Some apps are plain battery hogs, straining the phone's juice sometimes without the user even knowing. Thankfully in the upcoming Android 8.1 update, users will be able to know which apps are using up battery the most in a more impactful way.
Since its announcement in late August, Android Oreo has gotten pretty neat features, including notification dots for app icons, Bluetooth battery levels, an improved Check for Update button, and now, a more useful battery usage gauge for apps.
Android 8.1 Shows Apps With The Most Battery Drain
According to a report by Android Police, users of the Android 8.1 developer preview now find a banner at the top of the typical Battery screen that calls out any app that's significantly draining the battery. In two examples the report gave, there's a battery symbol with an exclamation point next to Tile and Fenix, indicating their battery abuse. It makes sense for these apps to hog the battery so much: Tile requests for location data often, and Fenix can keep the phone always-awake.
Will It Be Added To The Final Release?
The new feature is a simple implementation of battery usage that'll certainly help users manage their apps more efficiently. It might even push them to uninstall apps that regularly drain their phone's juice altogether. Why has it only been added now, though? Couldn't a similar feature have worked in, say, previous versions of Android? It's hard to understand Google sometimes. Bluetooth battery levels, as mentioned above, weren't even added to Android until Oreo.
That being said, this should be a neat little feature for Android users once a stable version of 8.1 rolls out to everyone — if it makes it to the final release, that is. There have been many third-party apps that detect and crack down battery-abusive software, but a native one accessed directly within Android Oreo would be much better. Hopefully it does get added to the final version, as Google has been known to add features in developer previews only to gut them before the stable release.
There's room for improvement, though. The feature only lets users turn off certain parts of the app that causes battery drain, but in the future maybe Android could also elaborate why the app is causing such a huge strain on the battery, or perhaps it can even show users other processes that contribute to rapid battery depletion, such as having Bluetooth or mobile data on for long periods.
Thoughts about Android 8.1 improved battery usage implementation? Do you think this should have been added ages ago? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
