How to Retrieve Battery Information in Android

Getting battery-related information, such as its level and state, is essential for developing Android apps that handle battery life effectively. The Android platform provides the BatteryManager class for this purpose, but it can be confusing to use.

Understanding the BatteryManager Class

Despite its name, the BatteryManager class is not a typical class with methods. Instead, it's an enum with various constants representing different battery states and properties. This can be confusing at first, but it's designed to provide a consistent way to access battery information.

Retrieving Battery Level

To retrieve the current battery level, you can use the BATTERY_PROPERTY_CAPACITY constant:

BatteryManager bm = (BatteryManager) context.getSystemService(BATTERY_SERVICE);
int batteryLevel = bm.getIntProperty(BatteryManager.BATTERY_PROPERTY_CAPACITY);

This will return an integer representing the battery level as a percentage.

Retrieving Battery State

To determine the current battery state, such as whether it's discharging, charging, or plugged in, you can use the following constants:

• BATTERY_STATUS_UNKNOWN
• BATTERY_STATUS_CHARGING
• BATTERY_STATUS_DISCHARGING
• BATTERY_STATUS_NOT_CHARGING
• BATTERY_STATUS_FULL

You can use the getBatteryStatus() method to retrieve the current state:

int batteryStatus = bm.getIntProperty(BatteryManager.BATTERY_STATUS);

Conclusion

By utilizing the BatteryManager class, you can easily access detailed battery information, including its level and state, in your Android applications. This empowers you to manage battery life effectively and provide users with real-time battery-related updates.