Your OnePlus phone won't aggressively kill background apps anymore

One of the quickest ways to save juice on your phone is to kill apps running in the background, and virtually all manufacturers do this automatically. But some brands are more aggressive about killing apps than others, meaning that you might miss out on alarms, messages, and other functions.

Fortunately, OnePlus has announced a series of developer-focused commitments on its forum (h/t: r/android), including firmware updates to fix background apps being killed. You can check out the full list of developer community commitments below:

• Kernel sources to be released on time for all builds including Open Beta build.
• We will introduce a Bounty Program for reporting security vulnerabilities.
• We will be promoting custom ROMs on OnePlus forums and Social Media for EOL (End of life) devices.
• Concerns about apps getting killed in the background due to aggressive battery optimization – to be fixed in upcoming updates.
• We will make sure that devices are seeded quicker to developers in the program after the launch of a new device.
• We will be expanding the existing device seeding program to include more members.
• More OnePlus community meetups to be organized around our developer community.

The news comes a while after OnePlus gained the number three spot on a ranking of manufacturers with egregious background app management. More specifically, the creators of the Don’t Kill My App website said OnePlus users need to tweak extra settings to get their apps to work correctly, and that firmware updates reset these settings.

OnePlus isn’t the only manufacturer to tone down its battery management in recent months, as HMD Global also confirmed a major change. The Nokia brand licensee revealed that it now uses Google’s Adaptive Battery feature on its phones instead of the heavy-handed Evenwell battery management tool. Prior to switching from Evenwell, Nokia phones were ranked number one for aggressively killing background apps.

Aside from a pledge to fix battery management, OnePlus is also promising to promote custom ROMs for devices that have reached end-of-life status. Furthermore, the company is pledging to release kernel sources on time.

In other words, the brand is definitely making all the right noises for the developer community. But time will tell whether it follows up with solid action in this regard.