Battery Optimization
Battery usage
Battery consumption greatly depends on enabled features: the more features an app requires, the more data is processed and the more battery power is used. Users who make many trips or very long trips will naturally experience higher battery consumption.
Processing sensor and location data is the primary source of battery consumption. This occurs when the SDK requests data from the device’s sensors and the location services.
A high frequency of sensor and location requests increases the volume and rate of data processing by the SDK, which significantly improves the accuracy of detections performed by the SDK, but also results in more battery usage
Sensor and location data is requested and processed only when the SDK is in an active state. Learn more about this in the next section.
Optimization features
To minimize battery impact from sensor and location processing, multiple optimization techniques are applied that reduce background processing and battery consumption by the SDK.
When the user is stationary, the SDK enters an idle/sleep state. In this state the SDK is not detecting or processing any data.
The SDK only wakes up when:
A geofence is broken: meaning the user is in significant movement
The state of the user transitions from Stationary to in-transport by or automatic trip start.
After approximately 3 minutes of being stationary, the SDK goes back to sleep and stops active detection until awakened again
Battery saving by systems
Native battery saving features, such as Low Power Mode and Adaptive Battery on Android, can reduce SDK detection quality. Sentiance SDK built-in battery optimizations already improve energy efficiency, so we recommend disabling battery-saving features for any app running the Sentiance SDK to ensure optimal performance.
For consistent and reliable detection performance, it is recommended to:
Inform end users about the restrictions of native battery-saving features of the device
Explain why disabling certain battery-saving features for the app improves SDK accuracy
See below for the best practices regarding battery optimization
Android
Certain Android device manufacturers aggressively restrict battery usage, often prioritizing low battery consumption over background app quality.
Don't Kill My App (no affiliation to Sentiance) keeps track of different manufacturers' practices on battery optimization techniques that severely restrict how your app can run in the background and the potential solutions.
Manufacturers listed below are notorious for their strict requirements for background process restrictions, and without proper user-onboarding, and correct battery-related settings, Sentiance SDK cannot guarantee a consistent output on these devices.
Programmatically Prompting for Battery Optimization Permission
When running the SDK on Android 6 and higher, it is recommended to ask the user to disable battery optimization for your app. This makes sure that SDK detections continue to work properly when the device is in Doze mode. This is particularly important with manufacturers like OnePlus and Nokia (HMD Global) who customize Android to do aggressive battery optimization, keeping the device in Doze mode longer than intended.
Additionally, on Android 9, disabling this will prevent Adaptive Battery from bucketing your app based on usage and restricting background processing, all of which that can impact the detection quality of the SDK.
After explaining to the user about the benefits of disabling battery optimization, call the disableBatteryOptimization() method of the Sentiance class. This will trigger a system dialog asking the user to allow disabling battery optimization for your app.
The Sentiance SDK does not define the REQUEST_IGNORE_BATTERY_OPTIMIZATIONS permission required for this feature. You must therefore explicitly add this permission to your app.
Embeddable Projects
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