Whenever anyone asks about stuff running the background and how to kill it, the responses always include - "don't worry about it" - Why not? Why should I be ok with the idea that a program that I downloaded, but never ran, is running in the background?
People don't say its 'ok' for all of those apps to be running in the background. It just depends on the type of app before you start to worry. It's 'ok' for some of those apps since they may do some sort of service which is required by either the user or the system.
Another thing to remember is that Android will manage running apps by itself, so when necessary it will kill apps to make sure it has enough available memory to run stuff that you manually start up.
If you'd rather be in control of manually killing running apps then I'd recommend a free all-in-one app called ZDBox (available via the android market):
ZDbox is an amazing all-in-one toolbox. Five stars in xda forum.
ZDbox is an amazing and free all-in-one toolbox. It holds a collection of useful tools and has a nice and easy to use interface. With ZDbox you’re getting your mobile/cell phone under control, do easily some optimization and customize it to your needs. An essential tool which you will love! 5 stars in xda forum.
★ Widgets: Keep screen always on, kill all tasks, WiFi on/off, airplane mode on/off, brightness adjustment, sound settings, rotate screen on/off, bluetooth on/off, start/stop sync, switch between 2G/3G, app lock on/off, GPS on/off, APN on/off (mobile access point), flashlight on/off
★ Battery: Monitoring and showing lots of information about remaining battery time, temperature, health, time since last boot, necessary time until full charge and so on
★ Traffic counter: Monthly/daily mobile data usage overview, shows remaining data traffic, detailed data usage information for each app.
★ Do not disturb: Just set days and the time when you need your privacy and you won’t be disturbed by your phone. Set phone to silent, vibration or airplane mode.
★ App lock: Protect apps with a password or pattern, for exmaple your contacts, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and so on
★ Task killer: Kill all apps at once, define protected apps which won’t be killed, set auto kill when screen gets locked, mark single or multiple apps to kill
★ Notification bar: One tap on the bar shows remaining battery time, running apps, how much data traffic is left and if app lock is active or not. A tap on these informations starts ZDbox.
★ Uninstaller: Shows used/available internal and SD card memory. Apps can be easily uninstalled. Single or multiple (batch) uninstall possible.
★ App to SD: Move apps to your SD card. Single or multiple (batch) move possible. Only for Android 2.2 and 2.3.
•Cache cleaner:
With Cache Cleaner you can clean your cache fast and easily.With auto cache cleaner ,
you don't need manual operation by yourself everyday.ZDbox is your best scavenger,free your phone's memory,make it as light as a feather.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you don't need to use them, why you download them?
Well, I think the free all-in-one app is a good choice.
there are lots of apps functioning like that
Because google loves to spy on us.
It's ok because it's how you get a lot of functionality from some apps. Some Widgets for example need to update regularly (while you are on the homescreen at least) so that you get the latest information.
A well written app will only update / run when necessary (using the AlarmManager class typically). Too frequent updating will cause problems with battery life, none at all will cause out of date data being shown (e.g. for my Awesome Widgets I have to update my clock widget very regularly while it is being viewed in order that I can update the clock time (and weather if it has changed)).
It's not about spying, it's about getting functionality out of your Android device.
All the best,
Ash
its just bull****! sory! i have had bRIA take up like 40% of battery even tho i never ran it and i thought it wasnt running ... had to uninstall it... android for sure is great in some areas but definately not perfect,and pls dont tell average users about startup managers etc.
lol nice rant
No more envy of your friends' iPhone which never become slow and battery hungry after lots of apps installed. With Greenify, your Android device can also run almost as smooth and lasting as the first day you have it!
Greenify help you identify and put the bad behaving apps into hibernation when you are not using them, stop them from battery leeching, memory hogging and stealthy running, in an elegant and unique way! They could do nothing without your explicit launch, while still have full functionality when running in foreground. Like what iOS apps act!
