While Android 11 is still struggling to find its way, Google is planning some new and cool feature for its next release. According to reports from XDA, Google is testing a new feature called App Hibernation for its Android 12 release. It was revealed in code changes to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) Gerrit. XDA, a renowned and trusted tech forum revealed this interesting feature. They spotted the evidence for this while scouring the AOSP code for new changes.
It was declared as a subclass inheriting the features from System Service. For starters, System Services are an integral part of the Android framework. In other words, they provide application interfaces that can perform long-running operations in the background. The new feature was declared to inherit its properties. Therefore, the evidence suggests that it might be intended to manage running tasks on Android. Above all, the comments declared in the code suggests Google was working on App Hibernation.
What is App Hibernation?
Hibernation is a state where a computer is turned off but saves its state to resume when it is enabled again. When a system was put into this state, the OS residing in the system saves all the data in RAM to the hard-disk before turning off the system completely. By doing this, the system will enter into low power mode saving the resources. Google draws the inspiration from this concept and created App Hibernation for Android.
According to the comments (‘*/’) given in the code, App Hibernation Service in Android 12 lets the apps to hibernate if they are not being actively used. In other words, this service will let your apps to go to sleep if they were not used frequently. Working of this app is still unknown as its not revealed in the code. It might work automatically similar to the auto-revoking permissions feature introduced in Android 11 or it might work manually giving controls to the user.
Moreover, this app is still in works which makes its arrival questionable. The Desktop Mode that we previously saw in Android 11 developer preview didn’t make the final cut due to some internal issues. There is a chance that this feature might turn out to be the same as well. Unlike Android 11, Android 12 might take more time to get a beta release due to the existential pandemic crisis. Until then, We have to wait and see.