What is “Doze”, newly introduced battery saving function in Android M?

Not just Android, but with every smartphone operating system. A user expects a smartphone to run as long as it can, before it asks for charging. Android has been under scrutiny after every version launch, because increase in user experience sometimes puts the load on the battery. Android Lollipop had a power saver feature that could be activated after the battery level reaches a particular percentage, but with the introduction of Android M, at the I/O 2015 keynote, Google has named a new feature called “Doze“.

What is Doze? something like the power saving functions that are available in most of the custom ROMs, and also as a feature in some apps?

According to Google, this is a feature that will get the smartphone into what the word actually means – Sleep! But, how that feature works, is what you need to know. The Doze feature will use Motion detection, and understand if the device has been moved or not, over an extended period. If the device was at the same place, it will shut down all the apps and processes that are hogging the battery in the background.

[quote align=’right’]While killing all the processes, Doze will keep the device active for calls, alarms, and messages.[/quote]This works just like some ultra modes for power saving, and it doesn’t necessarily mean something like Sleep on your computers. “Doze” still would keep the very necessary functions active, i.e. phone, alarms, text, and hangout messages.

Google also mentioned at the I/O keynote, that it tested the same function on two Nexus 9 tablets, one with Android Lollipop, and one with Android M having Doze feature active. The one with Android M seemed to have given twice the life on single charged, when compared to the former.

The problem with current OS versions of Android, is that, even when you don’t use the phone frequently, the battery keeps getting used due to the background processes. Doze is going to focus exactly on the same, and keep the activity to the minimum when the device isn’t in motion, i.e. usually when you are sleeping, or not touching the phone during your office hours.

How well does it work, we’ll know only when it comes to reality. The Developer Preview of Android M is already available for Nexus 5, 6, 9 and Nexus Player, if you wanted to manually install it and try it out.