There's cypher worse than picking up your phone and turning it on only to realize the notification it'south just received was probably supposed to accept reached you 10 minutes (or, you know, hours) ago. Annoyingly, the root cause of this is oftentimes Android itself, trying to manage your phone's battery life past forcing "low" priority apps to go to slumber, with the end outcome being those delayed notifications. Fortunately, Android does offering you the ability to configure this behavior on some level, on an app-by-app basis, so that y'all can be more than confident that notifications will be received when they're sent, not when your phone decides y'all should get them.

Fixing this is relatively simple, and though the Bombardment Optimization feature may seem a little disruptive at first, it really is just a few quick steps to resolve this abrasive issue.

Google and most other manufacturers

The beneath steps should work for nigh Android phones with Oreo (Android viii.0) or above. Some smartphone manufacturers, however, completely supplant Android's battery optimization for their own implementations.

  1. Locate the app you desire to work more than reliably on your homescreen or launcher.
  2. Hold and tap it to invoke the long-printing bill of fare, and so select the App info shortcut (it should exist an (i) symbol or something along those lines).
  3. Locate the Bombardment entry in the carte du jour that only opened and tap it.
  4. On the next screen, select Unrestricted, which volition allow the app in question to run with far fewer limits while in the groundwork.

That's it — though y'all will need to echo that process for each app which you desire to keep awake in the background. These settings normally survive a reboot of your telephone and volition let these apps to run normally. If you always want to turn the battery optimization back on, just get back to the menu and select the Optimized selection. Since Android 12 doesn't offer a list of exempted apps anymore, it might be a proficient idea to keep a tab on which apps you've left unrestricted in a note.

Samsung

If you take a Samsung device running I UI, Samsung provides another style to control sleeping background apps. It's somewhat easier to use, and can supercede (simply also kind of indistinguishable) the OS-level battery optimization setting. If yous have a Samsung phone, make sure yous've set this up as well equally the above battery optimization setting to brand sure an app doesn't go to sleep. If yous tell the Android Bone not to optimize the battery life of an app, but not the Samsung settings, your phone may still put it to sleep.

  1. Follow the instructions given in the section above.
  2. Once that'south done, you're going to accept to go deep to find Samsung's controls. Outset the Settings app and tap Bombardment & device care. Then tap Bombardment. On the Battery page, caput to Background usage limits.
  3. Hither, yous'll find three different lists of apps that accept some course of power management enforced on them. To see the list of apps that are immune to run in the background with every bit few restrictions as possible, tap Never sleeping apps. You tin can add together additional apps to this listing by tapping the plus sign in the top right corner.

Xiaomi

Xiaomi makes things a little more complicated. Simply like on Pixel phones, yous also have to tap and hold an app icon to tweak its battery management settings, but if you want to make sure that an app really does stay active in the background at all times, you lot need an extra step.

  1. Follow the steps described in the Pixel section in a higher place — things are only labeled slightly differently, as y'all can encounter in the screenshots higher up.
  2. Once that's done, open the app you want to keep active and and then enter the multitasking overview / app switcher.
  3. Tap and concord the preview of the app then cull the outset option in the carte du jour, the Lock icon.

Locking the app like this will ensure that information technology actually does stay agile in the groundwork. This step might not be necessary for all apps, but if you keep running into notification issues, it's worth trying. When information technology comes to companion apps for accessories like smartwatches and fitness trackers, locking the app in the multitasking overview is vital. Information technology will prevent syncing bug from popping up.

There y'all have it — one time you've got everything gear up up on your phone, y'all should be getting timely notifications in those apps that just wouldn't play nicely with Android's optimizations. Granted, things accept improved over recent years, and this workaround isn't necessary for all apps anymore, merely it's notwithstanding practiced to have in example y'all meet misbehaving applications.

Google Pixel 6a: Everything we know about Google's 2022 budget telephone

Read Adjacent

About The Author

Android Police Team (74 Articles Published)

More than From Android Police Team