The built-in App Analyzer will analyze and show apps in your device that keep running persistent services and those launch itself automatically on a regular basis (when network connectivity changes, or every time you unlock your device, install / uninstall / update your apps, etc).
NEW: Non-root working mode is now supported in 2.0+, but still in early stage. It currently lacks auto-hibernation due to privilege restriction. Use "Hibernate All" shortcut (widget) for convenience. On Android 4.1+, an accessibility service can be activated to automate the manual hibernation procedure.
Compared to other popular tools aimed for the similar purpose, Greenify give you the unique experience:
◆ Unlike the "Freeze" feature in "TitaniumBackup Pro" that totally disable your app, you can still use your app as usual, share content with it, without major uncomfortable impact on user experience. Greenify is nearly transparent! Set and forget~
◆ Unlike "App Quarantine", you can launch greenified apps in any way as usual. No more crafted app-launch widgets, no more manual disabling.
◆ Unlike "Autostarts", you can benefit almost all its advantages, but never need to deal with the complexity and risk of obscurely named app components, and never lose functionality when app is actively running.
◆ Unlike any "XXX Task Killer", your device never fall into the cat-mouse-game of stealthy-running and aggressive killing, which unnecessarily consumes much battery juice. Since all greenified apps will be put into hibernation until the next time you launch them, there is no need to "kill" them during the hibernation.
As the bottom line, Greenify do need a background persistent "Cleaner" service to put the greenified apps back into hibernation when you are not actively using them. It is designed and implemented in extremely light-weight, with an average RAM footprint at 2M in total, and nearly zero CPU and battery consumption.
IMPORTANT: Greenifying an app implies that you are aware that all the background functionality of this app will become out of service during the hibernation except when you are using this app. The background functionality includes but not limited to:
* Persistent background services
* Broadcast receivers, which respond to global device events, such as network state change, SMS reception.
* Alarms, which activate background task at specific time or interval.
* Widget update. Widget should display but never update because periodic update involves background task.
* Push messages. Push is also disabled since it would activate background task on Android, unlike iOS which just shows up messages to user.
Please DO NOT greenify alarm clock apps, instant messaging apps unless you never rely on them. Please be sure to verify the impact of greenified apps on which you heavily relies.
Community Translation:
Thanks for the help from community volunteers, Greenify is translated into more than 10 languages, and still expanding to more.
https://oasisfeng.oneskyapp.com/collaboration/project?id=7886
If you are willing to help us, you can either improve the current translations, or contact me (by Email) to add translation languages to start new translation.
Changelog:
v3.6.2 Aug. 25
Greenify is now fully compatible with Android 8.0 Oreo.
Prescription is now supported in privileged mode, which can be activated with Magisk + AppSystemizer.
New bottom panel with per-app actions, settings and extra information.
Accessibility service will only run on-demand if required permission is granted with ADB.
Improved auto-hibernation in non-root mode and privileged mode.
Improved the reliability of wake-up cut-off.
Improved the accuracy of background-free detection.
v3.4.3 Jun. 1
NEW: Background-free apps will not be hibernated automatically by default, for better task-switching experience, since they occupies no memory (just cached in memory at times) and could hardly impact the battery consumption and device performance.
Automatic hibernation in non-root mode can now be interrupted with power button more consistently.
FIX: The menu entry "Reattach broad cut-off".
v3.2.2 Mar. 9, 2017
NEW: "Prescriptions (beta)", the community-driven flexible behavior blocking mechanism, precisely targeted with open rules. (Learn more: https://greenify.github.io)
NEW: Integration with "Island", by the team behind Greenify. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.island)
NEW: App shortcuts for Android 7.1.
Wake-up monitor and cut-off now works on Android 7.x in root mode.
No longer fall back to normal hibernation if shallow hibernation is temporarily unavailable.
3.0 Dec. 12
NEW: Wake-up cut-off now works in non-root mode! (currently only on Android 4.4~5.x)
NEW: "Broad wake-up cut-off" - one cut-off for all similar wake-ups. (use with caution!)
NEW: "User guide" in the first launch.
NEW: "Privileged Mode", more powerful than Root mode. It can be activated either by ROM-integration or moving app to system partition (/system/priv-app).
Fixed wake-up tracking on some Samsung ROMs.
Tasker plug-in "Aggressive Doze Toggle" now works on Android 7 in non-root mode.
v2.95 Oct. 9
Aggressive Doze is now compatible with Android 7.0. (including non-root mode)
Auto-hibernation in non-root mode is now compatible with secured key-guard.
New "Alternative Screen Off" setting to preserve fingerprint unlock and Smart Lock.
New Tasker plug-ins for toggling Auto-Hibernation and Aggressive Doze.
Wake-up cut-off now works on Android 7.0 (root).
Improved the overall stability and smoothness of non-root auto-hibernation.
Improved GCM Wake-up (Xposed) for some misbehaving apps.
v2.9 Aug. 1
NEW: "Doze on the Go" on Android 6.x (in two forms: non-root or Xposed). This feature was first introduced by Greenify beta, even before Android 7 Preview!
NEW: Quick Action Notification.
NEW: Troubleshooting section in setting, with non-root Wake-up Tracker.
Aggressive Doze can now be enabled manually via USB-connected PC even if Doze is disabled in ROM.
Improved app state detection on Android 6+.
Improved compatibility with Android 7. (Aggressive Doze is not compatible yet)
v2.8.1 Feb. 3
Crash fix
v2.8 Feb. 2
2 new experimental features for Android 6.0: Aggressive Doze (no root required) & Shallow Hibernation (root), pushing the power-saving beyond Marshmallow.
Seamless auto-hibernation experience in non-root mode. (no flicking on screen any more)
Nav-bar gesture for Android 6.0 (in settings).
New option to toggle "screen off" implementation. (root)
Improved the "working" state detection logic.
The Tasker plug-in should now work with more compatible tools.
New wake-lock-free hibernation engine.
v2.7.1 Sep.1
*NEW* Experimental support for Android 6.0, with new "Shallow Hibernation" engine.
Auto-hibernation in non-root mode now dims the screen, no more annoying screen flicking.
"Hibernate and Lock Screen" shortcut is now compatible with Smart Lock (root only).
Foreground app no longer hibernates even if "state always ignored".
Native processes are also cleaned in hibernation, to prevent self-awakening.
Fixed app running state detection on Android 5.1.1_r9 & 6.0.
Fixed the "Wake-up" function in Tasker plug-in.
v2.6.2 May.27
Wake-up path is now cut on a per-path basis.
Compatible with the alpha build of Xposed on Android 5.1.
"Content provided" wake-up can now be cut-off.
Wake-up paths cut-off no longer affects important system broadcast.
v2.6.1 Mar.29
"Wake-up Tracker and Cut-off" now works for all rooted devices, always enabled, no Xposed required.
All Xposed features are now compatible with Xposed alpha on Android 5.0.
Donation Package:
New experimental feature - "Deep Hibernation" reduces wake-up of hibernated apps to a minimal level.
Improved GCM wake-up.
v2.5 Nov.12
Rebuilt most UI with Material Design.
Root mode now works on Android 5.0 Lollipop Developer Preview. (requires latest version of SuperSU)
Adjusted the buttons in action bar for better usability.
App picker is now working correctly on Android 4.x, but no longer available on Android 5.0 due to permission retraction.
Toast of hibernation success and failure will also be shown for Tasker plug-in.
Fixed a rare battery drain issue in root mode.
Reduce the package size back to 1.4M.
v2.4.4 Oct.10
Minor UI tweak.
Automated hibernation in non-root mode is finally stable in most devices.
More accurate wake-up source and type.
Various bugfixes.
v2.4.3 Sep.20
Restart accessibility service if stopped unexpectedly.
"Keep Notifications (limited)" now works in root mode.
Try to remove outdated odex file upon crash due to mismatched odex file left by LuckyPatcher.
FIX: Hibernation shortcut doesn't work if secure key-guard is used.
FIX: Touch screen freezes after device-admin is activated during shortcut launch.
v2.4.2 Sep.12
Added a "Nothing" option to Pull-up guestion (on Home soft-key) if you want to get rid of this gesture.
New "Uninstall" action in About dialog to correctly uninstall Greenify if device-admin is activated.
Improved the speed and stability of automatic hibernation in non-root mode.
Fixed crashes.
v2.4.1 Sep.7
Improved the speed of automatic hibernation in non-root mode.
Change the description of automatic hibernation "out of service" warning, to better reflect the situation and reduce anxiety.
FIX: Automatic hibernation OOS warning sometimes show up inappropriately.
FIX: Manual hibernation guide sometimes pops up when automatic hibernation is on-going.
FIX: Touch screen sometimes freezes after hibernation or shortcut.
FIX: Automatic hibernation in non-root mode sometimes does not have all apps hibernated.
FIX: Various crash issues.
v2.4 @ Aug.26
NEW: Experimental automated hibernation for non-root working mode, a big step beyond automated manual hibernation for non-root users!
NEW: "Working Mode" option in experimental features setting to replace "Force Root Mode" and "Boost Mode", providing a cleaner settings UI.
NEW: Hibernate and Lock Screen shortcut (compatible with "Trusted Devices" feature in Android L and Moto X if you enabled Boost Mode) with pull-up gesture on Home soft-key.
NEW: Migration from Amazon Appstore. Make sure your in-app-purchase is validated by ticking the donation-only options in experimental features setting before update to the Google Play version.
FIX: Wake-up Tracker on Android 4.1~4.3.
FIX: A major bug which causes auto-hibernation not working for some newly greenified apps.
FIX: List of greenified apps lost in some situations.
FIX: Hibernation shortcut may show some hibernated apps as "Not hibernating".
FIX: The app setting dialog is sometimes left open after automated hibernation (non-root mode)
FIX: Improved the compatibility of automated hibernation.
[Donation Package]
NEW: Experimental greenifying system-apps without Xposed. (hibernated system apps are more prone to wake, compared to Xposed-based version) [Donation Package]
Improved the compatibility of GCM wake-up.
v2.3.1 (build 11) @ May.20
Fixed the compatibility issue with Xposed framework 2.6.
Added back experimental feature "Reveal Hidden Sync".
v2.3 (build 10) @ May.14
Automated manual hibernation is now compatible with more devices and ROMs, including Kindle Fire and MIUI.
New option to override working mode (root or non-root mode).
System apps are now shown in orange in App Analyzer.
Critical system services are now hidden by default in App Analyzer.
Improved the overall performance in Greenify.
[DONATION PACKAGE]
New experimental feature for Android 4.4+: "Periodic Timer Coalescing".
Reinforced the feature "wake-up paths cut-off" to seal apps with wake-up path recovery mechanism.
v2.2 (build 11) @ Mar.25
Automated manual hibernation is now compatible with more ROMs, including HTC, MIUI, and etc.
Experimental feature "Keep Notifications" can now work without Xposed framework, via Notification Access mechanism (Android 4.3+) or Accessibility service.
New tasker plugin to wake up hibernatized app, resuming its background services and tasks.
App in "Not Hibernating Automatically" can now be overridden for ever in manual hibernation confirmation.
Added a workaround for talking issue on some Samsung devices.
GCM push will be blocked for specific app if its notification is disabled in device's "Settings - Apps".
Redesigned the experimental features setting dialog, with 2 separate categories "Require Xposed" and "Require Donation Package".
Fixed the crash upon disabling Boost Mode.
Support 3rd-party variants of Xposed framework. (e.g. WSM for MIUI)
v2.1 @ Feb.7
New accessibility service to automate the manual hibernation in non-root mode, no need to click the "Force stop" button and confirm again and again. (only available on Android 4.1+, due to functionality lack in ICS)
Hibernation button in action-bar will also be shown if no apps selected, to hibernatize all pending apps.
