Beam

Beam is an open-source Android battery monitor for users who want live battery information available without opening a full settings screen. It can place a reading for power, current, voltage, or charge in the status bar, making battery conditions easier to check during device use. The app also opens to a detailed battery view with a clean, themeable interface.

The status-bar icon can use W, A, Ah, V, Wh, °C, or % as its selected unit, and several values can be stacked in the notification body. Inside the app, Beam displays power in watts, current in amps, voltage in volts, energy in watt-hours, temperature in degrees Celsius, and charge level as a percentage. It also shows charging status, plug type, when charging began, and the estimated time to full charge. Beam has no ads, tracking, data collection, third-party sharing, or unnecessary permissions.

Personalisation includes Material You dynamic colour on Android 12 and newer, or a custom seed colour selected from a 12-swatch palette. Light, Dark, System, and OLED-black themes are available, along with optional hero backlight glow and haptic feedback. For devices that report battery values differently, the app includes power-scalar correction for phones reporting microamps instead of milliamps, an inverted-current toggle, and an adjustable polling interval.

Beam fits MirrorNest’s Android System Tools category as a focused utility for observing battery measurements and charging information. Its source is available on GitHub at https://github.com/montafra/beam, and the project’s in-app About section lists cryptocurrency addresses for donations that support future projects. MirrorNest stores the official build directly on its own storage and scans it for malware before publishing. Notification permission is required for the status-bar indicator, and the app must be opened once to start its indicator service.