BATTERY_PROPERTY_CURRENT_NOW not working on every device. What are alternatives?

Question

My app uses BatteryManager.BATTERY_PROPERTY_CURRENT_NOW to get the battery current of the device:

BatteryManager batteryManager = (BatteryManager) context.getSystemService(Context.BATTERY_SERVICE);
int current = batteryManager.getIntProperty(BatteryManager.BATTERY_PROPERTY_CURRENT_NOW), context);

However, it does not work for example on a Samsung Galaxy Tab A. There it returns just 0.

Other apps show the current even on that device. How do they do it? What are alternatives to my method?

Answer 1

From your question ("returns just 0") please take a look at the documentation on getIntProperty: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/BatteryManager#getIntProperty(int)

If the property is not supported or there is any other error, return

(a) 0 if targetSdkVersion < VERSION_CODES.P

or

(b) Integer.MIN_VALUE if targetSdkVersion >= VERSION_CODES.P.