When Google announced Doze for Android 6.0 Marshmallow, it got a lot of people excited because they’re always looking for ways to increase the battery life of their smartphone or tablet. However, the first implementation didn’t really benefit many outside of tablet usage because it required the device to be stationary for a certain period of time before Doze kicked in. Thankfully though, Android 7.0 Nougat enhanced Doze by enabling this new version when the screen is off.
This is definitely a nice and welcomed feature for Android as many are still plagued by poor battery life these days, but it still has its drawbacks. The main one being that you can’t always keep certain applications in Doze mode since it’s done on the system level and it’s completely automated. There have been those who swear by Greenify for keeping certain applications hibernated, but this isn’t something that everyone wants to tinker with.
It looks like Samsung is adding this type of functionality to their Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ devices though with a new update to their Device Maintenance application. Most will still be on version 1.0.24.19 of this application right now, but a new one that is rolling out will bump that version up to 1.0.25.5. While there could be some additional features and changes added in this update, the big one is the ability to choose which applications will automatically be put to sleep when they aren’t being used.
You’ll find this feature by opening the Settings application and then tapping on the Device Maintenance option. The page that shows you details about your battery life should have a new option at the bottom when you’re on the latest version. It’s labeled Always Sleeping Apps, and when you tap on it you’ll be given the chance to manually add applications to the list. Sadly, you can’t add system applications to this list so it’s limited only to ones you download from the Play Store.
Still, it’s a nice little feature that Samsung has added and it should help keep those pesky wakelocks down to a minimum for applications which simply aren’t optimized. Scoobygottheboot posted about this new feature in the /r/GalaxyS8 subreddit this week and even offered up the APK for those who want to sideload it (which I tested on my S8+ and can see that it definitely works).
Source: /r/GalaxyS8
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