At this point, smartphones are prolific. We use them for calls, text messages, social networking, photos, quick searches, streaming music, watching videos…the list goes on. But each thing you do drains your battery life, and some apps will even continue to drain your battery in the background when you aren’t using them. A free app called Greenify can fix that.
How Greenify Works?
Greenify saves you battery life by effectively and systematically pushing apps into a sort of “hibernation” mode—an idle state that keeps them from running in the background and draining your battery.
“But that sounds like a task killer,” you may say, and “you told us not to use task killers!” That’s true, but Greenify is a little different. Not only will it stop an app from running, using Android’s built-in “Force Stop” mechanism, but it will also prevent that app from starting up again until you start it. It isn’t a blanket feature, either—instead of just closing everything, you must first pick and choose the apps that you’d like to hibernate. So contrary to the traditional “close everything” concept, you choose the list of apps you’d like to close, and everything else stays running as it always has.
It’s also worth noting that there are two ways to set up Greenify: with a rooted phone, and without. There are a few differences in how they work under the hood, but for the most part, you won’t notice a difference—except that the non-rooted version requires some initial setup.
How to Set Up Greenify for Use on a Non-Rooted Phone (Most Users)
After installing and launching Greenify, most users will have to go through a quick setup process. This will ensure the app has all the appropriate permissions and device access it needs, as well all verifying that all the recommended system settings required are set in place.
It’ll start everything off with a welcome screen and a brief explanation of what the app does. Hit Next to get into the meat and potatoes here.
The next screen will ask for the “working mode” for your device: non-rooted or rooted. Like stated earlier, this tutorial is for non-rooted users, so select the former.
If you’re using a newer device that has a fingerprint reader or you use Smart Lock to prevent the need to input your PIN or password with each unlock, verify that here.
The next step is when things can get a little convoluted: Greenify needs things to be set up in a specific way to provide the best experience possible (and to do what you want it to do). Since it does its things a few seconds after you turn of the screen, the “Power button instantly locks” settings in Android’s Security menu will need to be disabled. Tap the “Verify” button next to this entry to jump straight into the Security menu.
NOTE: This may look slightly different depending on what device you’re using, and Greenify may in fact open the wrong menu. For example, on the LG G5, I had to back out of the Security menu and open the Lock Screen menu to disable the “Power button instantly locks” setting.
While this puts you into Android’s Security menu, it doesn’t put you directly into the menu where the required setting toggle is—for that, you’ll have to tap that little cog icon next to the “Screen lock” entry. In this menu, toggle off the setting that reads “Power button instantly locks.”
Once that’s finished, just back out until you return to Greenify. The next setting you’ll need to verify is auto-lock. Greenify requires a delay here of at least five seconds—tap the “Verify” button to once again be tossed into Android’s Security settings.
Just like last time, it will open the Security menu, but not the exact location you need to be in. Again, tap the cog icon next to “Screen lock.” Time time, make sure the “Automatically Lock” setting is set to at least five seconds.
Again, back out until you’re in Greenify. This time, you’ll need to give Greenify Accessibility access. Tap the “Setting” button to open the Accessibility menu
Find Greenify’s entry in this menu, tap on it, then click the toggle. A verification window will pop up to let you know what this setting does—allow Greenify to monitor what you’re doing and information from the active window—so click OK to enable it.
With everything set up and ready to go, Greenify will explain a little bit about what to expect from the hibernation experience. Read this for a clearer idea of what’s happening and how it’s going to look. After that, tap Next.
One last setting is required for Greenify to do its thing: Usage Access. This allows Greenify see what other applications are doing. Tap the “Grant Permission” button here.
In the next window, tap on Greenify, then toggle Permit Usage Access to on.
And with that, everything should be ready to go. It’s a lot, I know—fortunately you only have to do this once. Tap Finish to get started using Greenify.
Finished:
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