Return to Oreo’s Battery Menu on Android P

As it turns out, Android P is in the spotlight. Is though everything perfect? Don’t you even think so! Besides the obvious excitement for those worthy of attention features, Android P Developer Preview also comes with the unpleasant surprise of a new “Battery” menu that no longer lets you see apps that are draining your battery nor gives access to usage details.

In Oreo, on the main page of the “Battery” menu, there is a list of apps, their battery consumption, as well as screen usage. Then, under the option “Battery usage,” you can see screen-on-time under “Screen usage” and call me crazy, but I liked things much more this way. If you also want to return to Oreo’s Battery Menu on Android P, then this guide is perfect.

For that, you must unlock the hidden Feature flags menu in Android P, but not before unlocking the hidden Developer options menu in Settings. Therefore, open up your Settings, tap on System, then on Advanced. Now, hit About phone, tap on “Advanced” again, then quickly tap at least 7 times on the Build number at the bottom to enable the Developer options menu. You may need to enter your PIN after 7 taps before it can be unlocked, but it will get you there, that’s for sure.

Now, you are ready for the actual procedure:

How to Return to Oreo’s Battery Menu on Android P:

1. With the Developer options available to you, enter into the “System” menu;
2. Then, select Developer options;
3. Tap on Feature flags under the Debugging section to see all of the system-wide flags you can toggle on or off;
4. In the Developer Preview, there were eight flags, while the Public Beta dropped it to just six, and toggling them on makes them true and off makes false;
5. Here, you want to change settings_battery_v2 from on (true) to off (false);
6. Now, go to “Battery” in Settings and enjoy things as they used to be before: the Last full charge and Screen usage since full charge items are finally back up at the top again, along with the App usage since full charge section or the Power management label that you always enjoyed having.

Has this trick worked for you too?