For a few days it is no longer possible to see the battery level of an AirTag within the native Apple “locate” application. This was previously possible, but recent updates to iOS 15.6 and the latest iOS 16 beta removed this feature without the Apple brand giving much explanation.
As a reminder, AirTags are small GPS trackers presented by Apple last year and marketed for a few months. If they have sometimes been used for dishonest purposesAirTags remain very practical solutions for finding your keys or your wallet in no time thanks to a little technological boost.
Apple no longer wants to display the battery
While AirTags have managed to find a place in the lives of many users, they liked to know how the battery of these tracers might evolve over time. If it’s just a simple flat battery in the AirTags, Apple had (and still has) the technical capabilities to assess the level of autonomy, but since the latest updates this information is no longer accessible. .
If exactly a percentage giving an idea of the battery of the AirTag was not displayed, Apple had taken care to give an idea of the autonomy of the object by placing a small gray icon next to the name given to the tracker. But this indication has therefore disappeared for a few days.
A calculated choice from Apple
If we might initially think of a simple bug caused by the update, this removal of the icon seems to have been wanted by Apple. The apple brand has indeed removed it both from new versions of iOS, but also from macOS and even from WatchOS.
Another intriguing point is that the internal support document, which deals with repairing and replacing the battery of AirTags, no longer mentions this icon, which shows that Apple decided to remove it with knowledge of cause.
But then how can we know if for AirTag still has battery. Well, Apple doesn’t leave its customers in the dark for long since users always receive a notification when the AirTag’s battery is low. According to some comments, the icon might even reappear (in red this time) when the battery is almost empty.
