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Android is Google's mobile operating system that is harnessed by almost every phone on the planet that is not made by Apple Inc. The software differs from iOS in a number of ways; one

of the biggest differences is the inclusion of an app drawer, meaning all icons do not need to be placed on the home screen itself. Google regularly updates Android with numbered iterations

that bring a swathe of improvements and new features. The latest of which was Android 9 Pie that arrived in August for Google Pixel devices and the Essential Phone. But since its

introduction, the latest and greatest software has arrived on a legion of other handsets from the likes of Huawei, OnePlus and Xiaomi. In addition to substantial numbered versions of

Android, Google also regularly updates the software to make it more useful. The latest change for the software has arrived thanks to a collaboration between the American tech giant and

Twitter. On its Android Developers Blog, the two firms explained notifications from the social network have been refined so they have less of a strain on battery life for users. Discussing

the change, the firms said: "Push notifications are an important way to keep Twitter users informed about what's happening. "However, they can be a significant and often

overlooked source of battery drain. For example: high priority notifications can wake a phone from Doze, and fetching data upon push notification delivery via the network can drain the

battery quickly. "As app developers at Twitter, we know that battery life is an important aspect of the mobile experience for our users. Over time we've taken several steps to

optimize our app to work with the power saving features, particularly around push notifications." Twitter declared it had improved its notification delivery system so it better complies

with power saving features that are already available on Android devices. Moreover, it was also discussed how the priorities of certain alerts have been altered. It was stated only a

"small fraction" of notifications from Twitter are now classed as a "high priority" and therefore have a substantial impact on user devices. Both firms went on: "On

the backend at Twitter, we always try to make sure that notifications are assigned with the appropriate priority, making sure that high priority FCM messages are only used to generate a user

visible notification. "In fact, a very small fraction of notifications we send are classified as high priority." And finally, it was also insisted Twitter only now has one type of

notification that requires data to be prefetched from Android hardware, meaning less internet allowance and battery is used overall. The joint blog post between Google and Twitter noted:

"Designing for power optimisation in a large evolving application is a complex and ongoing process, particularly as the Android platform grows and provides more granular controls.

"At Twitter we strongly believe in continuous refinement to improve application performance and resource consumption. "We hope this discussion is useful in your own quest to

optimise your app's performance and use of resources."