Google tries to solve the problem of apps that consume too much RAM and slow down smartphones: coming app hibernation.
One of the biggest problems of Android apps is that they consume a lot of RAM memory. Even on the most modern smartphones, equipped with 6, 8 or even 12 or 16 GB of RAM (the latter can be counted on the fingers of one hand, but will become the standard for the top of the range 2021), it can happen that the entire RAM memory is occupied by open apps.
This slows down the smartphone a lot and also happens because the manufacturers of phones (even high-end ones) put more and more proprietary apps in their smartphones (Samsung is the best example), which are loaded automatically when the phone starts, even if the user does not use them in the end. It’s not always possible to delete or disable these apps altogether, and they steal valuable RAM and storage space. Google is thinking of a solution to this problem and in the next version of Android, the 12, automatic app hibernation could arrive.
Android app hibernation, how it works
In a nutshell, the new feature is a new “state” in which the app can be. In addition to being active or in the background, then, the app can also be hibernated. When it’s hibernated, the Android OS moves all the app’s data from RAM to storage memory.
At the same time, the app’s cache is also emptied, which is the portion of memory where the app keeps the data it frequently accesses. For video streaming apps, this is often several hundred MB of data. Clearing app cache is already possible today, but you have to do it manually from Android’s settings.
To avoid spreading unnecessary orphan files on the device, moreover, files related to hibernated apps are deleted as they are no longer needed by Android.
Android app hibernation, when it comes
Google introduced this new feature as an AOSP (Android Open Source Project, the open source development program from which new versions of Android are derived) proposal for Android 12.
Android 12 is the next version of Google’s mobile operating system, whose first beta is expected to arrive by February. There might be another new feature inside: it’s “App Pairs” and it’s meant to improve multitasking on smartphones with very large screens. Finally, it is not excluded that Android 12 could also have a built-in VPN.
The final version of Android 12 will arrive, if all goes as planned, between late August and early September 2021.