it sucks when you pick your phone, turning it on, only to realize the notification it’s just received was delayed and supposed to have reached you some 10 minutes ago (or, you know, hours) . Annoyingly, this is because Android itself, is trying to manage your phone’s battery life by forcing not frequently used apps to go to sleep, with the end result being those delayed notifications. Fortunately, Android does offer you the ability to configure this behavior on some level, on an app-by-app basis, so that you can be more confident that notifications will be received when they’re sent, not when your phone decides you should get them.
Fixing it is relatively simple, though the Battery Optimization feature may seem a little confusing , it really is just a few fast steps to resolve this annoying issue.
The below steps should work for most Android phones with Oreo (Android 8.0) or above. Some smartphone manufacturers, however, completely replace Android’s battery optimization for their own implementations. In those cases, you’ll need to consult a manufacturer-specific tutorial.
How to stop android applications from sleeping
- Start the Settings app and find Battery Optimization in the Apps section.
- At the top of the screen, tap “Not Optimized” and then tap “All apps.” You should now see a list of all the apps on your phone. Each app is marked “Allowed” or “Not allowed.” Allowed means that your phone is allowed to put the app to sleep when it’s in the background.
- Find an app that you don’t want to go to sleep, and tap it. In the pop-up, choose “Don’t allow” and confirm your choice by tapping “OK.”
That’s it — though you will need to repeat that process for each app which you want to keep awake in the background. These settings should survive a reboot of your phone and will allow these apps to run normally. If you ever want to turn the battery optimization back on, just go back to that same menu, and find the apps you’ve exempted in the “not optimized” list.
