Android O will limit what apps can do in the background to save battery life

In the ever-constant pursuit of better battery life, Google is planning to limit what Android apps can do in the background. On Android O, which the company announced today, apps will be limited in three areas: implicit broadcasts, background services, and location updates. This is definitely good news for Android users, and while it might not be immediately great for developers because it might require them to reexamine their code, the shift should ultimately make their apps run better for users.

Google already adjusted some of these background app limits with Android N, but the company is pushing even further. Implicit broadcasts are one of the biggest targets because they activate multiple apps at once, often for things that don’t actually matter. Apps typically don’t do anything when triggered by an implicit broadcast, so they just waste processing power and battery life. Google released this video last year explaining the situation:

Google announced Android O today. The public beta isn’t available, but developers can manually download and load a preview version onto their devices. Really, anything that makes our phone batteries last longer is good with me.