The Nintendo Switch has been sitting in peoples' homes for almost four whole years now, but it seems the hybrid console might still have the odd trick up its sleeve that plenty of owners haven't yet discovered.
Over on the Nintendo Switch subreddit, site user antglyforreal has shared a quick fact about the console's battery indicator viewable from the Home menu. It's hardly a revelation, and won't necessarily change the way you use your console, but with so many Switch owners seemingly unaware that the feature existed, the post has shot right up to the very top of the subreddit with more than 6,000 upvotes.
So, what exactly is this feature? Well, first of all, you need to understand that there are two options for your battery display, and this can be changed in your system settings. One option displays a battery percentage next to the battery icon, while the other turns that off for the sake of simplicity.
If you choose to have the display off, it would make sense to assume that you can never see the exact percentage without heading into the settings and turning it back on. But, as antglyforreal notes, mashing the ZL and ZR buttons makes the system display the percentage for a short time, meaning you can check it whenever you like without having to keep the number on your home screen permanently.
As you can see, the percentage appears in a different place to usual, sitting just on top of the battery indicator. It might not be the most exciting feature in the Switch's arsenal, but we dare say there are plenty of people out there who had no idea that it was even possible – nowhere in the console's settings is the feature mentioned, so why would anyone try?
Did you know about this nifty little feature already? Is it news to you, and do you think it might actually come in handy? Give it a go on your own Switch and share your amazement with us in the comments below.
[source reddit.com]
Comments 69
Wow, if only there was a setting where you can turn on the battery percentage.
Man I'm a Party Pooper.
Just here to share my amazement as per your suggestion
Slow news day eh?
I don't get how people didn't know that was a thing, I think it took me just a few hours to figure that out.
I'm a numbers guy, so mine's set to show the percentage. But that's still a neat trick for those who don't display the percentage constantly.
This is actually pretty useful, didn't know about this. I might just turn off my percentage indicator now since I can check the percentage that way.
@Shaymin I never press any buttons on a console home screen except the dpad/analog and whatever confirm and cancel buttons are. So I think it's safe to say I would have never figured this out on my own. I imagine a lot of people are the same way.
Granted this does nothing for me as I like the percentage on at all times but it's a neat thing to hear about.
@Shaymin Because most people don't mash zr and zl on the home menu? 🤔
i pretty much use this after playing whatever just to see how much it takes out of my battery, mainly just out of curiousity
Having a percentage should be the norm (if it's accurate) ! I remember trying to turn my batteries in my game boy to try to make the battery led disappear. Give us more juice dammit
Also:
Do people who reply "slow news day" know that what they're really saying is "I don't care about this so I'm gonna pretend that I'm not able to read any other page on this site". lol
What kind of deranged sociopath would choose not to always display the percentage?? Madness
Battery level always on % display...it’s a given!
@Sabruka It may be, but this is better than the rumour and lets-bash-Nintendo-for-existing articles.
Or...just tap the icon and the battery percentage shows up. Will someone make a Reddit post about this too?
@HotGoomba Found the person who didn’t read the article.
I would of expected whenever people get a new console/game they go through all the buttons to see what they do if anything.
@Sabruka What? This is the biggest news day in a long time. We have a direct coming tomorrow. So much news that they haven't even gotten to the Mario Kart story.
this isn't any different than pushing the battery icon on the touch screen digitizer. useless article.
I dont like having the numbers there. It looks cluttered
Hiding this from general awareness was an evil, greedy move by Nintendo.
Yes, IIRC it was in one of the earliest tips from Switch news section. Although if this was sensational enough to spawn a newspost, I guess I'm one of the fifteen people who ever reads that.😆
I prefer to have the percentage visible at all times, though. Much as I love my Vita and my clamshells (PSP at least allows to dig the percentage out of a settings menu), their battery display method is a lot less informative to my eyes. Numbers FTW.
just have it always enabled why would you disable the percentage in the first place
This changes everything.
I'm definitely a full time percentage display guy. This is a thoughtful feature on Nintendo's part, though.
o that's how it appears! i've done it accidentally many times
I mostly just tap the battery icon to see the percentage.
Why would anyone have the percentage turned off? What possible downside is there to having it displayed? Are there people with a pathological hatred of the % symbol?
@Heavyarms55 I simply don't like thinking about it unless I want to check it. The switch battery drains fast, and having the percentage always showing up in the menu just makes me aware of that fact.
