If you’re a fan of Google’s own Nexus handsets, or just an Android aficionado who loves tinkering with any mobile device produced by the likes of Samsung, LG, HTC, and their ilk, the fact that the new Android Marshmallow operating system is slowly rolling out may already be on your radar. However, you may not have a full understanding of all its features, and there’s one in particular we feel may have escaped a lot of folks’ notice: Doze.
Battery life conservation is all the rage these days no matter your chosen mobile operating system, and Google’s new Doze feature aims to provide a new way for us all to eke out just a few more minutes of battery life each day on our Android devices. Today on #TechTuesday, we’re going to take a brief moment to talk about Doze and how it may help you do just that once Marshmallow hits your handset.
What is Doze?
As we mentioned, Doze is Google’s latest scheme to preserve a little more battery life in your daily phone usage cycle. More specifically, it’s something that somewhat mirrors the functionality of airplane mode, in that it’s a power-saving mode that effectively puts most — but not all — of your phone’s functionality to sleep, disabling radios and intensive apps that have constantly running background processes.
How Does Doze Work?
Doze shuts down radios and tells background CPU tasks to take a hike for a while in order to conserve power. Sure, that sounds a lot like existing features like the aforementioned airplane mode, but there’s a crucial difference: Doze does this all automatically.
You don’t have to manually flip Doze on a la airplane mode. Instead, in Android Marshmallow Doze activates itself any time it determines your phone is inactive. This includes when your handset is locked, when it’s not plugged in, and even if Doze notices there hasn’t been any motion for a good while. However, Doze does make exceptions for time-sensitive matters and any time you get an important message, as determined via Google Cloud Messaging.
Perhaps even more interestingly, Doze is not an optional feature for device manufacturers to enable. If phone makers want to ship an Android mobile device with the latest mapping and search goodies from Google, they’ll be required to include Doze.
Can I Turn Doze Off?
Good question! Fortunately, yes, you can turn Doze off. Android owners will be able to simply jump into settings and flip Doze on-and-off on an app-by-app basis.
Conclusion
Google’s serious about battery preservation in Android Marshmallow, and we couldn’t be happier about that. Doze is on the way, it’s a mandatory feature, and did we mention that Google is now requiring manufacturers to be honest about reporting details on what’s sucking up your battery? Previously, manufacturers were allowed to obfuscate these stats.
Marshmallow has currently been rolled out for Nexus 5, 6, 7, and 9, with LG working on a worldwide rollout. The rest of the timetable? Currently unknown, but we’ll drop an update here on #TechTuesdays for ya once some more movement occurs. Until then, happy mobile browsing, Android users!
