The fuss is that 3rd party apps need a persistent notification to stay alive. But, because Google owns pixels, it can skip that step and be less intrusive/visible, which others can not.
Unfortunately, that will mean your app can be killed on many smartphones from device makers like xiaomi, Oppo, and huawei, which have aggressive battery optimization. I had this issue on a redmi device where background apps would be killed unless a permanent notification was present.
The WireGuard and tailscale apps work great for me without a persistent notification.
I haven’t tried wireguard. But, I should give them a try and see how it goes in samsung.
The ranking may make it sound like samsung is the worst. But that’s not been the case since android 12. I do not have app reload or app killing issues on this one and find it much better than what I used to experience on miui.
I published an app on the play store that purely relies on a persistent notification + wakelocks to keep the screen active (since the whole point of the app is to keep the screen awake) - Samsung was definitely the worst when it comes to this for my app, as I would receive endless support emails about people with Samsung devices where it would get killed, even when disabling battery optimization for my app. The other manufacturers listed there came up every now and then, but disabling battery optimization generally did the trick for them.
With there being nothing that I could do for my app, I tried disabling compatibility in the play store for a ton of Samsung models, but then I got even more emails about people wondering why it wasn’t available anymore so I re-enabled it, but to this day there’s still (AFAIK) zero things I can do to prevent the app from getting killed on those devices.
It’s called “Caffeinate” (I’m avoiding posting the direct link just so I don’t break any self promotion rules), I made it in the Android 7 days when the quick settings Tile API came out to replicate the similar tile that was available in CyanogenMod. It ended up getting way more downloads than I ever expected honestly - I just wanted to try the new API haha.
I know that Caffeinate itself doesn’t use up a lot of RAM (the only thing it does when its active is create a persistent notification and creates a wakelock in order to keep the screen active), but perhaps the lower end Samsung device models just have less RAM available, so opening a browser or such kills it.
I was under the impression that the “Disable battery optimisations” feature was to prevent exactly this. Maybe I misunderstood what it does, but a bunch of apps designed to run in the background tell you to disable this functionality for their app for this very reason.
That is for applications that need access to a LOCAL_SERVICE while not in foreground. That’s like Geolocation or screen orientation. VPN is not one of those. You can kill the foreground application from the recent apps by sliding up.
No real VPN app needs to have an application window and a background service (same thread) running to provide a VPN. If it does, it is doing something else not related to VPN.
If you want to add a pause button, applications can add custom tiles.
Persistent notification was added in response to android 8+ background restrictions. You didn’t need it before.
Apps that need to be constantly alive do that to avoid being killed by the system on android devices that are not stock or pixel. Apps like tasker, accubattery, Internet speed meter, adguard all target the latest android version 12 or higher.
We are on android 14. You can not install apps targeting android 5 from the playstore today.
I checked playstore reviews of wireguard, and people are complaining that wireguard stops working after a while. Which makes me think. For wider compatibility and persistent background tasks, you do need one to stay alive.
You still get the key icon. Is the fuss that it now takes more screen taps to reach the on/off, rather than just using the persistent notification?
The fuss is that 3rd party apps need a persistent notification to stay alive. But, because Google owns pixels, it can skip that step and be less intrusive/visible, which others can not.
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Unfortunately, that will mean your app can be killed on many smartphones from device makers like xiaomi, Oppo, and huawei, which have aggressive battery optimization. I had this issue on a redmi device where background apps would be killed unless a permanent notification was present.
I haven’t tried wireguard. But, I should give them a try and see how it goes in samsung.
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The ranking may make it sound like samsung is the worst. But that’s not been the case since android 12. I do not have app reload or app killing issues on this one and find it much better than what I used to experience on miui.
I published an app on the play store that purely relies on a persistent notification + wakelocks to keep the screen active (since the whole point of the app is to keep the screen awake) - Samsung was definitely the worst when it comes to this for my app, as I would receive endless support emails about people with Samsung devices where it would get killed, even when disabling battery optimization for my app. The other manufacturers listed there came up every now and then, but disabling battery optimization generally did the trick for them.
With there being nothing that I could do for my app, I tried disabling compatibility in the play store for a ton of Samsung models, but then I got even more emails about people wondering why it wasn’t available anymore so I re-enabled it, but to this day there’s still (AFAIK) zero things I can do to prevent the app from getting killed on those devices.
What app is that? I only notice app reload issues when I max my ram usage playing heavy games or running apps that require maximum ram.
It’s called “Caffeinate” (I’m avoiding posting the direct link just so I don’t break any self promotion rules), I made it in the Android 7 days when the quick settings Tile API came out to replicate the similar tile that was available in CyanogenMod. It ended up getting way more downloads than I ever expected honestly - I just wanted to try the new API haha.
I know that Caffeinate itself doesn’t use up a lot of RAM (the only thing it does when its active is create a persistent notification and creates a wakelock in order to keep the screen active), but perhaps the lower end Samsung device models just have less RAM available, so opening a browser or such kills it.
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I do not feel too strongly about it, so I will refrain. But, if I find the time and energy to spend, I may open an issue later.
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WireGuard works fine on my samsung
I was under the impression that the “Disable battery optimisations” feature was to prevent exactly this. Maybe I misunderstood what it does, but a bunch of apps designed to run in the background tell you to disable this functionality for their app for this very reason.
Some phone’s battery optimization goes beyond the native Android stuff, so even with that step, apps without a notification may get killed.
I see! Fun…
That is for applications that need access to a LOCAL_SERVICE while not in foreground. That’s like Geolocation or screen orientation. VPN is not one of those. You can kill the foreground application from the recent apps by sliding up.
No real VPN app needs to have an application window and a background service (same thread) running to provide a VPN. If it does, it is doing something else not related to VPN.
If you want to add a pause button, applications can add custom tiles.
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Persistent notification was added in response to android 8+ background restrictions. You didn’t need it before.
Apps that need to be constantly alive do that to avoid being killed by the system on android devices that are not stock or pixel. Apps like tasker, accubattery, Internet speed meter, adguard all target the latest android version 12 or higher.
We are on android 14. You can not install apps targeting android 5 from the playstore today.
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Cite your sources because that’s not how persistent notification works. PIA doesn’t need it. It sounds like a poorly written app.
Edit: DNS66 as well.
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Because (from what I’ve read) battery optimization may still kill them, depending on the phone.
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I checked playstore reviews of wireguard, and people are complaining that wireguard stops working after a while. Which makes me think. For wider compatibility and persistent background tasks, you do need one to stay alive.