hello, Derek!

how can I help you today?

Hi Mark

I have an app that relies on constast bluetooth device interaction without any user interaction. To prevent Android killing the application process we have used a foreground service and it is working quite well on some devices

However, on testing the app on a Samsung device, the application process is killed. On further research, I have found that devices from some companies (Samsung, One Plus) have a trigger happy battery manager which removes even foreground processes.

no

in the end, we are subject to manufacturer whims

now, there may be specific steps that you can advise users to take to try to help -- sometimes there is some sort of whitelist that they can add your app to, so it is opted out of this behavior

okay, thought as much

do you have any links to info regarding what practices most common manufacturers use?

can you clarify what you mean by "practices" in this context?

I mean battery saving techniques these manufactures use

for example Samsung removes all foreground processes after 30-40 mins

I'd be careful about making a blanket statement about Samsung -- they have a zillion device models

I have no doubt that some are fairly aggressive about process termination, but at the same time, that might not be true across the board

I do not know all the details, but I have assumed that manufacturers modify the "out of memory killer" that exists in all Android devices, changing its policies

and, since it's their firmware, they can have those policies be whatever they want (e.g., "terminate all processes whose names contain 'q' withing 30 seconds of entering the background")

those policies can include a whitelist, whether user-managed or manufacturer-managed (e.g., pay us $$$ and we won't terminate your process quite so aggressively)

but little of this is documented, to the best of my knowledge -- it's all internal decision-making within the manufacturers

we, and our users, just bear the brunt of the problem

yeah, it is disappointing there is no transparency regarding these sorts of things

I will think about testing on different devices and changing our approach a bit

thank you for your help

sorry that I did not have a solution for you!

No problem, seems like everyone is struggling with the same issue. Goodbye

have a pleasant day!

So

hello, Kai!

I have a talent for wanting to participate in the office hours and missing it :D

Hello

yeah, I was about to point out the time

got anything quick?

Not really

I'll have to wait till saturday

Or stay up till 1:30 am in my time ;-)

don't forget that you can sign up to be able to post the Android Development Discussion board, and ask questions whenever you wish

Sure, that is another possibility. Thanks.

I hope you had a good office hour ;-)

I managed to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ at questions about why manufacturers like killing background processes, so there's that

Heh

you'll be able to read about it in the transcript shortly

but, yeah, that's a wrap for today's chat

Have a good one

you too!