Samsung recently changed the colour of the battery indicators in the newly produced Galaxy Note 7 handsets in order to allow consumers to differentiate the old faulty units from the new ones. However, it appears like the new change is violating certain Android guidelines.
According to Google’s Android Compatibility Definition Document, all companies that install Android on their devices are required to keep the status bar icons white and not any other colour. This is done so that the style remains uniform across different platforms.
“It is important the status bar icon style is maintained across different device implementations. Therefore, Android device implementations MUST use white for system status icons (such as signal strength and battery level) and notifications issued by the system,” reads the document.
Moreover, since most of Google’s Android apps like Play Store, Gmail, YouTube and others must be licensed from Google, it is essential that Samsung’s new and what seems like a major fix also requires to be approved by Google before it is released to users.
Fortunately, both these companies have found another way through this problem. Google seems to have given Samsung the permission to use a green battery icon with a small white border. This way, although the battery will remain green in colour, the white colour line will be visible in the background.
“We worked with Samsung on this given extraordinary circumstances. White border around icon to ensure compatibility,” Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google's SVP of Android, Chrome OS, and Google Play, confirmed on Twitter.
