Android Marshmallow brought many improvements in multiple areas of the OS, but Doze, the new battery-saving mode is perhaps one of the most useful ones for the general public. After all, who doesn’t want their phone to last longer between charge cycles?
We recently covered everything about Doze, including how it works and how to use it. What’s interesting about this feature is it automatically kicks in when the device is idle. This means it should have the screen off and not move. If you carry it in a purse as you’re walking, for example, Doze won’t activate.
The activation rules for Doze are understandable to a certain extent. In a world where we want to stay connected 24/7, this feature was designed to be unobtrusive and work when it’s least likely we’re actually using our phones.
However, it makes sense some people would want to harness the full power of Doze but stock options don’t offer this choice for now. More often than not, developers usually rush in to provide an alternative when the OS fails to do so, and this is the case of Greenify.
The popular battery-saving app developed by Oasis Feng offers an option that activates Doze every time you turn off the screen. What’s particularly interesting, is even non-rooted users can do it. In all fairness, it does take a few extra steps compared to those with rooted devices, but if you want the battery of your device to last longer, this will certainly do the trick.
Requirements
Before you proceed, you should know Doze is a feature available only in Marshmallow, thus you’ll need a device running Android 6.0 or higher. If your device is not rooted, you’ll need a computer and a USB data cable as well.
How to enable ‘Aggressive Doze’ in Greenify
This particular feature is only available in Greenify beta for now. As a result, you’ll need to sign up for the app’s beta program to be able to use it. You can do it by visiting this link:
Join Greenify Beta
Alternatively you can visit the Greenify Google+ Community and find the same information in the community’s About section. Once you become a beta tester, you’ll receive new beta updates directly in Google Play. From there you can install the app or update it if you already have it installed on your device.
Non-rooted users only
Assuming you now have the latest version of the app installed, if your device is not rooted you’ll need to perform some additional actions. For rooted users, things are more simple and they can skip to the next step.
You’ll need ADB (Android Debug Bridge) installed on your computer to proceed. Windows users are lucky, the installer will do most of the job, while on Mac you’ll have to enter some terminal commands – it may seem a bit overwhelming if you’ve never done this sort of thing, but it’s all just a matter of following all the steps correctly. Check out this handy guide covering both operating systems.
Once you have ADB set up on your computer and phone, connect the two devices via a USB data cable. then enter the following command:
adb devices
If the result displayed is a bunch of letters and numbers, enter the following command as listed below to turn on the “Aggressive Doze” feature in Greenify:
adb -d shell pm grant com.oasisfeng.greenify android.permission.DUMP
Should you encounter any problems, check out the developer’s guide on how to enable certain Greenify features (Aggressive Doze included) on non-rooted devices.
Enable ‘Aggressive Doze’ in Greenify
This is the easy part – you are finally ready to turn on ‘Aggressive Doze’ in Greenify so you phone will enter Doze mode right after the screen turns off, and preserve battery to a greater extent.
To do it, just open the Greenify app, open the Options menu (three-dot menu button) then tap on the ‘Experimental features’ option. Now check the ‘Aggressive Doze’ option and that’s it.
With this feature turned on, your phone will enter Doze mode automatically as soon as you turn the screen off. There will be no visual or audio indicator to confirm this, but you can see for yourself it works by going to Settings -> Battery. All the flat lines in the graph are the times when Doze mode was on.
With that said, keep in mind that ‘Aggressive Doze’ is really … aggresive and you might want to whitelist the apps that are essential for you so they keep working in the background even when this feature is active.
If you decide to try Greenify’s ‘Aggresive Doze’ feature let us know if it makes a difference in battery life for your device in the comments section below or send us a message on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.
