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This reads like a comment written by someone not aware of the depth of the problem. The post is Android-centric because in typical Android fashion, a passable

This reads like a comment written by someone not aware of the depth of the problem. The post is Android-centric because in typical Android fashion, a passable concept is implemented is the most disjointed way varying scross devices. Limiting excessive background communication? Thats a good thing. Killing useful apps like media players in the background repeatedly until you end up with 1 star reviews because people don't realize their own phone is killing apps? Intentionally breaking well defined OS scheduling guarantees? Silently breaking functionality that users rely on? Making alarms fail to ring? Not as useful. It's to the point there's literally a website dedicated to worksrounds: https://dontkillmyapp.com/ https://dontkillmyapp.com/ Look at at this entry for OnePlus > Not only did users need to enable extra settings to make their apps work properly, but those settings even got reset with firmware updates. So apps break again and users are required to re-enable those settings on a regular basis. What's funny/sad is their edit only applies to vanilla Android. Other manufacturers have manufacturer-specific settings needed to whitelist apps, because they're not respecting the contract Android provides on background processing - And maybe the most insulting part is the fact that the apps that consistently show up as higher energy users on people's devices... like Facebook... Are normally exempt! These "optimizers" usually exclude any app deemed "too big to make fail". So it actually undoes an enormous amount of good that would otherwise be done, and shows it's hardly being done with actual results in mind These optimizers have existed since the early days of Android, but advanced users understood that intentionally breaking apps wasn't the right way to go about saving battery. Manufacturers picked them up, in large part because clueless users who like the sound of the idea (right up until it starts killing their music or making their alarms fail to ring) were installing them Some of them even feel like anti-competitive implementations. Huawei has an implementation that can't be controlled by the user on some devices! So only apps on the pre-installed Huawei whitelist can run in the background period, and that list includes their homegrown apps and a few major ones like Facebook. Good luck if you have a small app with useful functionality.

ogre_codes 6y ago
I don't think you quite grasp what I meant by balancing act. This is an issue which the 2 biggest companies in tech have been fighting for 15 years (and Microsoft fought and failed to solve prior to that). This is arguably one of the biggest problems in tech and as devices get smaller and more personal, it's only going to get trickier. Your watch battery isn't going to last all day when you are running a crypto currency miner which is disguised as a media player.
- BoorishBears 6y ago
  Oh please. A non-user modifiable app killer isn't the fine line separating us from media app currency miners. How are Google's devices keeping OS guarantees while delivering some of the best in class battery life figured on Android Also, imagine seriously implying it's ok they blanket-kill user installed media players because there's a chance they might be currency mining? https://www.cnet.com/news/vlc-for-android-blacklists-huawei-phones-over-background-app-policy/ https://www.cnet.com/news/vlc-for-android-blacklists-huawei-... > The decision came in response to the Chinese phone maker's decision to cut off all background apps except its own, which stops VLC's audio playback, VideoLAN said in a tweet. Here's a real, not made up, not founded in a slippery slope from allowing music to allowing crypto mining, example of what these manufacturers are doing to users and devs alike. - It's not about battery life, it's about flexing their power to seem like they're doing something, while ensuring their bundled apps are the best option for a wide range of tasks In fact, you can look at the manufacturer list and come to that conclusion yourself. The manufacturers at the top of the list of breaking optimizers are mostly selling devices heavily subsidized by bundled services. Even Samsung is more aggressive on cheaper devices that target BRIC markets because they need revenue from bundled services. - Google is the only exception to the rule... until you realize their devices are just following the guarantees Android makes. And they still manage to have some of the best battery life on the market. That's because it's not even as simple as just blindly killing background apps. When you kill these background apps, users get in the habit of opening the apps back up manually to not miss updates. Repeatedly waking the radio is more battery consuming than if the OS just keeps it's promises and smartly wakes these apps. It's not like they get infinite processing time anyways, having this stuff be managed intelligently instead of just taking a sledgehammer to the concept of background processing is better for everyone involved but a manufacturer that wants their music app to be the only functional one...
  - ogre_codes 6y ago
    I have absolutely no idea what any of this has to do with my original point or my reply. Android OEMs have bad battery life because they install their own services and layers of nonsense over the top of Android. That doesn't change the fundamental issue here.

ogre_codes 6y ago

I don't think you quite grasp what I meant by balancing act. This is an issue which the 2 biggest companies in tech have been fighting for 15 years (and Microsoft fought and failed to solve prior to that). This is arguably one of the biggest problems in tech and as devices get smaller and more personal, it's only going to get trickier. Your watch battery isn't going to last all day when you are running a crypto currency miner which is disguised as a media player.

BoorishBears 6y ago
Oh please. A non-user modifiable app killer isn't the fine line separating us from media app currency miners. How are Google's devices keeping OS guarantees while delivering some of the best in class battery life figured on Android Also, imagine seriously implying it's ok they blanket-kill user installed media players because there's a chance they might be currency mining? https://www.cnet.com/news/vlc-for-android-blacklists-huawei-phones-over-background-app-policy/ https://www.cnet.com/news/vlc-for-android-blacklists-huawei-... > The decision came in response to the Chinese phone maker's decision to cut off all background apps except its own, which stops VLC's audio playback, VideoLAN said in a tweet. Here's a real, not made up, not founded in a slippery slope from allowing music to allowing crypto mining, example of what these manufacturers are doing to users and devs alike. - It's not about battery life, it's about flexing their power to seem like they're doing something, while ensuring their bundled apps are the best option for a wide range of tasks In fact, you can look at the manufacturer list and come to that conclusion yourself. The manufacturers at the top of the list of breaking optimizers are mostly selling devices heavily subsidized by bundled services. Even Samsung is more aggressive on cheaper devices that target BRIC markets because they need revenue from bundled services. - Google is the only exception to the rule... until you realize their devices are just following the guarantees Android makes. And they still manage to have some of the best battery life on the market. That's because it's not even as simple as just blindly killing background apps. When you kill these background apps, users get in the habit of opening the apps back up manually to not miss updates. Repeatedly waking the radio is more battery consuming than if the OS just keeps it's promises and smartly wakes these apps. It's not like they get infinite processing time anyways, having this stuff be managed intelligently instead of just taking a sledgehammer to the concept of background processing is better for everyone involved but a manufacturer that wants their music app to be the only functional one...
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  I have absolutely no idea what any of this has to do with my original point or my reply. Android OEMs have bad battery life because they install their own services and layers of nonsense over the top of Android. That doesn't change the fundamental issue here.