We told you last month about a neat Apple Watch utility app called Power, and today it’s learning a handy new trick and becoming even more useful. Power, created in part by jailbreak developer Surenix, lets you check how much battery power your iPhone has remotely from your Apple Watch. As I mentioned before, this is a practical utility as it’s not uncommon to use the Apple Watch to stay on top of notifications while the iPhone charges in another room.
Starting with version 1.1, Power is adding support for notifications. This means you can charge your phone and know when it hits certain percentages in case you’re waiting for that level to take it off the charger and head out the door.
Power also alerts you on your Apple Watch when your iPhone drops to specific levels so you don’t get surprised by a dead phone if you can help it. Specifically, Power for Apple Watch alerts you within these ranges: 100%, 95% – 85%, 55% – 45%, 25% – 15%, and 10% – 0%. The alerts aren’t super useful if you’re not using an Apple Watch and more granular options in the future would be nice, but it can be turned off or on and it’s a nice addition to the app in general as long as you’re using your Apple Watch.
You can toggle alerts on and off within the Notifications section of the Settings app, of course, and Power recommends leaving Background App Refresh on to make monitoring battery level and pushing alerts out possible. While iOS sends modal alerts for low battery at 20% and under, those alerts don’t carry over to the Apple Watch.
If you have an iPhone and an Apple Watch and either frequently use your Apple Watch in another room while your iPhone charges, or you just want to be able to catch low power warnings on your Apple Watch throughout the day, then check out Power on the App Store for $0.99.
