Battery Buddy For Mac

If you feel that the regular macOS battery indicator doesn't do enough to guilt-trip you into charging your MacBook, you may want to take a look at Battery Buddy. It's an alternative indicator that can pretty much guarantee your battery will never drop below 20% charge, as that would bring about the dreaded sad face emoji.

So what do you need to use this app? First, a MacBook. The app will run on a desktop Mac, but the lack of a battery will confuse it greatly. Both Intel and Apple Silicon MacBooks are supported.

Once the app is running, a new battery indicator will be visible in the menu bar. If your laptop has more than 50% of its battery life remaining, you'll see a smiling face that lets you know everything is right with the world. Under 50%, it will look slightly worried, and below 20%, it will look downright miserable. Just start charging your device to bring back the smiles.

That's pretty much all there is to it. There is nothing to configure, no alternative colors or styles. It would probably be a good idea to add the app to your login items in order to avoid having to launch it manually every time you power up your MacBook.