Power Management

Battery life is a perennial user concern. To extend battery life, Android continually adds new features to help the platform optimize the off-charger behavior of applications and devices.

Android includes the following battery life enhancements:

• App Restrictions. The platform can suggest apps that negatively affect battery life, so that users can choose to restrict those apps from consuming resources. Apps are not background restricted by default.
• App Standby. The platform can place unused applications in App Standby mode, temporarily restricting network access and deferring syncs and jobs for those applications.
• Doze. The platform can enter a state of deep sleep (periodically resuming normal operations) if users have not actively used their device (screen off and stationary) for extended periods of time. Android 7.0 and later also enables Doze to trigger a lighter set of optimizations when users turn off the device screen yet continue to move around.
• Exemptions. Preloaded system apps and cloud messaging services are typically exempted from App Standby and Doze by default. App developers can use Intents to apply these settings to their apps. Users can exempt apps from App Standby and Doze power-saving modes in the Settings menu.

Exempting applications

You can exempt applications from being subject to Doze or App Standby. Exemptions may be needed in the following use cases:

• Device manufacturers using a Cloud Messaging platform other than Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM).
• Carrier using non-FCM Cloud Messaging platform
• Third-party application using non-FCM Cloud Messaging platform

Warning: Do not exempt apps to avoid testing and optimizing. Unnecessary exemptions undermine the benefits of Doze and App Standby and can compromise the user experience, so we strongly suggest minimizing such exemptions as they allow applications to defeat beneficial controls the platform has over power use. If users become unhappy about the power consumption of these apps, it can lead to frustration, bad experiences (and negative reviews for the app), and customer support questions. For these reasons, we strongly recommend that you do not exempt third-party applications and instead exempt only cloud messaging services or apps with similar functions.

Apps exempted by default are listed in Settings > App & Notifications > Special app access > Battery Optimization. This list is used for exempting the app from both Doze and App Standby modes. To provide transparency to the user, the Settings menu MUST show all exempted applications.

Users can manually exempt apps via Settings > App & Notifications > APP-NAME > Battery > Battery Optimization and then selecting the app to turn off (or back on) optimization. However, users cannot unexempt any application or service that is exempted by default in the system image.