How-To

Improve Battery Drain on Android with Deep Sleeping Apps

By Brian Burgess

Published June 21, 2024

If you are looking for a way to improve your Android phone’s battery life is to enable deep sleeping apps. Here’s how to do it.

If your battery drains too quickly, apps could be the culprit. Usually, apps barely use battery power while not in use. You normally don’t need to close apps on Android, as they use few system resources.

Since apps usually take up so little of your device’s resources or battery life, you can usually leave unused apps open in the background unless they become unresponsive.

However, to say background apps don’t use battery and other system resources is inaccurate. Luckily, Samsung offers a “Deep Sleeping Apps” feature that can help improve your phone or tablet’s overall battery life.

What is the Deep Sleeping Apps Feature?

The Deep Sleeping Apps feature on a Samsung phone is straightforward and prevents apps from running in the background. This helps save on the system resources the background apps use — namely, the battery.

If you suspect an app uses too much battery power (like social media apps, for example), add them to the Deep Sleeping Apps list. The app will become active when you launch it; when done, it will return to a deep sleep state.

Add an App to the Deep Sleeping Apps List

Your Samsung phone automatically adds apps to the list when you don’t use specific ones frequently. However, it’s straightforward to ensure the feature is on and manually add an app to the Deep Sleeping Apps list.

1. Swipe down from the top of your screen and tap Settings (gear icon).
2. Select Battery and device care from the list.
3. Tap the Battery option on the following screen.
4. Tap Background usage limits from the menu that appears.
5. Make sure the Put unused apps to sleep switch is toggled on.
6. Select the Deep sleeping apps option to include an app manually and see what’s on the list. You should also see the number of apps automatically added to the list.
7. Tap the plus icon in the top right corner of the screen.
8. Scroll down the list of apps and check the apps you want to add to the list manually.
9. Once you have selected the apps you want to add to the list, tap the Add button at the bottom of the screen.
10. The list of deep-sleeping apps will separate between what’s automatically added by your phone and the user-added apps.

What are the Drawbacks of Deep Sleeping Apps?

Adding apps to the deep sleeping list improves battery life and, inevitably, Android battery health, so there are no drawbacks, right? Not exactly.

You may miss essential notifications when an app is in a deep sleep state. To help aid in battery life, apps in Deep Sleep stop certain functionality, including checking for new data and giving you notifications.

Remove Apps from the Deep Sleeping Apps List

Each app acts differently, so you may want to add it to the list to save battery life. However, if you aren’t getting the critical notifications you need, you can remove them from the list so they behave normally.

1. Return to the Battery > Deep Sleeping Apps section and tap the three-dot button in the top right corner.
2. Select the Remove button.
3. Select the app(s) you want to take off the Deep Sleeping Apps list.
4. Once the apps are selected, tap the Remove button at the bottom of the screen.

What if I Never Want to Miss a Notification?

If you never want to miss a notification from specific apps, add them to the “Never Auto Sleeping Apps” list. The process is like adding or removing apps from the Deep Sleeping Apps list.

The option is in the Battery > Background usage limits section. Select the Never Auto Sleeping Apps option and add or remove the apps like normal.

Is Putting Apps to Deep Sleep Good?

Adding apps to the deep sleep state has pros and cons. On one hand, it improves overall battery life, helping you get your phone through the day with minimal charging. On the other hand, you may not receive the important app updates you need when the app is sleeping.

Luckily, you can experiment with the apps on the list and add or remove them according to personal preference. For instance, if you don’t need to know about every time someone upvotes your post on Reddit or a game’s stats or upselling, adding them to the list makes sense. But if you need to be notified about important email, you might want to remove it.

What About Other Android Phones?

It’s also important to note that you can do a similar thing on phones from other manufacturers by manually turning off app background activity. However, you need to do it for each individual app.

For example, you can go to Settings > Battery Usage on a Google Pixel and select an app. Once you have it, toggle off the Allow background usage switch near the bottom of the screen.