Android Question Android 6 Doze and App Standby

[marcick]

Hi all,
I'm pretty sure my 3 years old app will have trouble with the new great and exciting power-saving functions introduced in Android 6.
Because I don't actually have an Android 6 device to see what happens (I worry about my background syncing services) I ask the forum if the user can totally exclude these power-saving functions or anyway I have to deal with them and put again hands on my app to make it compatible.
Thanks

 

[Erel]

I guess that your app calls StartServiceAt, right? If the exact time that the service is started is not important then everything should work properly.

 

[marcick]

Yes, I have a service that sync every about 30 seconds. Should I eventually expect just a delay of a few seconds ?
That's all ?
Anyway, does the user have the possibility to exclude this power saving mode from settings ?
Thanks

 

[Erel]

You should use a foreground service if you need to sync every 30 seconds.

 

[marcick]

does the user have the possibility to exclude this power saving mode from phone settings ?

 

[Erel]

Yes: http://www.addictivetips.com/android/how-to-exclude-apps-from-the-doze-feature-in-android-6-0/

Though I don't expect it to prevent the device from doze mode which means that almost nothing runs.

 

[marcick]

Thank you.
I just need the service make a RDC sync with the server and eventually produce a local notification with sound.
My app is also the default SMS application and need to catch incoming SMS.
Reading that article it seems simple to exclude my app from doze mode and (seems) everything should work as before.
Don't you expect it ?

 

[wes58]

Thank you.
I just need the service make a RDC sync with the server and eventually produce a local notification with sound.
My app is also the default SMS application and need to catch incoming SMS.
Reading that article it seems simple to exclude my app from doze mode and (seems) everything should work as before.
Don't you expect it ?

In Android 6 a new method has been introduced in Alarm Manager to allow for exact scheduling of alarms - setExactAndAllowWhileIdle. But if you read about it, you will find the following:
These alarms can significantly impact the power use of the device when idle (and thus cause significant battery blame to the app scheduling them), so they should be used with care. To reduce abuse, there are restrictions on how frequently these alarms will go off for a particular application. Under normal system operation, it will not dispatch these alarms more than about every minute (at which point every such pending alarm is dispatched); when in low-power idle modes this duration may be significantly longer, such as 15 minutes.

 

[Erel]

The correct way to implement such a solution is with push notifications. It will be simpler to implement and more reliable.