platform: iOS
Smart Battery Widget is our first entry for this list of the best battery widgets compatible with iOS. This widget provides a wonderful overview of your battery percentage and battery status as it lets you get and set notifications for when your phone needs to be recharged or when it is nearly charged. Aside from this, it also has a calculated real-time estimate for how long your phone battery would last when you want to play songs, play videos, take calls, or play games on your device.
The Smart Battery Widget also has other monitoring features like a concise storage monitor that shows how much free space you have available, a network monitor that gives you an overview of your connection status and speed, and a selection of widget types to display its information with.
Also read: Best iPhone Battery Saving Apps
Get Smart Battery Widget on the Apple App Store
3. Battery Monitor Widget
Developer: fsinib
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Platform: Android
Battery Monitor Widget sounds like a pretty generic app, but this widget from fsinib offers a lot of statistics and information about a phone’s battery. Very similar to our first choice battery widget, Battery Monitor Widget also gives you a peek at your battery’s charging status, phone temperature, battery type, input or output voltage, and overall battery health.
This app also gives a short graph showing the different datasets over a set duration so you can see how your phone use fluctuates your battery’s information. Aside from that, this app also lets you set notices when your battery is low, when it charges completely, and when your battery temperature exceeds a certain threshold.
Get Battery Monitor Widget on the Google Play Store
4. Usage Widgets
Developer: Oleh Stasula
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Platform: iOS
Another iOS-only battery widget, Usage Widgets offers a lot more than your battery status and information. Aside from giving a graphed timeline of your battery percentage, charging status, and operational battery time left, Usage Widgets also have a few other useful features. These include three different monitors for your phone storage, cellular data use, and WiFi connection status.
Aside from these, Usage Widgets also gives a short description of the device it is installed in, like the device’s original OS, its current installed iOS version, SIM card slots, screen type and size, and cameras installed, among other parameters.
Get Usage Widgets on the Apple App Store
5. Battery Widget Reborn
Developer: Tomas Hubalek
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Platform: Android
The fifth battery widget on this list is Battery Widget Reborn. An app from Tomas Hubalek, Battery Widget Reborn is compatible with Android 11 phones and continues to get constant updates. Similar to the previous entries, this battery widget also shows users their batteries’ real-time data including charge percentage, input or output voltage, temperature, overall battery health, and operating battery time left.
Aside from that, it also has a graph feature that can display your phone battery’s charging history and a short description of your battery’s average long-term statistics. Overall, it is a good app that offers a lot of features and explains a lot about your phone’s battery for free.
Get Battery Widget REborn on the Google Play Store
6. Cross-Device Battery Monitor
Developer: IT Benefit
Price: Free trial with in-app purchases
Platform: Android
An odd entry into this battery widgets list, Cross-Device Battery Monitor does not just show the basics of your battery’s information; it also shows the information of other devices you have registered with the app. This means that you can get real-time information on all your other devices, apart from your smartphone. The information it shows includes the current battery charge percentage, battery temperature, voltage output or input, charging status, and battery health.
While a wonderful app to use, there is one big caveat. Cross-Device Battery Monitor is offered as a free trial rather than a free app. Each device that you want to add would cost you a one-time payment of $2.99. Overall, it is a good and solid app that would have been higher on this list.
Get Cross-Device Battery Monitor on the Google Play Store
7. GSam Battery Monitor
Developer: GSam Labs
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Platform: Android
A classic app at this point, Gsam Battery Monitor has been around for quite some time. Recently updated to be compatible with Android 12, this battery widget works more like a general phone optimizer instead of a dedicated battery app. Aside from giving basic information about your phone’s battery, GSam Battery Monitor helps optimize your phone by showing you which of your activities take the most battery power, which apps take how much CPU power, and the general status of your different apps.
While this battery widget does have a lot of features, there are times that you might get annoyed with the pop-up ads while analyzing your data. Overall, though, it is a good app that continues to get updates and bug fixes years after it was first released.
Get GSam Battery Monitor on the Google Play Store
8. Next Battery
Developer: MacroPinch
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Platform: Android and Wear OS
Next Battery is MacroPinch’s replacement for their older “Battery” app. Laden with more accurate statistic displays in a sleek new app, Next Battery is a total upgrade. It now displays battery charge in 1% increments, battery temperature, input and output voltage, as well as overall battery life and battery type. While these features have been standard for most of the previous entries in this list, Next Battery has one feature unique to it — Wear OS compatibility. Not only can you use this app with your Android phone, but you can also use it for your Wear OS smartwatches!
