App developers draw up ranking of most aggressive ‘app killers’

The developers behind the Sleep As Android and Twilight apps have compiled a ranking of the most aggressive “app killers,” operating systems that aggressively shut down apps in the background to conserve battery power. According to them, Nokia is the biggest culprit.

At dontkillmyapp.com, the developers outline what the various major smartphone manufacturers are doing to earn their place in the rankings. Nokia, for example, would kill all background processes after just twenty minutes of screen off. This happens with both Android 8 and 9, according to the developers. The system is so aggressive that, for example, alarm clock apps do not work. After Nokia, OnePlus and Xiaomi are the biggest culprits according to the list, which includes a total of ten names.

In an effort to not just think in terms of problems, the developers follow up on these stories with sections detailing what a user and what an app developer can do to rectify these problems. The same cannot be done in all cases, but the tech-savvy user can come to an end. For example, Nokia’s battery saver can be disabled with a force close until the next reboot or can be uninstalled via ADB.

At the bottom of the list are HTC and stock Android. These still include measures to kill background apps, but these are without major steps to disable and the two parties also provide documentation explaining how to do that.