PhoneBattery is a tiny iOS and watchOS app that can show your iPhone’s battery status on your Apple Watch. It features complications, custom app icons and is completely free. You can download it on the App Store.
Setting up Battery Notifications
Unfortunately, iOS has quite strict restrictions on running apps in the background and delivering local notifications. Therefore, PhoneBattery can not reliably delivery notifications in the background.
To still receive notifications on your iPhone’s battery status, you can set up a automation within the Shortcuts app. You can find a guide for that here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to pay for using PhoneBattery?
Absolutely not! PhoneBattery is 100% free. To support the further development, you can contribute a tip via the app.
Why does the complication not always show the exact state of my iPhone’s battery?
Unfortunately, iOS and watchOS have certain limitations on how often they can refresh widgets and complications in the background. As PhoneBattery always has to wake up your phone (and the companion app), the system might restrict these refreshes even more. Apple describes the updating process here:
Each configured widget receives a limited number of refreshes every day. Several factors affect how many refreshes a widget receives, such as whether the containing app is running in the foreground or background, how frequently the widget is shown onscreen, and what types of activities the containing app engages in.
Usually, the system should refresh the complication every approximately 15 minutes. if it doesn’t, make sure the iPhone app is installed and running in the background. Try to avoid closing it manually.
Why does PhoneBattery show an inaccurate battery level on iOS 17?
Apple has changed the system APIs for accessing the device’s battery level on iOS 17 and no longer provides third-party developers with an accurate battery charge percentage. The OS rounds the battery level to the closest multiple of 0.05. Unfortunately, I can’t change anything about this.