Pixel Frees 2GB RAM by Cutting Android Background Processes to 0

Q: Android 17 now kills memory-hogging apps. Does this make the famous 'no background processes' tweak obsolete?

No. Android 17 makes the “no background processes” tweak less necessary, but not obsolete. The reason is that the two tools solve different problems. Android 17’s new app memory limits are a system-level safeguard: the OS now watches for apps that exceed conservative RAM thresholds and can terminate them before they cause stutter, battery drain, or wider instability. That is a targeted response to extreme memory leaks and unusually heavy apps. The developer-option tweak is much broader and harsher. Setting background processes to zero stops Android from keeping ordinary apps alive in the background at all, even if those apps are not misbehaving. That can still free large amounts of RAM and improve battery life, especially on older phones or devices with weaker memory management. Users have reported gains such as around 2GB of freed RAM, with push notifications still arriving through Firebase Cloud Messaging. But the trade-offs remain real: slower app relaunches, occasional notification delays, weaker multitasking, and some location or sync features needing manual intervention. Android 17 is designed to preserve normal multitasking while only punishing outliers, so for most users it is the better default. In practice, Android 17 reduces the need for the tweak if your main concern is rogue memory-hogging apps. The tweak still has niche value for people who want maximum battery savings or the lightest possible background activity and are willing to accept the usability costs.

1 articles · Updated · Android Police · Jun 18

Setting Android’s background process limit to zero freed 2GB of RAM on the author’s Pixel and delivered a noticeable boost in battery life and performance after a week of use.
Developer options let users switch from the default standard limit—roughly 20 cached background processes on many phones—to “No background processes,” with the effect visible in Running Services in real time.
Firebase Cloud Messaging means core apps such as phone, messages, Gmail and Facebook can still receive most push notifications even when cached background processes are blocked.
The trade-off was modest but clear: email alerts arrived 10 to 15 seconds later, some apps opened more slowly, and location-based features sometimes needed the app to be opened manually.