Android: improve battery life and free up RAM by disabling services
So called background services are running on any Android device. They can be divided up into services run by system apps and applications that you have installed on the device. These services have a wide variety of purposes, from retrieving data from the Internet to running as a widget on the device. These background services are usually needed for the application or system to function properly, and disabling them would render the functionality useless.
Sometimes though you may want to disable select services for the time being or permanently in the case of system apps that you can't uninstall but do not use at all.
That's where the free Android app Disable Service comes into play. It can be installed on all Android devices running version 2.2 or higher of the operating system. Note that while you can use it to display all the background services that apps use on the device, it requires root to actually disable them.
When you start the application for the first time you will notice that it takes a second or so before the list of apps with background services is fully displayed on the screen. Each app is listed with its name and information about the services it makes use of on the right of it.
The gray value indicates the number of total services, blue those that are running, and red those that have been disabled. You can swipe to switch to the system apps listing instead which uses the same layout and formatting.
A tap on any app listed in either category displays all services that it makes use of. It is often sufficient to look at the name of each service to get a basic understanding for what it does.
MMSReceiver and SMSReceiver that you find listed when you open the official Facebook application are likely retrieving MMS or SMS messages when the app is running.
The core different between disabling services and uninstalling is that you can disable services without losing all of an application's functionality. It may take some tweaking to get it right though but it can be well worth it in the long run.
Tips
- It is safest to disable services that you know you will never make use of. If you never use an apps' upload feature, you can disable that service without losing any of the other functionality it makes available.
- The blue numbers are a good starting point. They indicate services that are currently running. Check out the apps that have active background services and start disabling those that you do not need all the time.
- You can turn services back on at any time, for instance if you need to use an app again or functionality that it makes available.
Uhh, this has already been possible – I am not sure how but remember my brother telling me about it. I’m not a whatsapp user so not sure of the specifics, but something about sending the image as a file and somehow bypassing the default compression settings that are applied to inbound photos.
He has also used this to share movies to whatsapp groups, and files 1Gb+.
Like I said, I never used whatsapp, but I know 100% this isn’t a “brand new feature”, my brother literally showed me him doing it, like… 5 months ago?
Martin, what happened to those: 12 Comments (https://www.ghacks.net/chatgpt-gets-schooled-by-princeton-university/#comments). Is there a specific justifiable reason why they were deleted?
Hmm, it looks like the gHacks website database is faulty, and not populating threads with their relevant cosponsoring posts.
The page on ghacks this is on represents the best of why it has become so worthless, fill of click-bait junk that it’s about to be deleted from my ‘daily reads’.
It’s really like “Press Release as re-written by some d*ck for clicks…poorly.” And the subjects are laughable. Can’t wait for “How to search for files on Windows”.
> The page on ghacks this is on represents the best of why it has become so worthless, fill of click-bait junk…
Sadly, I have to agree.
Only Martin and Ashwin are worth subscribing to.
Especially Emre Çitak and Shaun are the worst ones.
If ghacks.net intended “Clickbait”, it would mark the end of Ghacks Technology News.
Ghacks doesn’t need crappy clickbaits. Clearly separate articles from newer authors (perhaps AIs and external sales person or external advertising man) as just “Advertisements”!
We, the subscribers of Ghacks, urge Martin to make a decision.
because nevermore wants to “monetize” on every aspect of human life…
“Threads” is like the Walmart of Social Media.
How hard can it be to clone a twitter version of that as well? They’re slow.
Yes, why not mention how large the HD files can be?
Why, not mention what version of WhatsApp is needed?
These omissions make the article feel so bare. If not complete.
Sorry posted on the wrong page.
such a long article for such a simple matter. Worthless article ! waste of time
I already do this by attaching them via the ‘Document’ option.
I don’t know what’s going on here at Ghacks but it’s obvious that something is broken, comments are being mixed whatever the article, I am unable to find some of my later posts neither. :S
Quoting the article,
“As users gain popularity, the value of their tokens may increase, allowing investors to reap rewards.”
Besides, beyond the thrill and privacy risks or not, the point is to know how you gain popularity, be it on social sites as everywhere in life. Is it by being authentic, by remaining faithful to ourselves or is it to have this particular skill which is to understand what a majority likes, just like politicians, those who’d deny to the maximum extent compatible with their ideological partnership, in order to grab as many of the voters they can?
I see the very concept of this Friend.tech as unhealthy, propagating what is already an increasing flaw : the quest for fame. I won’t be the only one to count himself out, definitely.
@John G. is right : my comment was posted on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/23/what-is-friend-tech/] and it appears there but as well here at [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/08/how-to-follow-everyone-on-threads/]
This has been lasting for several days. Fix it or at least provide some explanations if you don’t mind.
> Google Chrome is following in Safari’s footsteps by introducing a new feature that allows users to move the Chrome address bar to the bottom of the screen, enhancing user accessibility and interaction.
Firefox did this long before Safari.
Basically they’ll do anything except fair royalties.
The only “Hot” aspect about this discussion is that all the users are psychic and have discovered a way to comment on a particular topic a couple of weeks before it actually appears i.e. the article is dated 3 October while the comments date from August 18.
Is this an example of how the super intelligent AI is going about its business?