Since apps are a major part of Android, I thought I'd start doing reviews of apps that I use regularly. This is hopefully the first of many and I've based it on an app which does something I think Android itself should do, put apps to sleep until you need them. First things first, you'll need a rooted device to install Greenify.
What it does
In very simple terms, it does what iOS does to its apps. People regularly mention that iOS doesn't have proper multi-tasking and in a sense that's true. Once you leave an app on iOS, it takes that apps and put them in a suspended state until you open it up again. This app does something very similar, it takes any app you want and freezes it, until you need it. But instead of freezing it completely, it only disables the app from doing anything when you're not using it, as soon as you open it up it operates normally. It's only when it's sent to the background that the app is frozen.
Is it for me?
The developer describes what Greenify does as putting apps into hibernation, but claims to do it in quite a unique way so that you don't lose any functionality when you're using the app. Lets take the Facebook app as an example. I find no use for any of its background notifications and I only need it when I'm actually on it so for me, it's a perfect candidate to be hibernated. Once you put an app on the hibernate list, it won't be allowed to run any background processes at all and can't wake up your phone (gets rid of a lot of pesky wakelocks!) when its supposed to be asleep.
When the app first loads up, it scans to see which of your apps has woken up your device and how many times which makes it very easy to make a decision on which apps to hibernate. Personally, I picked all the games which woke my device up and some apps which I had no idea were waking my phone up!
Since installing, I have so fewer unexplained wakelocks and much happier knowing that if an app is running processes in the background, I won't necessarily have to uninstall the app, just Greenify it!
Conclusion
I've been waiting for an app such as this for years, finally it's here! I would make sure you bear in mind that if you hibernate an app, you will not get any notifications from that app so for something like the eBay app, you'll not get any activity updates. Apart from this, Greenify is an app worth having in your fight against background processes and I know I go on about battery life an awful lot (I promise I'll stop soon) but it will aide your battery life too.
Mo
What it does
In very simple terms, it does what iOS does to its apps. People regularly mention that iOS doesn't have proper multi-tasking and in a sense that's true. Once you leave an app on iOS, it takes that apps and put them in a suspended state until you open it up again. This app does something very similar, it takes any app you want and freezes it, until you need it. But instead of freezing it completely, it only disables the app from doing anything when you're not using it, as soon as you open it up it operates normally. It's only when it's sent to the background that the app is frozen.
Is it for me?
The developer describes what Greenify does as putting apps into hibernation, but claims to do it in quite a unique way so that you don't lose any functionality when you're using the app. Lets take the Facebook app as an example. I find no use for any of its background notifications and I only need it when I'm actually on it so for me, it's a perfect candidate to be hibernated. Once you put an app on the hibernate list, it won't be allowed to run any background processes at all and can't wake up your phone (gets rid of a lot of pesky wakelocks!) when its supposed to be asleep.
When the app first loads up, it scans to see which of your apps has woken up your device and how many times which makes it very easy to make a decision on which apps to hibernate. Personally, I picked all the games which woke my device up and some apps which I had no idea were waking my phone up!
Since installing, I have so fewer unexplained wakelocks and much happier knowing that if an app is running processes in the background, I won't necessarily have to uninstall the app, just Greenify it!
Conclusion
I've been waiting for an app such as this for years, finally it's here! I would make sure you bear in mind that if you hibernate an app, you will not get any notifications from that app so for something like the eBay app, you'll not get any activity updates. Apart from this, Greenify is an app worth having in your fight against background processes and I know I go on about battery life an awful lot (I promise I'll stop soon) but it will aide your battery life too.
Mo
No comments:
Post a Comment