what are the techniques to battery optimization in android app
3 min readApr 11, 2024
Here’s a breakdown of key techniques and best practices for battery optimization in your Android app.
Fundamentals
- Understand Power Profiles: Familiarize yourself with how Android apps consume battery resources (CPU, Network, Location/ Sensors, Screen). This knowledge is crucial for identifying optimization targets.
- Profile Your App: Utilize Android Studio’s profiler and other tools to pinpoint where your app consumes the most energy.
- Prioritize User Experience: Balance power savings with essential app functionality. Don’t sacrifice core user experience to the point of making your app frustrating to use.
Specific Techniques
- Reduce Network Activity
- Batch Requests: Combine multiple network requests into a single operation when possible.
- Manage Polling Intervals: Optimize the frequency of polling and refresh operations, especially when the app is in the background. Consider longer intervals when possible.
- Pre-fetch and Cache Data: Strategically pre-fetch data when the device is plugged in or on Wi-Fi. Cache data locally to reduce the need for frequent network calls.
- Push Notifications (Efficiently): If appropriate, leverage services like Firebase Cloud Messaging for push notifications instead of continuous polling.
- Optimize Location Updates
- Accuracy vs. Frequency: Determine the necessary level of location accuracy and adjust update intervals accordingly. Consider lower accuracy when possible.
- Foreground vs. Background: Adjust location tracking behavior depending on whether the app is in the foreground or background.
- Fused Location Provider: Prioritize the Fused Location Provider for smarter location management, allowing it to balance accuracy and power consumption.
- Manage Background Tasks
- Use JobScheduler or WorkManager: Defer non-urgent tasks with these APIs, which intelligently schedule work for optimal battery conditions. Avoid unnecessary timers and alarms.
- Background Restrictions: Respect Android’s background restrictions (Doze mode, App Standby) and adapt your app’s behavior accordingly.
- Optimize UI and Rendering
- Avoid Overdraw: Reduce UI complexity and unnecessary rendering to minimize GPU usage.
- Hardware Acceleration: Use hardware acceleration wisely. Overuse can increase power consumption.
- Dark Theme: Implement a dark theme and encourage users to use it whenever possible to save power (especially on OLED screens).
- Reduce CPU Usage
- Efficient Algorithms and Data Structures: Choose the right data structures and algorithms for your tasks.
- Avoid Unnecessary Work: Prevent background threads from doing unnecessary work. Stop threads promptly when tasks are completed.
- Profile for Performance Bottlenecks: Identify and fix CPU-intensive operations in your code.
Additional Tips
- Wake Locks: Use sparingly, ensuring they’re released promptly to prevent holding the device in higher power states.
- Vibration and Media: Minimize the use of vibration and be mindful of media playback (video, audio) as these are power-intensive operations.
- Dependency Management: Avoid including libraries that perform unnecessary or power-hungry background operations. Be mindful of the power implications of third-party SDKs.
- User Education: Provide in-app settings for users to manage power-hungry features selectively, allowing them to control battery impact.
Testing and Monitoring
- Test on Various Devices: Battery behavior can vary across devices and Android versions.
- Android Vitals: Use the Android Vitals dashboard in the Google Play Console to monitor battery-related metrics like Excessive Wakeups and Stuck Wakelocks.