My Android finally shows real battery health like an iPhone

For years, iPhone users enjoyed a simple luxury that Android never quite figured out. Open Settings, tap Battery Health, and there it is, a clear percentage showing how much capacity your battery has retained. Meanwhile, Android users like me were left fumbling through hidden menus, paying for third-party apps, or jumping through hoops to access what should be basic information about our devices.

The situation got significantly worse when Android 16 started restricting access to battery APIs that apps relied on for detailed health readings. While this update did finally give newer Pixel models a native battery health menu, it essentially locked everyone else out of accessing accurate battery stats. Now, trusted apps like BetterBatteryStats and GSam Battery Monitor are either broken or discontinued. Since my old Pixel 7a didn’t get the battery health update, I decided to look for other solutions and found that Plus Plus Battery gave me the most accurate results.

Plus Plus Battery is the workaround that actually works

The best free battery app alternative

After testing several free alternatives, Plus Plus Battery stands out as the best solution available right now. It’s completely free and open source, has no ads, and most importantly, it actually works without requiring you to root your phone (though it does provide extra measurement with root permissions). Despite all the restrictions with Android 16, this app finds a legitimate workaround to give you meaningful battery health data without compromising on functionality.

On both my non-rooted Pixel 7a and Pixel 9 Pro, it delivered readings like charge cycle count, battery temperature, voltage, current draw, and power consumption in real time. More importantly, the app provides full charge capacity calculations through reliable FCC estimation, which gives you a solid indicator of your battery’s health.

However, this app isn’t available on the Google Play Store. I had to install F-Droid and sideload Plus Plus Battery on my phones. Beyond sideloading, I also had to disable battery optimization. Lastly, I needed to calibrate the battery current multiplier because different brands seem to be reading battery current with different multipliers.

To set the correct battery current, I tried different multipliers until I got current readings that matched what I expected from my phone during charging. Since my Pixel 7a has a maximum charging speed of 18W, I found that a DivideMultiplier of 10^3 gave me the closest battery power readings, which fluctuated around 14W to 17W while charging. Note that battery charging speed typically slows down at the 80% mark, so try calibrating when your phone is at a lower battery percentage.

Plus Plus Battery doesn’t directly display a battery health percentage. Instead, it gives you Max Full Charge Capacity (FCC) readings in mAh. By comparing this reading with your phone’s original design capacity, you can calculate the percentage yourself. For example, Plus Plus Battery gave my Pixel 7a an FCC of 3768 mAh, and its original battery design capacity is 4300 mAh. Dividing 3768 by 4300 and multiplying by 100 gives me around 87% of my phone’s original battery capacity. While not concerning, it is a good sign that I should put some effort into extending my Android’s battery life.

Similarly, my Pixel 9 Pro has a battery design capacity of 4700 mAh and was given an FCC of 4650 mAh, which is around 99% of its original battery capacity. Since the native battery health percentage was available on the Pixel 9 Pro after the Android 16 update, I was able to compare and found that the app’s 99% reading was the same as the 99% that Pixel’s native battery reading gave.

There are limitations

Getting accurate results was not convenient

While Plus Plus Battery provides pretty good battery readings, it won’t be as in depth without root permissions. Without rooting, the app can’t access the deepest battery data that manufacturers keep locked away in secure kernel spaces. Android 16’s restrictions on battery APIs mean the app relies on estimation methods rather than direct hardware readings from your device’s battery management system.

Rooting your phone is always an effective solution, but it’s often a frustrating process. Phone manufacturers now lock their bootloaders, and there’s always the risk of boot looping your phone and voiding your warranty. Is it really worth it to root your phone just to get some battery measurements? Without rooting, Plus Plus Battery uses calculations like Full Charge Capacity (FCC) and State of Health (SOH), which allow the app to estimate battery readings.

These estimations work by observing how your battery charges and discharges over multiple cycles, then calculating the health based on that behavior. It’s similar to how popular battery apps like AccuBattery work, but without the ads and paid features. The algorithm learns your charging patterns and becomes more accurate over time. This means you’ll need to cycle your battery several times to get accurate results. I had to cycle both my phones several times to get accurate results, which takes time and isn’t as convenient as paid services.

You’ll see slight fluctuations while using the app, which is completely normal. The more you use it and let it gather data, the more accurate the estimations become. While it’s not as convenient as other methods for checking your Android’s battery health, Plus Plus Battery is currently the only free, no-ads, non-root solution that provides results as close to accurate when compared with my newer Pixel’s native tool.

The only free app that worked

Android’s fragmentation means there’s no one-size-fits-all battery health solution like the iPhone offers. But Plus Plus Battery gets remarkably close without asking you to root your device or pay for premium features. It’s not perfect, it needs manual calibration, and accurate measurements take time. Yet it’s the best free and open-source solution I’ve found after testing all kinds of apps from Play Store and F-Droid. For those looking for alternatives to BBS and GSAM after the latest Android update, Plus Plus Battery is an app you should try.