What goes on when I turn OFF my Android LG phone display?

User avatar
ChrisGreaves
PlutoniumLounger
Posts: 15498
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 23:23
Location: brings.slot.perky

What goes on when I turn OFF my Android LG phone display?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Curiosity value only:

I am trying a new podcast application; right now I am listening on-line, rather than downloading a batch of podcasts and listening off-line.
I notice that while the podcast playback is paused, I see a series of distracting ads, so I press the button on the side of the phone to turn off the display.
I reason that I am using less power by doing that, but then I start wondering about bandwidth.

It ought to be possible for the podcast application to sense that the display is turned off, and that further advertisements will not be seen by me, so in theory the application is able to tell the server to stop sending screen/visual data.

But in practice, do smartphone applications do this? Do they reduce use of visual data transfer when the display is turned off?

Thanks
Chris
An expensive day out: Wallet and Grimace

User avatar
Argus
GoldLounger
Posts: 3081
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 19:07

Re: What goes on when I turn OFF my Android LG phone display?

Post by Argus »

Not an actual answer, since you would like your podcast application to keep downloading as you are listening.

What is going on when the screen is turned off is similar to the example with the fridge, but worse in the case of mobile phones.

All things related to Android change all the time, i.e. different versions have different features, or to the annoyance of users, same features but in different places. (Yes, we have seen this with computer OS the last decade as well.) The implementation can also be a bit different between brands, but I don't think that matter as much in this case.

I will probably use the wrong word, since "app hibernation" apparently is a new thing in Android 12 coming this year, but for quite some time (i.e. android versions) it has been possible to set how it should do with the Wi-Fi connection when in hibernation. I have for example: always on (if it was on before hibernation, of course); only keep it on if there was a connection; and never. The last setting means it will disconnect whenever the phone goes in hibernation, or whatever the current word is to not confuse with the soon new feature "app hibernation".

I find this setting under: settings (obviously) > network & internet > Wi-Fi > Settings for Wi-Fi.
Byelingual    When you speak two languages but start losing vocabulary in both of them.

User avatar
ChrisGreaves
PlutoniumLounger
Posts: 15498
Joined: 24 Jan 2010, 23:23
Location: brings.slot.perky

Re: What goes on when I turn OFF my Android LG phone display?

Post by ChrisGreaves »

Argus wrote:
01 Aug 2021, 20:13
Not an actual answer, since you would like your podcast application to keep downloading as you are listening....
Hi Argus.
A good answer, actually, but then, I am not surprised :smile:

Here is the situation: When I installed the podcast player I saw a message about "listening offline", but like a good little boy, I decided to run the ap as-is so as not to foul up settings that i didn't ought to play with. So the podcast player plays podcasts only by streaming, as I think it is called. No matter. I am working around the house, listening as I work.

Two types of events can suspend my willingness to listen:-
(1) I am about to start five minutes of noisy high-speed beaters to make a batch of iced-cream and
(2) I am making or answering a phone call.

Off-line or on-line, I will press the Pause button on the player and then press Run when my attention is returned.

I think of "listening online" as downloading and buffering just enough material to last, say, the next ten seconds, so if the phone call is twenty minutes, there would have been no point in carrying on the download.

So the proposition that "... you would like your podcast application to keep downloading as you are listening..." is true, but once I suspend listening (and signalling that by pressing Pause). once a ten-second buffer is full I would expect downloading to cease, with reduced bandwidth.
My guess is that ads will not cease because the system wants to make money.
I do not want to be visually distracted so I turn off the display. Now of course I can't see whether the ads continue.

I suppose that I could spend some time studying the flashing lights on the router, or installing BitMeter to measure the activity during my twenty-minute phone call, but even then it is possible that bandwidth was being consumed, as you suggest, in order to confuse me once the phone call is ended.

There again, the question" Do they reduce use of visual data transfer when the display is turned off?" was and remains curiosity value only.
Cheers
Chris
An expensive day out: Wallet and Grimace