Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google and Samsung are promising constant and dependable app background conduct in One UI.
- These modifications are promised to enter impact with One UI 6.0 primarily based on Android 14.
- The background companies of your favourite apps will carry out reliably on the upcoming replace and received’t be randomly terminated.
Android’s basis is constructed on freedom and selection, manifesting itself in how OEMs can take open-source Android and customise it to their buyer’s liking by Android UX skins. One side-effect of this strategy has been the wildly inconsistent conduct for foreground and background apps and companies. Google is now taking one step towards fixing this inconsistency, because it has introduced a deeper partnership with Samsung for its upcoming Android 14-based One UI 6.0 replace.
App builders and finish customers have lengthy been sad with how some OEMs might be very aggressive in how they deal with background companies. Apps like prompt messaging apps and others are often killed within the background, inflicting customers to overlook vital messages and extra. It’s a nasty expertise for everybody, additional exacerbated by how completely different this conduct might be throughout the assorted UX skins which can be current within the Android ecosystem.
Google needs to make sure that APIs dictating how apps work within the background perform predictably and persistently throughout the ecosystem. To this finish, the corporate has introduced that it has partnered with Samsung to make sure that foreground companies of apps will perform in the identical means on One UI 6.0 as they do on Android 14.
Samsung mentions the next within the announcement:
To strengthen the Android platform, our collaboration with Google has resulted in a unified coverage that we count on will create a extra constant and dependable person expertise for Galaxy customers. Since One UI 6.0, foreground companies of apps focusing on Android 14 shall be assured to work as meant as long as they’re developed in line with Android’s new foreground service API coverage.
That is nice information for app builders. So long as app builders construct the app as much as the right spec and comply with Google-recommended finest practices, they’ll count on the apps (and their related background and foreground companies) to work reliably on One UI 6.0.
Curiously, the announcement from Google mentions that Samsung is the “first companion.” If we’re allowed to learn between the traces, this implies extra Android OEMs may come on board sooner or later.
Does your cellphone aggressively shut down background apps?
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A part of the rationale iOS receives plenty of reward is the constant software program expertise throughout the lineup. Whereas the identical wouldn’t be a good comparability contemplating the sheer breadth of Android units on the market, any step in attaining a constant and predictable expertise could be appreciated by each app builders and finish customers.
Android 14 comprises a slew of modifications below the hood that work towards this future. We hope to be taught extra at Google I/O.