Widgets on your Today panel were introduced in iOS 8. But with the recent iOS 9 there is a new very useful widget built-in. Now you can easily see battery levels of your phone and connected Bluetooth devices such as Apple Watch and Bluetooth headphones and speakers.
To turn the widget on:
- Swipe the Today panel down by pulling down from the earpiece (begin with your finger on the earpiece, off of the screen completely).
- Switch to the Today tab if needed.
- Scroll to the bottom of the Today panel and tap the “Edit” button.
- Find “Batteries” in the list of items and tap the green plus button next to it. If it has a red minus button instead that means you already have the widget enabled.
- Rearrange the widgets using the little grip icon to the right of each item if desired.
- Tap “Done” in the top right corner.
Now any time you want to see battery levels of your devices you can simply pull down the Today panel. If a device is charging there will be a lightning bolt after the battery icon, as with my Apple Watch in the screenshot. Note that not every Bluetooth device supports this feature, but most made in the past few years do.