Redeisnged guide layer for manual hibernation. (non-root working mode)
Wake-up paths cut off are shown as detailed list, and can now be re-attached one by one.
GSF (com.google.android.gsf) and all packages under the name "com.android.*" are now greenifiable, but hidden by default.
Removed outdated "Recent" section in App Analyzer.
Reduced unnecessary root requests, especially in Boost Mode.
v2.0 @ Jan.10
Greenify now works on non-root devices! Try out the non-root working mode (without automatic hibernation due to privilege restriction).
Shortcut "Hibernate All" can now be created also from main menu in Greenify.
Greatly improved the stability of auto-hibernation, especially on Android 4.4+.
Improved experimental feature "Block on-going notification abuse".
v1.99 @ Dec.6, 2013
New setup guide for experimental features.
Show more information about components currently in use.
Most receivers are no longer scanned in middle-to-high-end devices.
v1.97 @ Nov.18, 2013
NEW: Cut off wake-up source of greenified apps, to keep them peaceful in hibernation, with the new scissors action icon. (currently only available if Wakeup Tracker is enabled, coming to free version in near future)
Android KitKat compatible. (except Xposed framework need an update which is not available yet)
4 experimental features graduate to free version: Boost Mode, Keep Notifications, Wake-up Tracker, Block App State Abuse
Added greenifying API for 3rd-party apps integration.
Experimental support for multiple users. (on tablets with Android 4.2+)
FIX: An issue that hiding apps can not be correctly remembered.
FIX: Hibernation failure message is finally shown correctly.
v1.95 @ Sep.20, 2013
Hide apps you don't want to greenify with the new "Hide" button (on action bar) in App Analyzer.
Google Play services are no longer forbidden (not suggested) to greenify, but hidden by default. Use "Show all" in menu to reveal it.
App Analyzer shows more persistent services now.
[DONATION PACKAGE]
Wakeup Tracker better recognizes GCM/C2DM wakeups, and now works in Android 4.3
Greenified system apps will no longer run during device boot.
"GCM push" can be disabled now.
v1.92 @ Jul. 28, 2013
The waker-tracker should now work on ICS. (Donation version)
v1.9 @ Jul. 25, 2013
NEW: Redesigned launcher icon.
NEW: Multiple choice mode after long clicking in app list.
NEW: GCM indicator in App Analyzer.
NEW: Experimental feature - Keep Notifications after Hibernation. (donation version only)
NEW: Experimental feature - Block Ongoing Notification Abuse. (donation version only)
NEW: Tasker plugin now support per-app hibernation.
Improved the waker-tracker feature. (Donation version)
Google Play services is no longer suggested to be greenified since it may break GCM.
Show error message when activating individual experimental feature if incompatibile with current ROM. (Donation version)
Experimental feature settings can now be opened from main menu if donation version is installed. Donation version will no longer include UI.
Direct entrance to setting UI in modules setting of Xposed installer.
Apps woken when screen is off will be put back into hibernation soon, if wake-up tracker is enabled.
Improved the compatibility of GCM patch. (donation version)
Experimental features can now be enabled or disabled separately. (donation version)
Disabled the unstable waker-tracker for now.
v1.82 @ May 11, 2013
FIX: Activation issue with experimental features of donation version. Please upgrade both apps.
v1.8 @ May 5, 2013
ADD: 3 new experimental features in “Greenify (Donation Version)”. See the description of donation version for more details.
UPDATE: Improved the UI performance, reduced the load time of Greenify.
UPDATE: Some apps shown as "perceptible" in the past will now hibernate correctly.
UPDATE: Improved the compatibility of root operations. Although wake lock has to be used, no additional battery consumption introduced.
v1.73 @ Apr. 23, 2013
FIX: Various bugs and improve the root compatibility.
UPDATE: Reduce the traffic usage by "Raise Your Voice" program.
v1.71 @ Apr. 20, 2013
FIX: Incorrect Swedish translation causing crash on start.
