In the lead up to the public launch of Android M, Google is going to tweak and improve the update using its Android M Developer Program. Today El Goog released the first update to that program, and in the process it added a pretty awesome new feature.
It’s been discovered that Android M Developer Preview 2 includes a “System UI tuner” that allows you to tweak the status bar of your device. For example, you can remove just about all of the icons, including the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular data icons, leaving just the time and battery. You can also add the battery percentage inside the battery icon.
Android users have long been able to tweak their status bars by rooting their devices and tinkering with the deeper parts of the device. What’s notable about today’s news is that Google is allowing users to easily do the same thing. I like having battery percentage shown so that I know exactly where my battery is at, so I’m pretty pumped that Android M makes it easy to do that. Here’s to hoping that this feature makes it into the public version of Android M!
Also included in System UI tuner is a “demo mode” that’ll remove notifications from your status bar, turn on the cellular signal, lock the battery percentage to 100 percent, and force the clock to display 5:20. This allows developers to have clean and consistent status bars for taking screenshots of their apps.
If you’re not yet running the Android M Developer Preview and you want to check it out, you can download it from Google right here. Do note, though, that the preview is only available to the Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and Nexus Player.
