Enlarge / Samsung says it will change the battery status bar icon to green.

Samsung has issued another update on the explosive Galaxy Note 7 situation, this time informing consumers how they can differentiate fixed devices from unfixed devices. Through a software update, Samsung says it is going to give non-explosive Note 7s a green battery icon, giving people a quick way to tell a Note 7 is no longer dangerous. There’s just one problem with the green battery icon: it’s against the rules.

The core Android platform is open source, but Google’s Android apps—like the Play Store, Gmail, YouTube, and others—must be licensed from Google. Licensing these apps means adhering to several terms from Google, including complying with the Android Compatibility Definition Document (CDD), which in turn ensures that devices are “Android compatible.” APIs need to work the way developers expect them to, hardware needs to meet Google’s minimum requirements, and OEMs need to follow Google’s security recommendations.

In the CDD, Google also defines some of the interface design—usually the parts apps need to interact with, like the System UI and shared theme assets. This includes mandating the color of the status bar icons, which seems to throw a wrench in Samsung’s publicized plans. The section titled “3.8.6. Themes” reads (emphasis ours):