Bluetooth headset battery level app?

[TxAndroidGuy]

Hi everyone,

One of my friends with an iPhone showed me how a battery level meter is next to the bluetooth symbol when his headset is connected(new feature in iOS5 from what I found online). He was also using a cheap Motorola headset too. Is there an app or widget that does the same thing on Android? Thanks,

Adam

 

[PvilleComp]

I did a Market Play search and did not see anything, but give it a week or so and I'm sure that will change.

 

[pazzo02]

I wonder how that would actually work? How would the phone know what the battery level of another device is unless that device is reporting it? And if all bluetooth headsets report their battery level over their bluetooth connection, I'm really amazed there's not like 5 Android apps for it.

Edit: I just did some research and found that it is indeed a function of iOS, and has been apparently since the beginning, but will only work on headsets that are designed to report their battery level, as I suspected. I guess Google doesn't think anyone would be interested in this feature, or they would have built it into Android.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...o-iFDA&usg=AFQjCNHYsuBE93tHFMBdGiS1H8dbIEjBGQ

 

[pazzo02]

I thought about it for a while, and I wouldn't be surprised if Apple has a patent on this.

 

[Rukbat]

You can't patent an industry spec developed by another organization.

 

[pazzo02]

You can't patent an industry spec developed by another organization.

Did you read the link in my post? This was developed by Apple.

 

[TxAndroidGuy]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I searched for one too but thought I was losing my mind when I couldn't find one. I later searched for specific brands and noticed that Jawbone has an app that has this feature. Maybe an app/widget will be developed later to work with all brands later? In the mean time, it's no big deal since mine has a voice that says "Battery High"/"Battery Low". It would just be nice to see a level/indicator that shows how much battery power remains.

 

[Sazali9]

There's one called Headset Battery Android. But the widget only calculates on what you input to be the device average usage time.

 

[JW Ghost]

Believe it or not - Microsoft Windows does it - so I don't think its an Apple Patent so I don't see why someone can't do a generic app.

 

[gofmarat]

Still no news regarding this feature, I just bought a pair of Bluebuds x and can't see the headset's battery level.

 

[Mooncatt]

Like Pazzo02 updated, the headset would have to report the level to begin with. Would be a nice feature, but my headset has a 22 hour talk time, so I'm not all that concerned.

 

[gofmarat]

I know that the headset does report the battery level on iOS, so that is probably not it.

 

[jim2112]

I have been looking for an app to report the battery level on my motorola S11 HD bluetooth headphones too. I believe the manufacturer would need to include that ability into the device. They may have written code into the headphones to report to iphone and not android, I don't know. I know my jawbone has an app that does exactly that for the jawbone bluetooth ear piece and the jawbone bluetooth speakers so Android will do it, if the device developer designs the product to support it. My jawbone reports the battery level in my ear when i turn it on and if I press the button so the app is just nice if I'm on it a while. The headphones don't report the battery level at all and probably gets lots of unnecessary charging cycles. Something I will consider the next bluetooth headphones I buy.

 

[hallux]

I have been looking for an app to report the battery level on my motorola S11 HD bluetooth headphones too. I believe the manufacturer would need to include that ability into the device. They may have written code into the headphones to report to iphone and not android, I don't know. I know my jawbone has an app that does exactly that for the jawbone bluetooth ear piece and the jawbone bluetooth speakers so Android will do it, if the device developer designs the product to support it. My jawbone reports the battery level in my ear when i turn it on and if I press the button so the app is just nice if I'm on it a while. The headphones don't report the battery level at all and probably gets lots of unnecessary charging cycles. Something I will consider the next bluetooth headphones I buy.

The S11 gives you an estimated runtime (fairly accurate from what I've found) when it connects to the host device. When I power on my S11 Flex HD it says "Device 1 connected, # hours play time remaining"

 

[jim2112]

The S11 gives you an estimated runtime (fairly accurate from what I've found) when it connects to the host device. When I power on my S11 Flex HD it says "Device 1 connected, # hours play time remaining"

When I power my S11 HD (not the flex model) it says "Welcome to the Motorola S11 HD, Device 1 connected" but says nothing about # hours play time remaining. I guess this is a difference in the models. Again, many of my prior Bluetooth devices report the battery status, kind of an important feature for a manufacturer to leave out. I will make certain any future devices have it, or I will not buy them.

 

[hallux]

When I power my S11 HD (not the flex model) it says "Welcome to the Motorola S11 HD, Device 1 connected" but says nothing about # hours play time remaining. I guess this is a difference in the models. Again, many of my prior Bluetooth devices report the battery status, kind of an important feature for a manufacturer to leave out. I will make certain any future devices have it, or I will not buy them.

Hmm, wonder if that was a change with the later-model S-11 Flex units also. They updated the materials due to a durability issue, though my first-generation unit is still working well and hasn't broken.

 

[Rukbat]

Did you read the link in my post? This was developed by Apple.

Apple can have a patent on their code, but the ability for a Bluetooth device to be asked for its battery state isn't something developed by Apple (Ericsson invented Bluetooth technology and it's currently owned by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, of which Apple is just one of about 20,000 members) , so they can't patent having an app ask the headset for its battery state.

They can copyright the iOS code for doing it, but since no one else uses iOS, why would anyone care? Code to do the same thing written in Java wouldn't fall under the very narrow copyright Apple would have. (If the software industry worked that way - that you can get a copyright on "software that does this" - every cellphone but Motorola, or maybe every one not licensed by the successors to Reginald Fessenden, would be in violation.) You can't patent or copyright an idea or a concept.

I read your post and re-read the document you linked to (I've read it before). Now you read the relevant laws. All Apple is claiming in that document is an API - one that no one would use unless they were writing an iOS app.

 

[cruisen]

Why isn't this feature still available somehow on Android? Seriously getting sick of this. I also cannot get gapless playback with Google music on my HTC one.

 

[hallux]

Why isn't this feature still available somehow on Android? Seriously getting sick of this. I also cannot get gapless playback with Google music on my HTC one.

Some bluetooth devices have the capability. This feature requires some kind of support on the headset side plus an app to read the device battery level. Plantronics is one that actually does have this capability https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...m.plantronics.widget.ion&hl=en&token=_ZZmT-Px

Notice that the app only supports certain headsets (only Plantronics ones and sadly NOT my Voyager 510), so there is likely a capability that needs to be enabled or built into the headset for this to work.

 

[Rukbat]

There's an old saying - you can't get data that isn't there, you can only make it up. And that's what any app showing time left with a headset that doesn't send the phone the battery level (and minimum usable level - that varies from headset to headset) is doing, taking the average time the charge in a Bluetooth headset lasts, subtracting the time you've used yours and giving you the result. It's slightly better than an uneducated guess. Knowing how long your headset lasts on a charge, and keeping track of how long you've used it since last charge, is more accurate. Most Motorola 720/850 type headsets give you warnings on the charge light at 4-7.5 hours left and <4 hours left. Not great but better than nothing.