So, "out of sight, out of mind".
Not much news in Nintendoland these days.
@Sabruka give it a day! 😁
or they could add a way to turn off the switch remotely.
so this is the calm before the storm that is nintendo direct
I've known this since 2017
I remember this, and then I set it to always show percentage, thanks for the reminder I guess? Also seeing percentage is only really useful in handheld mode, so I believe tapping the battery is easier anyways, huh.
Wow, this... this is mind blowing!
@Eel I can't say I understand or can relate but... okay. To each their own.
Actually quite neat.
the real question is: why someone want to turn off the battery percentage and see it sometimes by pressing zl/zr? since day one i have always the percentage
Why not do it live not give a picture. That's so lame....
And I thought it would be a option like battery charged left or something in that direction
@TheBigK this guy 👉😬👈
Mind blown. Had no idea
Ok, but why would you NOT wanna have the percentage displayed at all times? That seems like an absolute no-brainer to me; I always want that displayed on any device.
Gaming will never be the same again.
@CactusMan I remember in Pokemon X and Y, when the battery drops below 25%, the game will start nagging you to charge the battery.
And your character won't be able to walk 2 feet without the game before the game asks you again to plug the cable in.
So it's almost like you want to keep it charged so the game won't start yelling at you.
I can only think of a couple of games that had a perpetual battery meter in-game.
I think it was Tales of Eternia PSP, which someone made a ROM hack to disable the battery display. I'll agree it was kind of annoying since it would print on top of other graphics.
Pokemon Gen 5 did that as well, but at least it was part of a UI so it wasn't obstructing anything.
@TheBigK - It defies all logic, like having a speedometer without hash marks or numbers. These people are monsters.
Did I know about it? Or was I simply smart enough to just keep the percentage on all the time? Very slow news day; indeed the calm before the Direct storm.
im surprised people wouldnt want their percent to show off all the time, just keep those stats up. but i can see why this would go unnoticed for so long
@HotGoomba as show superfluous information cluttering the UI? No thanks. Just want it to show percentage just when I want it to.
I never have the percentage permanently displayed. I would just touch the battery icon with my finger to display the percentage.
I'm sure you all know the trick to rapidly charge the battery with you microwave too, right?
@Jeaz It's barely taking up space, what else is gonna be on it's spot? A mobile data symbol? A bluetooth symbol? HA!
Wow, now that I know that, I kinda like the % number turned off now, guess I'll do that! 😁
You can also tap the battery icon to see the percentage, which I randomly discovered because I like playing around with menus sometimes because I'm weird like that!
I recognize how the always on news dot on the NSO icon, that never indicates any actual news, brings you to also ignore the news dot on the channels icon. Hope ninty changes this soon.
@HotGoomba it’s not about something else showing, it’s about not having unnecessary bits of information on the screen.
@neufel Bingo!
Why would you have it off? There's plenty of space for it to display.
Instructions unclear; sold Switch to buy Gamestop stock.
I didn't know, i always have the percentage to gauge how much load my Switch is under.
@Jeaz Well personally, I can't really live without a battery percentage symbol, but everyone lives differently.
You know that you can just gently press them both together not mash them! do people seriously not take care of their joy-cons.....
All these people mashing them to see their percentage maybe we will see less joy con drift and more problems with the ZL and ZR buttons!
Legit question, why do people turn off the batter percentage on any device? I get personal preference is a thing, but it’s such a useful basic feature, I don’t really understand why turning it off is even an option.
Yes, I knew that. You don't need to "mash" the ZR/ZL triggers, though...you have to press either of them, hold it down and then press the other one. BTW, it's also possible to use the touchscreen, just tap on the battery icon.
You can also touch the battery icon to reveal the percentage, but I hate using the touchscreen if I don't have to (fingerprints!) so its nice to know this option exists. 😄
If you turn the battery percentage on and mash ZL and ZR the indicator permanently disappears and you never have to charge your nintendo switch again.
@HotGoomba indeed. So it’s nice to have options.
@Shaymin
yeah, whenever I get something I scavenge around for any cool features, don't know how people have trouble with the menus because Nintendo's are some of the smoothest and easiest to navigate I've seen.
@HotGoomba there is, go to settings on switch, go to system, then choose battery percentage, then set it to on
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