Apple makes the battery indicator better in new iOS 16.1 beta

This is the old version. The new one will fill in based on how much battery you have. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple’s latest iOS 16.1 beta addresses a major complaint about the battery percentage indicator that was introduced with iOS 16: now, the battery icon will be filled in based on how much juice it actually has. The battery percentage still appears within the icon, which personally isn’t my favorite design, but now the whole thing looks a lot closer to how it should have been from the start.

Here’s an example of the revised indicator from a colleague running the newest iOS 16.1 beta. Users in the iOS beta subreddit shared examples as well.

The battery, at 76 percent, is mostly filled in.

The improved indicator isn’t the only battery status update. iOS 16.1 beta 2 can also show the battery percentage above the time on your lock screen when you begin to charge your device.

We don’t know when Apple plans to release iOS 16.1 publicly, but fingers crossed it arrives sometime soon. The company is also working on fixes for issues that have cropped up following the release of iOS 16 and the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro last week, including frequent “allow paste” prompts (a problem that’s reportedly fixed in the new iOS 16.1 beta) and unexpected camera shake in some apps while using the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.