Along with Android Marshmallow, Google developers launched a feature called Doze that aimed to extend the device's battery life by killing background processes when the phone is idle. However, Doze mode will only work if the device is stationary and none of the sensors are triggered. Which means when your phone is on a table, Doze mode will stop background processes. But if the phone is in your pocket or idle on the car dashboard, there will be no battery saving even if you don't actually use the phone.
SummaryInstalling and activating Force DozeHow forced doze worksOption for whitelisted appsConclusion
To deal with such situations, an XDA developer has come out with an app called Force Doze which activates Doze when the screen is off. The app also disables the device's motion sensor so that Doze remains active even if the device isn't still when the screen is off. Doze will only be disabled periodically to perform maintenance tasks (like getting notifications etc.) and other than that it will shut down background processes completely. This feature maintains the balance between optimizing battery life and simultaneously fetching notifications from time to time.
Cool tip :Haven't upgraded to Marshmallow yet? Find out how you can get Doze functionality on previous version of Android without root.
Force Doze is a free app that you can install directly from the Play Store. The app works out of the box for rooted Android devices and the moment you initialize the app, it will ask you for SU privileges. Once the app has gained root access, you can activate the app to force Doze. For non-rooted devices, there is a workaround, but you will need to enable USB debugging from developers option and install ADB drivers on your computer. If you are not sure about installing ADB, here is a simple installer that can install it on your computer in less than 15 seconds.
After installing the ADB drivers and enabling USB debugging, open your command prompt and run the following command without the quotes.
"adb -d shell pm grant com.suyashsrijan.forcedoze android.permission.DUMP"
Once the command is executed, relaunch the Force Doze application and this time you will need to activate the services. You can type ADB Devices command to check if your phone is detected by ADB shell in Windows.
As soon as you activate the app and turn off the screen, Force Doze kicks into action. This way, the device doesn't have to wait 30 minutes before entering Doze in order to save battery. However, if you don't want to activate it as soon as the screen is off, you can set a custom amount of time before Force Doze activates. In the settings menu you can disable forced sleep while the mobile is charging.
The app will show a persistent notification so that it is not killed by the OS and still works to extend battery life. For some devices, you may need to check the option to fix auto-rotate and brightness when sensors don't turn on after Doze wakes up.
Even though Force Doze has a feature where it wakes the device to perform maintenance work and fetch notifications, you can add a few priority apps in the whitelist section to maintain partial wake locks and access the network to fetch notifications . With this feature, the Force Doze keeps you safe while saving battery juice.
Note: Force Doze is a free and open-source app, so you can grab the app and source code from this link. You can also join the discussion on the XDA forum.
I use Force Doze on my Xiaomi Mi 5 and have seen significant improvements in battery life. The app is different from all battery saving apps and the app whitelist option ensures that I get notified of priority apps as soon as they arrive. So yes, if you have an Android device with Marshmallow, Force Doze is definitely worth a shot.
SEE ALSO:7 Marshmallow features to get on your Android smartphone right now
