Samsung is currently holding the numero-uno position is pushing Android 11 updates to its devices. Unfortunately, it also secured the top position in the list by DontKillMyApp, which ranks smartphone OEMs based on how aggressively they kill background apps.
Well, this is a list or honor that Samsung wouldn’t have wanted to be featured in, let alone topping it. The team behind the DontKillMyApp website has placed Samsung in the top position, making it the worst offender.
Though some may find it nice that Samsung does not keep apps running in the background, there is actually a positive and negative side to this.
Talking about the positive aspect of this, Samsung basically keeps no unnecessary app runs in the background. However, the downside of this is that even important apps are also killed and they don’t run in the background.
Previously, Samsung was third on this list. But it seems like, with Android 11, Samsung has taken some decisions to kill apps in the background more aggressively.
Samsung users need to exclude apps from battery optimizations to keep them running in the background
As per an explanation by DontKillMyApp, “On Android 11 Samsung will prevent apps work in the background by default unless you exclude apps from battery optimizations.”
So, apparently, Samsung users need to exclude all the important apps from battery optimizations to keep them running in the background.
And in order to that, you need to head over to Settings > Apps > Your App > Battery > Battery optimization > All apps > Your app > Don’t optimize.
However, the DontKillMyApp website further added that this aggressive killing of background apps would also kill certain health apps that collect sensor-related data.
During the current times of COVID-19, health apps are continuously monitoring our health. DontKillMyApp representative Petr Nalevka told Android Authority that notification apps using Google’s exposure notification API shouldn’t be affected by this.
But apps other than COVID-19 tracking and fitness tracking apps could be very well affected by this Samsung issue. While Samsung may be killing apps in the background to help users get more juice out of their phones, such aggressive killing of apps may not be needed at all.
Considering all smartphones, especially Samsung, come with good battery capacity and battery life. In the recent past, Samsung has also pushed devices that are properly optimized to provide longer battery life.
But this decision could be because of increasing battery size, the transition to power-hungry 5G, and high-refresh-rate displays. Whatever the case may be, if you own a Samsung device, you need to manually keep them out of the battery optimizations option, till Samsung comes up with a solution.