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Certifying Energy Efficiency of Android Applications

While smartphone and tablet functionality is increasing, battery runtime goes down. Both users and software developers are not always aware of the energy consumed by applications. Without this information, users cannot choose energy-efficient apps to prevent battery drain. Awareness of energy consumption would also entice app developers to implement more energy-efficient apps to remain competitive. This paper presents a certification process and corresponding Android tool support for comparing apps regarding energy efficiency. It is demonstrated using notepad apps. 1. Motivation Application possibilities of mobile devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets) keep increasing, yet average battery runtimes stagnate at about one day [7]. Reasons for low battery runtimes are not only slow progress in battery research, but also increasing energy consumption of apps. Even though powerwasting apps are known and discussed by users, e.g. at Google’s Play Store [8], there is little information about the energy efficiency of apps [1]. This concerns both users and developers: On one hand, users need selection aid for energy-efficient apps. On other hand, developers need data about their apps’ energy consumption to guide energy efficiency improvements, and for comparison with competitors. This paper’s objective is to create certificates (example in Fig. 1), allowing to compare applications wrt. their energy efficiency, akin to EU energy labels for electrical devices [2]. Thereby, awareness for energy-efficient apps, and in the long run, energy efficiency itself rises. A certification process has to be supported by a toolchain, allowing certifiers to create such certificates. This paper’s core idea is to measure energy consumption for typical user actions on apps. There are challenges to overcome when specifying such a certification process and its tool support: