Engineers at a US university have developed a free application that could significantly extend the battery life of Android smartphones by targeting one of the most persistent but least visible causes of power loss — apps that continue running checks in the background while the phone appears to be off.
The tool, called Hush, was created by a team at Purdue University in Indiana following a large-scale study of energy consumption across 2,000 Android handsets. The research found that applications which regularly ping servers for updates account for roughly 30% of the battery power a phone loses while in sleep mode — a significant drain given that most phones spend the majority of their time in that state.
The root cause, according to the research team, lies in poorly written software. Many apps fail to release control of the phone’s processor after completing a background update, keeping the device in an active state rather than allowing it to return to sleep. This happens through the incorrect use of built-in Android power management tools known as wakelocks, which are designed to temporarily prevent a phone from sleeping but are frequently mishandled by developers.
Hush addresses the problem by regulating which applications are permitted to wake the phone and retrieve data, prioritising those the user interacts with most frequently while restricting background activity from lesser-used apps.
Early results suggest phones running Hush last around 15% longer between charges, with the tool reducing battery drain from background app activity by close to half.
The Purdue team is continuing to develop the software, with the broader aim of eventually doubling smartphone battery life by targeting additional sources of unnecessary power consumption beyond background app checks.
