Why an Android phone uses a lot of battery when idle

A situation that many Android users have faced on occasion is that we have left the phone idle for a while and when we use it again we see that the battery has dropped a lot. It is something that surprises us and leads us to wonder if the phone's battery is in good condition. Is it normal for this to happen? 

It is a very frequent question among users with an Android phone. The reality is that it is partly normal, since even though we are not using it, our smartphone continues to carry out processes. There is not a time when I am not doing anything. Something that supposes a battery consumption.

Android asleep

As long as the phone is on, it does not matter if we are using it or it is idle, Android is always up and running. Therefore, the battery will be consumed at all times. If you want to avoid this, then the only thing you can do is turn off the phone during the time that you are not going to use it. At all times, applications are communicating with the operating system.

The problem was that during the beginning, Android gave a lot of freedom for applications and processes will run in the background. The developers were asked to reduce consumption, but this is not something that actually happened. Therefore, as you already know, there are many apps that consume a huge amount of battery in the background.

With the arrival of Android Marshmallow, Google introduced a series of measures. One of them is Doze, which probably sounds familiar to some of you. It is a function that detects when the user has stopped using the phone. In this way, it will immerse you in a dream, in which only the system works. This allows less battery consumption on the device while it is idle.

Therefore, after having your phone idle, if you check which battery has used the most, you will see what Android system comes out. It's not that the operating system is badly designed. It is the system that has been working while the phone was not in use. I was working to prevent the energy consumption from being higher. So despite the fact that it comes out as the cause of said consumption, it is what is helping consumption not to skyrocket.

Layers of Personalization

The problem comes when we talk about the customization layers. It is one of these aspects that we have to take into account when obtaining information about the battery of an Android phone. As many of you already know, the customization layer can mean that the phone's consumption will be higher.

Manufacturers on Android, when they introduce a layer of customization, they can edit anything they want on the phone. Only Google applications and services are something that cannot be modified, although this could change. The problem is that there are manufacturers that introduce a customization layer full of applications and elements, which in the end causes high battery consumption.

In addition, there are even those who establish their own standards. So that decide which applications or processes can run in the background. Something that causes this high battery consumption, in addition to affecting the operation of tools like Doze, which seek precisely to reduce consumption during these moments of rest. That is why in some cases, phones that have Android One as the operating system become a better option. Since they have fewer additives and lower consumption.

Undoubtedly, the issue of the battery is still one of the pending subjects in Android. Especially given the large differences between the customization layers, which cause large differences in idle consumption.