It will take some time for the feature to work at its best, but once it does, you’ll see that it was worth the wait. Let’s see how you can take full advantage of this battery-saving feature.

What Is Adaptive Battery?

Adaptive Battery is a battery-saving feature introduced in Android 9 that uses Alphabet’s DeepMind AI technology. Adaptive Battery is the result of Android and DeepMind teaming up. The feature aims to predict the app you’re going to use and only allow those frequently-used apps to run in the background. The apps you rarely or never use will have a strict level of restrictions to help you save battery life. The Adaptive Battery feature improves over time, as it learns how often you use your apps. When the feature has picked up how often you use your apps, it will place them in App Standby Buckets. These buckets are Active, Working Set, Frequent, Rare, and Never.

Adaptive Battery Buckets

When an app is in the Active Bucket, no restrictions apply. It can use the resources it needs to give you the best user experience. These are apps you open by tapping on a notification or open manually. The Working_Set bucket is for apps you usually use but that you’re not using at that moment. The apps in this category only suffer mild restrictions. Apps you use indirectly can also fall into this category. An app can be called Frequent if you (just like the name states) use it frequently but not daily. Apps in this category will have stronger restrictions when it comes to alarms and runs tasks. The Rare Bucket speaks for itself. Here, you’ll find apps you only use every once in a while. Any app that is considered rare will have stern restrictions. For example, it will experience limitations when it comes to getting high-priority FCM messages, run tasks, and alarms. If an app is in the Rare bucket, there is a good chance you forgot you even installed the app. These kinds of apps have rigorous restrictions. Adaptive Battery could depend on an integrated app that also uses machine learning to decide how often you will use specific apps. If your device lacks this app, then it will monitor how often you use apps to determine what bucket they go into. But it will take some time for it to work at its best. The bucket they are in will also determine how often the app can run tasks such as alarms and accept high-priority Firebase Cloud Messaging. When your device is charging, no restrictions are applied to the apps. The apps that are placed in a bucket won’t be there forever. If how often you use an app changes, the bucket its placed in will also change.

How to Turn on Adaptive Battery in Android Pie

The Adaptive Battery feature should be on by default, but if you want to check that it’s on, go to “Settings -> Battery -> Adaptive Battery.” It’s also possible to see what apps have fallen into a specific bucket. To see this, you’ll need to unlock Developer Options in Android Pie. After seeing a note that you’re now a developer, go back a few times, and the Developer options should currently be listed. Open “Developer options -> select Standby apps,” and tap on the app you’re interested in.

Conclusion

Adaptive Battery is a step in the right direction. Thanks to this feature, you’ll be saving a good amount of battery life. What are your thoughts on the feature?