Get Next Battery on the Google Play Store
9. Battery Widget % Level Plus
Developer: M2Catalyst, LLC
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Platform: Android
Yet another Android exclusive app, Battery Widget % Level Plus shows users the same statistics as most of the previous entries on this list — battery charge percentage, input or output voltage, battery temperature, overall battery health, charging status, and battery type. What does set this battery widget apart are two of its additional features. The first of these is a 1×1 and 2×2 battery widget that is far smaller than the usual 2×3 or 3×3 widgets that take up a lot of your home screen’s space.
The second feature is unique since it is a signal finder. This feature takes note of the available and accessible cellular data signals when you decide to turn the feature on. It will constantly figure out what the signal reception is within your vicinity and displays it on a map. With this feature, you can figure out where to change between 4G LTE or 5G signals to get the best cellular data.
Get Battery Widget % Level Plus on the Google Play Store
10. Battery Widget & Color Widgets
Developer: Smart Widget Labs Company Limited
Price: Free with in-app purchases
Platform: iOS
Battery Widget & Color Widgets is a battery widget for iOS devices that is more beautiful than it is functional. Compared to the other widget apps on this list, Battery Widget & Color Widgets only has a very superficial look at your battery’s information. It only presents your battery charge percentage, its charging status, and whether your device is on low-power mode or not. However, it does have decent storage, memory, and network monitors that show you how much storage space you have free or used, how much of your phone’s random access memory (RAM) is being used by apps, and a detailed network connection status.
Get Battery Widget & Color Widgets on the Apple App Store
11. BatteryBot Battery Indicator PRO
Developer: Darshan Computing LLC
Price: $2.99
Platform: Android
A longstanding app originally created in 2009, BatteryBot Battery Indicator PRO offers most of the features the other Android apps on this battery widget list have. These features are notifications for your battery’s different charging status, a 1×1 home screen widget, battery information including battery percentage, temperature, battery type, overall battery health, and battery input or output voltage.
While it is feature-complete and properly and periodically updated, the $2.99 fee is a bit too much compared to the other free alternatives on this list.
Get BatteryBot Battery Indicator PRO on the Google Play Store
12. Battery Saver Frank-remark
Developer: ArtsPlanet
Price: Free
Platform: Android
Now for something extremely different. More of a cute widget than a proper battery widget, the Battery Saver Frank-remark does not feature any of the data-heavy statistics present in other widgets on this list. Instead, this cute widget gives you the ability to kill or stop active and background apps whenever you need to.
Get Battery Saver Frank-remark on the Google Play Store
13. BatteryPhone
Developer: Keietsu Yasuhara
Price: Free
Platform: iOS
BatteryPhone may be the last battery widget on this list but it’s equally worth downloading as the rest on this list. A pretty good app that works for both iOS and Watch OS, BatteryPhone has a plain interface that needs a better English translation. Created by a Japanese developer, this app just displays your phone and watch’s battery charge percentage and can give out notifications based on what percentage it reaches.
Get BatteryPhone on the Apple App Store
Why Do You Need a Battery Widget?
Is your phone discharging much faster than usual? How long does it take to fully charge my phone? Is the battery overcharged? There are a lot of potential problems you can encounter with your phone’s battery as it ages, and these are just some of the questions you can answer if you install a battery widget. As we explained earlier, battery widgets give users a lot of information about their smartphones and battery interaction. With this information, you can then predict how your phone will react to the way you use and charge your phone, and make a few tweaks to address some battery-related issues.
One of these would be to use a more appropriate charger, like switching from a lower output wireless charger to a high output fast charger. Other examples would be to learn when your phone overcharges and to stop it, change how you use power-hungry apps, or use the information to determine when your battery is starting to die and need replacing.
How to Add Battery Widgets to Your Homescreen
For iOS and iPhone users, we have a full article explaining how to add, remove, or customize widgets on iPhone. Those on Android, however, can do the following after installing their chosen widget app:
1. Go to your phone’s home screen and press on any empty space.
2. While holding, wait for the screen to change into a short menu.
3. Click on the “Widgets” icon.
4. Touch and hold the widget you want to place on your home screen.
5. Move the widget to where you want it to be.
6. Enjoy your new widget!
Other Battery Saving Tips
And there you have it, our list of the 13 best battery widgets for Android and iPhones! Now that you know how your phone’s battery behaves with your use, we hope you can extend your battery life as much as you can. If you want to get a higher capacity battery, though, you may want to look into our list of the phones with the best battery life or our list of the best battery phone cases and the best power banks and portable chargers.
