Table of Contents
Highlights
- A new toggle, “Optimize backup for battery life,” appears in Google Photos code to reduce the frequency of background backups.
- The setting focuses on conserving battery by delaying or batching background sync events.
- Using this option may delay the appearance of new photos in cloud storage.
- Launch timing is unconfirmed, and the feature may first appear in beta or phased rollouts.
Google Photos is one of the most popular applications that automatically backs up pictures and videos from mobile devices to the cloud. Although backup features are convenient and provide peace of mind, many users complain that the app’s background activity, especially frequent synchronization, drains the battery faster on Android phones.
In this regard, Google is seemingly introducing a new battery optimization feature that would allow backup behavior to be less power-consuming while not completely shutting off cloud storage. The planned feature, labeled “Optimize backup for battery life,” has been discovered in the app’s code during an APK teardown of Google Photos version 7.59. It also highlights the user’s control that Google is continuously trying to give them over the performance of their applications.
The Importance of Battery Efficiency for Backup Apps
Google Photos is a service that has the functionality of automatically uploading all the photos and videos taken by the user to the cloud, which ensures that the content is safe and easy to access through various devices. The app has already provided users with several options to decide on their backup preferences, including allowing backups only when connected to Wi-Fi, limiting uploads while traveling with a roaming SIM card, or even pausing backups altogether.
But, so far, there have been no such dedicated controls to specifically manage battery usage while the background backups are going on. Once the backups are activated, Google Photos can often be working behind the scenes, looking for new media to upload and syncing across devices. In some cases, this has resulted in noticeable battery drain for users, especially those with old devices or in conditions where battery life is already not so good.
The upcoming battery-friendly backup mode aims to solve this problem by rethinking how and when backups occur.
The setting ‘Optimize Backup for Battery Life’ is now available.
The new setting, which is mentioned in the app’s code as ‘Optimizing backup for battery life,’ would allow the user to give power savings more priority than real-time cloud syncing. The core idea of this option being turned on is that the Google Photos backup tasks and their scheduling will be modified when the app is not actively used, and the background wake-ups that are only for battery saving will be reduced to strictly save battery.
In practical terms, this could result in longer waiting times when a new photograph is clicked and when it shows up in the cloud or on other devices that have been synced. But the users who are frequently running out of battery or who just wish to extend the charging of their device might find this compromise a bit more than worth it.
The feature wasn’t even supposed to be discovered yet since it’s still under development and not open to most users, but it was found out by an APK teardown of Google Photos version 7.59. APK teardowns are basically looking through a leaked or in-progress version of an app to spot potential new features that haven’t been made public yet. It allows automatic cloud backup to continue – just in a more battery-conscious way.
The New Feature and Its Impact on Backup Behavior
At the moment, the app’s backup system generally tries to synchronize media very quickly as soon as the phone is unlocked or the camera roll is changed. However, the new toggle may allow those sync events to be postponed or combined so that the power consumption of the app is reduced in total. For instance, backing up may be done less frequently under circumstances such as a device being idle, having a low battery, or not being actively used by its owner.
This feature is in a way different from pausing all backups and the option ‘Back up on Wi-Fi only.’ Rather, it gives the user the freedom to choose – automatic backups with the device in battery-friendly mode. The user would, hence, not be impacted by the battery life issue, as the frequent background syncing that may be the cause of it would not occur in their case.
Current Backup Controls Available Right Now
The current situation concerning managing backups is that users, while they wait for the new feature to be rolled out, are already in a position to control the amount of network and battery resources that Google Photos uses.
So in that case:
- Start Google Photos on your Android phone.
- Press on your profile picture, which is located at the top right corner.
- Select Settings of Photos > Back up & sync.
- From there, you can enable or disable the Backup & sync feature, limit the uploads to Wi-Fi only, and temporarily stop the backups.
The options already available are useful in moderating data usage and upload behavior, but they are not able to deal directly with the power consumption incurred during background syncing. The new toggle that is optimized for power consumption is intended to cover this gap once it becomes available to the public.
What Users Can Expect
Google has not yet confirmed a launch date, as the battery-saving feature was discovered through a teardown rather than an official announcement. It is not unusual for features found in this manner to first appear in the beta versions of the apps or in phased rollouts before they are made available to everyone. Moreover, the implementation might be altered prior to launch depending on the results of in-house testing and feedback from users.
Nonetheless, the inclusion of an “Optimize backup for battery life” option would greatly enhance the experience of many users, particularly those who use Google Photos daily but at the same time heavily depend on their phone’s battery throughout the day. In the long run, the combination of power efficiency and cloud convenience could make automatic backups less intrusive and more in line with user preferences.
