Android 15 Introduces New Feature to Disable Home Screen Widgets of Force-Stopped Apps
In a move to enhance app management capabilities, Android 15 is set to unveil a new feature that will disable the home screen widget of any app that is force-stopped. This change is designed to prevent the app from running in the background after being terminated, effectively addressing performance and misbehavior issues.
Currently, when users force stop an app due to misbehavior or issues, the app and its background activities are terminated. However, the home screen widget associated with the app remains unaffected. With the upcoming Android 15 update, this will no longer be the case as the operating system will automatically disable the widget of a force-stopped app.
This revelation was made by Android Police, who discovered that Google has outlined the behavior changes in the Android 15 developer website. Once an app is force-stopped, all its widgets will be temporarily disabled, appearing grayed out on the home screen. These widgets will only restart once the app is manually relaunched, either directly or indirectly.
The introduction of this new functionality in Android 15 ensures that users will not face the frustration of having the widget immediately start again after force-stopping the app. By temporarily disabling the widget, Android aims to tackle any potential issues caused by the widget itself.
Developers are encouraged to test this new feature in the current Android 15 Beta version. It is important to note that not all apps have home screen widgets, so users who do not have widgets may not have encountered this issue before. For those apps that do utilize widgets, the impact of this change will become evident once they update to Android 15, expected to be released in late 2024.
Overall, the addition of this new feature in Android 15 enhances app management capabilities and offers a more seamless user experience. It addresses a common user concern when force-stopping problematic apps and ensures that associated widgets are temporarily disabled until the app is relaunched manually.