FIX: Indonesian translation is not working.
v1.7 @ Apr. 19, 2013
NEW: Alarm statistics analysis reveals the last secret of stealthily running apps!
NEW: Show the cause of wake-up for apps in "Pending" section.
NEW: "Raise Your Voice" program (in early experimental phase), to the developers of apps your greenified, for better recognition of device experience in development. (Use Internet permission, you can opt-out at any time)
NEW: Auto-hibernation can be disabled and enabled from menu.
FIX: Root compatibility issue with SuperUser.
v1.6 @ Mar. 22, 2013
NEW: Launcher shortcut and Tasker plugin for "Hibernate Now".
NEW: 12 translations: German, French, Spanish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Czech, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, thanks to community translators ( http://translate.oasisfeng.com/projects/greenify )
v1.57 @ Mar.12, 2013
v1.45 @ Feb. 23, 2013
v1.32 @ Feb. 8, 2013
v1.2 @ Feb. 3, 2013
v1.11 @ Jan. 26, 2013
v1.03 @ Jan. 11, 2013
v1.0 @ Jan. 9, 2013
Download [STABLE VERSION] & [DONATION PACKAGE]
Opt-in BETA CHANNEL to receive beta version via Google Play, or download beta APKs directly.
FAQ
Q: Why not support Android 2.x?
A: Sorry, Android 2.x lacks a core mechanism that Greenify mainly depends on. It's impossible to achieve equivalent functionality in Android 2.x. If possible, please consider upgrading your device to Android 4.x (CyanogenMod is a good choice if no official 4.x upgrade). If you are out of luck in upgrading, you can also try one of the alternative tools I mentioned in the app description of Greenify on Play store, such as "App Quarantine" (for most users) and "Autostarts" (for super users).
Q: Which apps should I greenify?
A: In short, don't hibernate all (or most of) your apps! App Analyzer of Greenify only shows apps which have POTENTIAL impact on battery consumption or device performance (click the icon "i" of each section for more details), it doesn't mean they actually have. You are suggested to only hibernate those you seldom use, plus the apps you are sure have negative impacts, most probably identified by the "Settings - Battery" of your device, or 3rd-party diagnose apps, such as Wakelock Detector and BetterBatteryStats (for power users).
[Background Knowledge]
"Running in background" does not mean it has definite impact on battery consumption or device performance. Experienced developers can also reduce the memory footprint of background service as low as several megabytes, which is negligible in most middle-to-high end devices with 1~2G RAM.
"May slow down the device" also does not mean it has definite impact on device smoothness. Android caches the process of apps regularly run, thus significantly reduced the cost of launching it in background.
Q: It seems that automatic hibernation is not working.
A: That is most probably caused by your root management tool. Because some root management tool require re-authorization after app update, you may have missed the confirmation dialog, since Greenify requests root privilige when screen is off.
If you are using SuperUser and confirm root privilege is granted to Greenify, there's a high chance SuperUser is not working correctly for background root privilege requests on your device. Most user with this issue got it solved by installing SuperSU instead of SuperUser. You are suggested to have a try.
Q: I want to greenify system apps!
A: First of all, it's not safe to greenify system apps, because system apps are responsible for core functionalities of your device and they are usually essential components for other apps. Android OS also protects system apps with far more privileges than mornal apps, that stops Greenify from effectively putting them into hibernation.
Q: I still want to greenify system apps, and I can accept any bad consequence!
A: If so, you can try converting non-critical system apps (such as apps bundled by carriers) into normal apps with the help of Titanium Backup or similar tools. Reboot your device, then greenify it as normal. Or you can try the experimental feature in donation version to directly greenify system apps.
Q: Degreenified apps (or greenified apps with donation package) still got no push notification!
A: Unlike iOS's pure text push messages, push notification in Android involves background task. So hibernation does stop the push notification from working. Even after you degreenfied these apps (removed from list), you may still need to reactivate the push registration in them.
