How Doze will Help Improve Android OS using Battery

Knowing how Doze can improve Android OS using battery of yours will help you get an idea to tackle battery drain. Despite not being such a noticeable visual overhaul, Android v6.0 Marshmallow had brought some superb changes into the Android scene! There were Google Now on Tap, System UI Tuner and many more! Nevertheless, for versatile Android Smartphone users, Doze Mode was perhaps the most-awaited feature in Marshmallow. It’s so because Doze was addressing a much-discussed problem that we face — battery draining, especially if the device is in the standby mode. This feature is supposed to improve battery life of your Android device dramatically and thus to enhance time of standby. In this article, we’ll talk more about Android Doze Mode, discussing how it works and its advantages. We will also tell you some methods to tweak Android Doze mode so that you can get battery conservation on steroids.

How Doze will Help Improve Android OS using Battery- The Basics of Doze Mode

Before we talk about the Doze mode, we should take a deeper look into Android environment. As you know, the OS supports background running of applications, which consume battery resources. That is, even when you have no app opened on the screen, there might be actions happening inside. The case is same when you have left your phone in a place for a long while — for instance, if you are sleeping for a few hours. Therefore, we can say that the background running aspect of Android wasn’t that effective, and Doze Mode is aimed towards fixing this issue.

Improve Battery Life of Your Android – About the Doze Mode

As you would have guessed from the name, Doze Mode is actually a deeper-sleep mode for your Android device. If it has been enabled, most applications are restricted from having background actions; including network-based and CPU actions. During this battery conservation mode, only the priority notifications have access to your device. All the calls and messages you receive will break the Doze mode and come to you straight. In the same way, if you have set some third-party apps as the priority ones, they also have access to the notifications during the Doze Mode. So, this is the basic principle you should know about the Android Doze Mode.

How It Gets Turned On

In Android Marshmallow, Doze Mode is an in-built feature, which does not require toggling or enabling. It means, if your device is running on Marshmallow, it has the Doze Mode in its genes. There are several conditions for the Doze Mode to get turned on. They are:

• Screen of your Smartphone/Tablet PC should be turned off
• The device should be placed still for a particular time; there should be no movement, whatsoever
• Your Smartphone/Tablet PC should not be charging

It’s essential to keep track of these conditions because the Doze Mode is kicked in through the observations of many sensors your device has – such as accelerometer and gyroscope sensor. If the options given above are applicable for your device, it will be turned into the Doze Mode.

Let’s talk some practical sense. Doze Mode will be enabled if you have left your Smartphone on the table for a while, because the sensors can observe the idleness. However, if you have put your phone in the pocket while you walk, it’s not going to enable Doze Mode — it’s so because the sensors will be detecting the motion. In the same way, if you’d place the phone on the nearby table while you are sleeping, Doze will kick in, quite gradually though.

SEE ALSO: Marshmallow Vs Lollipop »

Notifications and Apps in Doze Mode

As we have seen, Doze Mode has its focus on the restriction of background actions. That’s way, the mode will be able to enhance standby time. Talking personally, I’ve seen a dramatic change in the standby time before Marshmallow and after installing Marshmallow. If I keep the phone for a few days idle — given that you don’t receive calls or SMSs in the phone during that time-period —, there won’t be much a difference in terms of battery percentage.

Talking of notifications, all the priority notifications are allowed in the Doze mode. Incoming call and SMSs are those priority notifications by default. So, you don’t have to worry about missing an important call or SMS even when your phone is in the deeper sleep mode. If you are going to use Doze out of the box, these two things will come up to the screen, right away.

1. Exempting Notifications from Doze

However, if you don’t want to miss the notifications from one app or another, you have an option to exclude it from the Doze mode. For instance, if you don’t want to miss what is awaiting you in WhatsApp or Messenger, you can get them labeled as ‘High Priority’. Once you have set up this label, not a single notification will be blocked by the Doze mode. However, depending upon the number of apps you have set in the High Priority category, the effectiveness of Doze will be lowered, which might be a problem for you.

2. Exempting Apps from Doze

If we take the case of application, there’s an option to exclude a particular app from doze mode. It means that even if all the other apps are optimized, this particular app can be given the full resource access. Obviously, this will have a negative impact on battery draining. This is a solution if the Doze Mode is affecting the normal working of an app. To do that, you have to go to:

1. Settings > Battery > Menu > Battery Optimization
2. There, you can see the list of apps that have not been optimized
3. From the drop-down menu, choose ‘All Apps’
4. Now, select the App you want to exempt from the Doze Mode
5. From the menu, choose ‘Don’t Optimize’ and hit ‘Done’

So, you have successfully exempted that particular application from having the benefits of Doze Mode. As we said, it may cause the quicker draining of your device battery, which is a necessary evil.

Now that we have talked enough about Doze Mode in Android Marshmallow, we will tell you an effective method to tweak Android Doze Mode.

How to Tweak Doze Mode

One of the disappointing aspects of Doze Mode is that it takes a lot of time to kick in. According to the standard, it is taking around a few hours by the Android device to enable the Doze Mode. And, the official Android release doesn’t offer an option to adjust the time-period for enabling Doze. To bring Doze into action quickly, you have to use third-party app named Greenify.

Greenify is actually an Android application that hibernates Android apps to improve battery life. It’s a quite useful app and it does not require root access either. Therefore, you will be able to get it installed in all the Smartphone running v6.0 Marshmallow. In the latest version of Greenify, however, there’s a feature named Aggressive Doze, which is actually an experimental feature.

When you have enabled this experimental feature, Greenify can force Doze Mode to kick in quickly. That is, instead of taking a few hours to get enabled, the Doze Mode will be active in your device in a few minutes or so. This is good if you are leaving your phone somewhere for a few hours, and not half of a day. This way, you can get Doze Mode on steroids.

You can install Greenify from Google Play Store.

Conclusion – How Doze will Help Improve Android OS using Battery

So, we have told you enough about how Doze mode can help improve Android OS using battery so that you know when and whether to use the Mode. I’d tried the Aggressive Doze Mode and it seems quite effective in the long run. So, make sure you give it a try!