I don’t know about you, but I was hoping Google would finally give us a battery percentage indicator in Android 4.4 KitKat. Sure, there are plenty of third-party apps that’ll do this in Google Play, but none are as clean or as simple as the baked-in solutions provided by the likes of Samsung and HTC.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be — but there is a way you can add a battery percentage indicator without rooting under Android 4.4. Just follow the steps below.

Firstly, let me tell you about the caveats. Although this is the closest you’ll get to a baked-in solution — the percentage is displayed within the battery indicator — it’s not perfect. The font used only comes in one color, and it’s the same color as the battery indicator.

What that means is, you won’t see anything when your battery is full, but as it dies down the percentage will appear.

However, I’ve been using this for several days now and I’ve been really pleased with it. If you’re anything like me, you don’t need to know your percentage when you have plenty of battery — you only need to worry about it when your battery’s getting low, so it works pretty well.

Here’s how to get it:

1. Download and install the “Enable Battery Percentage” app from the XDA Developers forum (you’ll need to ensure that you have enabled the option to install apps from third-party sources first)
2. Open the app and tap “Enable Battery Percent”
3. Close the app and restart your device (this is necessary or the tweak won’t work)

After the restart, you’ll see a percentage indicator inside your battery like that in the images below.

Hopefully Google will add this official one day, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up — Android is five years old now and we’re still yet to see it.

• SourceXDA Developers
• ViaMatt Brian