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Since the release of iOS 26, Apple has enhanced the built-in detection and display functions of the system in areas such as "Battery Health," "Battery Usage Monitoring," and "Charging Cycles."

For developers and testers, understanding and verifying the device's battery capacity and health status is not only beneficial for the accuracy of user-reported data but also facilitates the assessment of an app's power consumption and resource usage on the new system version.

This article introduces how to use various tools to view and monitor battery capacity/health status from multiple functional dimensions.

I. Key Dimensions for Viewing Battery Capacity and Health

In iOS 26, the main system metrics related to "Battery Capacity/Battery Health" include:

Maximum capacity percentage (i.e., "Battery Health") and charging cycle count.

Battery usage trends over the past few days or week, and which apps are consuming more power.

Active/background usage time, screen-active time, and additional power consumption due to weak cellular network coverage, all visible in system settings.

For development or testing purposes, this also includes using tools to read more in-depth battery diagnostic data (such as temperature, charge/discharge curves, and cycle count) after connecting the device to a computer.

These dimensions constitute our monitoring objectives for "viewing battery capacity and health status" in development or testing environments.

II. Multi-tool Combination: Who Uses What and How to Combine Them? To gain a more

comprehensive understanding of battery capacity and health, the following tool combination is recommended:

With this combination, you can fully understand the battery capacity and health status from five aspects: "System Self-Check", "Professional Diagnosis", "App Power Consumption Monitoring", "Resource Behavior Analysis", and "Trend Analysis".

III. Practical Workflow: Executing a Viewing and Monitoring Process on iOS 26

Below is a practical workflow applicable to the development/testing phase, helping you systematically view your device's battery capacity/health status and correlate it with app usage behavior.

Step 1: Environment Preparation and Baseline Collection

Select several devices (different models/different usage cycles) and upgrade them to iOS 26.

On each device, go to "Settings → Battery → Battery Health" and view the "Maximum Capacity Percentage" and "Charging Cycles" (if supported by the device) as a baseline.

Use iMazing or iTools to connect the devices to your computer and export a battery diagnostic report (including more detailed cycle counts, temperature, maximum capacity, etc.) for reference.

Install KeyMob on the device, enable the battery status monitoring module, and record hourly battery level changes, resource usage, and power consumption rate during device usage.

Step 2: Resource Behavior Simulation and Power Consumption Monitoring

Use automated scripts to trigger typical app usage scenarios (such as swiping, animations, resource loading, background switching).

-Monitor the battery level drop rate, resource usage changes, and CPU/GPU usage percentage using KeyMob. Mark abnormal battery drain or peak resource usage.

- Use Instruments' Energy/Power module to deeply analyze high power consumption periods and determine if they are related to resource operations, network requests, or file I/O.

Step 3: Track Capacity and Health Status Changes

After a period of use (e.g., several days or weeks), revisit "Settings → Battery Health" to check for any degradation in the maximum capacity percentage.

- Use diagnostic tools on a computer to check for abnormal increases in cycle count, excessively high temperatures, and unexpected capacity degradation.

- Compare with KeyMob data: If the rate of battery drain is accelerated and device resource usage is high while the capacity percentage remains high, it may indicate a power consumption issue rather than capacity degradation.

Step 4: Version/Model Difference Comparison and Correlation Analysis

Summarize baseline data, diagnostic reports, and KeyMob monitoring data from multiple devices (different models/different years of use).

- Compare capacity changes, power consumption rates, and resource usage across different models under iOS 26 to identify which types of devices are more prone to capacity degradation or power consumption stress.

- Correlate App usage behavior with battery status: If a particular app version has high resource consumption and rapid battery drain on the device, it may affect battery health.

Step 5: Optimization Suggestions and Monitoring Deployment

- If an app's behavior is found to cause faster battery drain or high resource consumption, optimize resource loading, caching strategies, and background task wake-up.

- Deploy battery status monitoring and alarm mechanisms (such as abnormal battery drain rate or capacity health percentage below the threshold) through KeyMob on production/user devices for operational monitoring.

- Regularly repeat the above process (e.g., quarterly) to continuously monitor battery capacity trends and promptly identify capacity degradation issues.

Optimization Suggestions and Common Pitfalls

When viewing and monitoring the battery capacity/health status of iOS 26 devices, pay attention to the following:

Do not rely solely on the maximum capacity percentage: While the capacity percentage is important, the rate of battery drain, cycle count, and temperature also affect the actual health status.

The monitoring module itself should have low power consumption: The sampling frequency of monitoring tools such as KeyMob should be controlled to avoid affecting battery changes.

Data may be unstable after the initial system upgrade: After upgrading to iOS 26, the device may perform background indexing and cache rebuilding tasks, which will temporarily increase power consumption.

Older devices should be monitored more closely: Devices used for many years may experience faster capacity degradation, and inefficient resource management may accelerate power consumption.

Ensure diverse data sources: Verify data through multiple channels, including system settings ("Settings → Battery"), desktop diagnostic tools, and KeyMob monitoring data.

Monitor regularly, not once: Capacity degradation is a slow process; reviewing/exporting diagnostic reports every few months is more reliable.

User behavior also has an impact: Frequent background refreshes, excessive screen time, and use in weak network conditions can all accelerate capacity degradation.