Rootless 'Aggressive Doze' from Greenify Saves Battery on Android 6.0 Devices

I assumed with the introduction of Android Marhsmallow's battery improvements, I wouldn't need Greenify anymore. After all, what could they do that Doze hasn't already done? The Greenify developer has been on top of updates, trying to keep his app relevant across versions. The new "Aggressive Doze" feature is another one of Greenify's amazing attempts to keep your battery full. Doze is a feature introduced in Android 6.0, which drastically lowers the amount of background processes used when the device is asleep. In order for Doze to activate, your device has to be immobile on a flat surface for quite a long time. (Some sources say around an hour.) Greenify's Aggressive Doze causes Doze to, well, act more aggressively. It shuts off extra sensors while in Doze mode and activates as soon as your device is immobile and the screen is off. Some users report excellent standby time. Others report crippling bugs. But the most interesting part? It's available without rooting your device.

Now, I haven't done too much testing, but on the surface it seems awesome. I've tested the most recent Beta 3 version and, strangely, it felt like it had more bugs than the Beta 1 version. Beta 3 caused the system time to lag behind the actual time or freeze after entering Doze mode for a while. Beta 1 hasn't had this problem. Here is a little battery graph (which should be taken with a grain of salt. This is only one trial.) that describes my experience turning it on half way through the day. (Beta 1)

The red line is a line of best fit describing how the graph would look, roughly, if I continued without activating Aggressive Doze. The green line is a prediction of the graph continuing with Aggressive Doze enabled. Like I said, these results are in no way scientific, but you can clearly see a difference in battery life here.

A few issues are to be expected. For example, only apps that use high priority Google Cloud Messaging will be able to break through Doze mode and wake the device. Some apps don't support this. Luckily, you can disable battery enhancements through Android's settings for specific apps if you find this issue. Aggressive Doze is an experimental feature and should be treated as such, but still, it's amazing such things can be accomplished without root.