Google recently claimed to be working to try to solve one of the problems that have gripped Android for the longest time, namely the one related to the management of apps in the background.
On the occasion of the Google I/O, held last week, the Mountain View giant highlighted what efforts it is putting into place in addressing the problem from multiple points of view.
Android: Google tries to fix problems with background apps
The problem of managing apps in the background has been present in Android for a long time and, although Google offers guidelines on how devices equipped with the green robot operating system should manage the processes in the background, manufacturers are doing their utmost to try to manage the energy efficiency of their devices as they see fit, often through a forced (and invasive) interruption of all processes related to the proper functioning of an app.
In the video “Best practices for running background work in Android”, Jing Ji, a software engineer for Android, talked about the difficulties that Google had to face since it was necessary to agree with more heads, that is the various manufacturers who ardently wish to optimize the autonomy of their devices while implementing modes for which Android was not designed.
“To achieve this, we have seen device manufacturers introduce various restrictions for apps and they are often not documented. This can make it difficult for app developers whose foreground service, for example, may work as expected on one manufacturer’s device but unexpectedly shut down on another.”
Need more consistency? Android 13 will try to patch it up
Google and the various Android device manufacturers have worked side by side to ensure greater consistency in the restrictions that the operating system imposes on background apps. Big G has tried (and is trying) to introduce standard system-level functionality for battery management so that any further intervention by the various manufacturers is superfluous.
The first changes in this sense will see the light with Android 13 which will introduce the possibility of keeping track, in a more precise way, of the energy consumption of individual applications, both as regards consumption in the foreground, and as regards consumption in the background. that, even, as regards the consumption of a single service linked to an app. We’ve already glimpsed something in Android 13’s Developer Preview 2, via a new developer option called TARE (The Android Resource Economy). Users will also be notified when an app is draining the battery in the background.
These features will be introduced through an update of the JobScheduler API. According to Google, with these changes, the system itself will be able to evaluate and predict when a user might open a particular application, in order to effectively plan all the contour work (pre-loading) necessary for opening the app.
This renewed Android API will also be able to better understand which processes are the right ones to interrupt, in case of low residual autonomy or device put under stress (for example due to high temperatures), choosing to interrupt those that will impact least on the user experience.
Efficient apps = improvements across the board
It is a fairly obvious thing but Google points out that much of the work to solve the problems related to the management of background processes on Android could be solved directly by developing apps that are as efficient as possible, that is, that are able to guarantee the right combination of good performance and optimal resource requirements.
We do not know if these guidelines, combined with the new features that we will soon see with Android 13, will make a difference but, of course, Google continues to push to solve the problem and is showing a decent openness to dialogue.
Who knows if with Android 13 all those systems for the morbid optimization of the performance of the device that are regularly introduced by the various manufacturers and that often, even quite recently, have created headaches for them will disappear. True Samsung and Xiaomi?