Different apps have different procedures, some will automatically re-activate it, some with (push) notification settings can be easily turned off and on again, and some may need you to logout and login again.
An experimental feature "GCM push for greenified apps" (in donation package) is aimed to enable push notification for greenified apps if they use Google Cloud Messaging for push notification (a little GCM icon will show up for GCM-enabled app in App Analyzer). This can be extremely useful for some apps if your usage pattern mainly depends on the push notification from them, but don't want the overhead of background activities.
You may still need to reactivate the push registration as mentioned above if the push notification stops working occasionally.
Q: Some of my greenified apps (e.g. Google Maps) seems not hibernating.
A: In short, don't worry about frequently awake apps. It will still hibernate in minutes after screen goes off, thus hardly add observable battery consumption. Use battery statistics in settings or "BetterBatteryStats" to confirm that.
While most greenified apps will stay in hibernation quietly, some apps do break hibernation, due to being woken up by others. Some known cases include enabled account sync, backup agent, and explicit launch by other app.
Since version 1.45, Greenify will now automatically turn off directly involved account sync of greenified apps when going to hibernate, to avoid the periodic account sync wake them up. For backup agents, Greenify will NOT disable them, to ensure your backup of app data is always up-to-date. As backup usually does not perform often, they are thus unlikely to be waken up often.
Google+ and Facebook are typical example of explicit launch by other app. 3rd-party apps with Google/Facebook login wake up Google+/Facebook app when they need to use the login information.
Since Greenify is designed to not break any explicit usage of greenified apps, these behaviors are considered "normal", and will NOT be "fixed". To clear out your unease, Greenify will still put them into hibernation when standby to protect your battery consumption.
Q: Could you add an option to allow for a scheduled hibernation every x minutes?
A: I have been considering this option, but at last, I found it a task "too complicated to satisfy all". Some users need the option "night mode" which means scheduling on specific time, some users need the option "every x minutes" which means scheduling on fixed periods, and even worse when some users asked for separate schedules for each greenified app. Still, it is not the end, I received a mail asking for hibernation scheduling by network state.
Then, I realised that if the scheduling feature is implemented, not only this feature itself will be a bottomless pit, but Greenify will also become a complicate monster that most users will get stuck in tuning those options. It is obviously not my intention.
So, let's just leave the complication to professional tools like Tasker and Llama. They handle scheduling far better than I could achieve. Thus Greenify could focus on its core functionality and evolves a bit quicker, since I don't have much time developing this app.
Why I developed Greenify
I wish Greenify could arouse app developers to actually recognize and respect the "device experience" (apart from user experience in narrow sense) in an offensive way, for a better Android ecosphere.
I'm a software developer in one of the largest Internet company in China. In my spare time, I'm also an Android geek. As both Android developer and super user, I care a lot about end user experience not only within our products, but also across the whole device. Unfortunately, many developers are unaware about the device-wide impact of their app behaviors, or less attentive when implementing new features. As a developer, I even had to give up some tempting feature possibilities to achieve better device experience. It's a hard choice, but worth it.
Looking at the apps around us, persistent background service, aggressive broadcast (event) receivers, and frequent alarm triggers are widely abused, leading to heavily degraded device experience if you use a not-so-powerful Android device with many apps installed. (I have nearly 200 apps on my Galaxy S now) Even on high-end devices, you may not notice the performance degradation, but battery drain was still a pain. These are the main shortages of Android device, compared to iOS. You may call it the price of flexibily and freedom. But never should users bear the cost.
I was giving lectures to developers on device-experience-friendly design, but has only limited influence. I can write blogs, but how many developers will listen? At last, I chose to deliver a weapon, to all end users.
Greenify is carefully designed and implemented to help both power users and average users to recognize among your installed apps which one may affect the device experience and give you the choice to "greenify" it, as a struggled balance between app functionality and device experience.
