With the latest flagship smartphones often costing a fortune, many people turn to more affordable options in the form of low-end and mid-range phones. While these phones may not boast top-tier components, they can still offer acceptable performance for the majority of users. However, some may find their devices sluggish and may attempt to improve their speed by downloading third-party apps that claim to boost performance. Unfortunately, such apps are not effective in speeding up Android devices, and can even cause more harm than good. As a result, Google is gearing up to take action against these apps in Android 14, and has issued a warning to app developers on Google Play. In light of these changes, it is important for Android users to understand the limitations of third-party speed booster apps and rely on other methods to improve the performance of their devices.
The efficacy of "task killer" apps, which promise to enhance device performance, has been debated over time. However, the general advice has been to avoid using them because mobile operating systems have built-in task management mechanisms designed for memory and power constraints. Killing processes without considering the device's state or memory management system can adversely affect performance. It is better to let the operating system handle memory management instead of using third-party apps. As a result, Google is limiting what these apps can do and how they can be marketed on Google Play.
Android 14 will restrict one of the APIs that "task killer" apps commonly use. In previous versions, apps with the KILL_BACKGROUND_PROCESSES permission could use ActivityManager.killBackgroundProcesses(String) to terminate all background processes of a given app. However, in Android 14, regardless of an app's target API level, this method will only be able to kill its own background processes. This change was already present in Android 14 DP1, and new documentation was added with the release of Android 14 DP2 to clarify it. The documentation advises that apps should not use the killBackgroundProcesses() API or attempt to influence the process lifecycle of other apps, even on older OS versions.
The documentation for the change in the killBackgroundProcesses() API includes a note that third-party applications cannot enhance the memory, power, or thermal behavior of Android devices. It also advises developers to comply with Google Play's policy against deceptive behavior and misleading claims. Although Google Play's policy previously prohibited deceptive behavior, including apps making misleading claims about functionalities that could not be implemented, it did not explicitly forbid apps from claiming to enhance device or OS performance. However, the wording of this note suggests that Google may start considering such claims as misleading and may take action against apps that make them.
Android 14 will restrict one of the APIs that "task killer" apps commonly use. In previous versions, apps with the KILL_BACKGROUND_PROCESSES permission could use ActivityManager.killBackgroundProcesses(String) to terminate all background processes of a given app. However, in Android 14, regardless of an app's target API level, this method will only be able to kill its own background processes. This change was already present in Android 14 DP1, and new documentation was added with the release of Android 14 DP2 to clarify it. The documentation advises that apps should not use the killBackgroundProcesses() API or attempt to influence the process lifecycle of other apps, even on older OS versions.
The documentation for the change in the killBackgroundProcesses() API includes a note that third-party applications cannot enhance the memory, power, or thermal behavior of Android devices. It also advises developers to comply with Google Play's policy against deceptive behavior and misleading claims. Although Google Play's policy previously prohibited deceptive behavior, including apps making misleading claims about functionalities that could not be implemented, it did not explicitly forbid apps from claiming to enhance device or OS performance. However, the wording of this note suggests that Google may start considering such claims as misleading and may take action against apps that make them.
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-Anurag
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