It is not adviced to feed all your apps to Greenify, because hibernation also has a price, despite inexpensive. Since hibernated app can no longer run by itself, you may lose some passive functionalities, such as push notifications, content syncing and widget update. Besides that, it is also totally moved away from memory, thus you can no longer benefit from the process cache on the next launch. So you should leave the well-behaved apps out of Greenify. This will truly encourage the device-experience-friendly apps.
Greenify also benefit app developers, by giving their app longer living time on edge users' device, otherwise it might have already been uninstalled. So developers have a chance to bring improvements and new features to possibly persuade users for another try. That's much easier than converting already lost users.
"Greenify" is not a final solution, but a raise of voice! In an upcoming version of Greenify, I will even push this striving further by aggregating your voice, as a whole of the community, to be heard by the developers of the apps you greenified, looking forward to a better version from developers themself. At the same time, I will also write series of blogs here to help Android developers to achieve better device experience in designing and coding details.
This app is so completely awesome.
I've got so many apps in this and its so nice to finally be able to control some of the crazier apps out there. I used to hate apps like the Facebook app as it would always be on and eat at my battery, this makes it usable again. I've gone back and downloaded so many apps that I stopped using due to constantly being on in the background and killing my battery.
Thank you for making this app and being completely awesome.
I look forward to a bit of an easier way to add apps, like a batch mode. That is probably my only problem with this app. I want everything in it and have to do it one at a time. XD
Great app, i hibernated Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp, although Facebook always comes to the surface which is why i just deleted it. For the future, it would be nice if you could hibernate a keyboard, i don't know why they have to always run... Great app!!
looks very promising!
Been running this for a couple of hours and it sure is looking good. Even took care of Google maps. Great work!
Re: [APP][3.1+] Greenify *ROOT*
Excellent app so far in my testing.... Thank you very much for continued development
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Re: [APP][3.1+] Greenify *ROOT*
Working like a charm so far....will continue testing
sounds interesting, maybe i'll try. but congratulate you anyway, idea is very good.
Thanks for the apps, just installed, hope it work like it's described.
Nice to see this thread from the developer himself.
The best app, be ready to be awarded from Google. (I wish so)
I've submitted my vote for this thread to be newsworthy.
Re: [APP][3.1+] Greenify *ROOT*
Good to see the Dev himself has opened the thread. Kudos! Best app ever.
I shall ask the mods lock the old thread.
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Απ: [APP][3.1+] Greenify *ROOT*
One of the most interesting project lately!
I hope to continue this with more features!
And im one of those who wants to hibernate system apps, like google maps, Svoice and many more....So, make your magic please...
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R: [APP][3.1+] Greenify *ROOT*
Greenyfied apps are not updated?
Inviato dal mio Galaxy Nexus con Tapatalk 2
Love this app. I've wanted something like this for a long time, so many thanks to the dev.
I just wanted to let you know that the nasty little Groupon app doesn't stay in hibernation for very long (and doesn't go in willingly). It's so egregious that I've had to keep it disabled via Titanium Backup until now. Until it can be Greenified, I'll have to leave it up to TiBU. Please add it to your list of problem apps. Thanks again for the excellent app.
since i dont have playstore can please provide .apk here sir? :fingers-crossed:
For the apps "resistant" to "greenification", such as Maps, why not simply change the permissions avoiding the os to start them automatically? With root permissions this is easy to achieve... Sometime, when I want Maps to sleep, I set its permissions to 0 and Maps RIP
Re: [APP][3.1+] Greenify *ROOT*
spupuz said:
Greenyfied apps are not updated?
Inviato dal mio Galaxy Nexus con Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When the app is in hibernation state, it's as good as frozen/uninstalled. So in such a state the play store will also not show it as installed. In other words when you visit the play store you have an option to install the app rather than update it.
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Interesting concept and approach. I am going to give it a try. I was also wondering whether some app lists could be compiled, i.e, those that are well-designed and need not to be hibernated, typical bloatware that some carriers or manufacturers include...
I know, the above lists are very specific and related to the individual experience, device, OS version... But a starting point is better than none, in my opinion. Just a suggestion, anyway.