Android Performance

Jank issues in Android are taken very seriously by both smartphone manufacturers and app developers. Internal teams, often called “Performance” or “Stability” groups, are typically dedicated to optimizing these experiences.

Currently, excellent third-party performance monitoring tools like Tencent’s Matrix are available. Phone manufacturers also have proprietary solutions. Since they can modify source code and bypass certain permission hurdles, manufacturers can access deeper system data, making analysis more efficient.

Android Activities have several critical launch modes: standard, singleTop, singleTask, and singleInstance. Each serves a specific architectural purpose. In this post, I’ll demonstrate their behaviors using a demo and visualizing the Activity Stack at each step.

An Activity Stack is a Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) data structure. Paying attention to the “Stack Content” column in the examples below will help you grasp how these modes differ in practice.

The demo code is available on GitLab: AndroidLaunchModeTest.

Hardware Acceleration vs Software AccelerationMany people confuse hardware acceleration and Hardware Layer in Android, thinking that enabling hardware acceleration means enabling Hardware Layer. So before discussing Hardware Layer, let’s first talk about hardware acceleration. For more detailed a...

Hardware Acceleration vs. Software AccelerationMany people confuse “hardware acceleration” with “Hardware Layer” in Android, assuming that enabling hardware acceleration means enabling Hardware Layer. So before we talk about Hardware Layer, let’s first talk about hardware acceleration. For more d...

This is the second article in the Systrace series, primarily explaining the prerequisites for analyzing Systrace. With these prerequisites, analyzing Systrace will be more effective, allowing you to identify issues faster and more efficiently.

This article introduces how to view thread states in Systrace, how to analyze thread wakeup information, how to interpret data in the information panel, and common shortcuts. By studying this article, you will gain an understanding of process and thread-related information and know how to extract key information from complex Systrace traces.

This is the fourth article in the Systrace series, primarily providing a brief introduction to SystemServer. It covers several important threads within SystemServer. Since Input and Binder are particularly critical, they are discussed separately and won’t be covered in detail here.

The purpose of this series is to view the overall operation of the Android system from a different perspective using Systrace, while also providing an alternative angle for learning the Framework. Perhaps you’ve read many articles about the Framework but can never remember the code, or you’re unclear about the execution flow. Maybe from Systrace’s graphical perspective, you can gain a deeper understanding.

This is the first article in the Systrace series, primarily providing a brief introduction to Systrace, its basic usage, how to interpret Systrace traces, and how to analyze phenomena in Systrace in conjunction with other tools.

The purpose of this series is to view the overall operation of the Android system from a different perspective using Systrace, while also providing an alternative angle for learning the Framework. Perhaps you’ve read many articles about the Framework but can never remember the code, or you’re unclear about the execution flow. Maybe from Systrace’s graphical perspective, you can gain a deeper understanding.

This is the third article in the Systrace series, explaining why 60 FPS is constantly emphasized. 60 FPS is a software concept, distinct from the 60Hz mentioned in screen refresh rates. For further context, refer to: A New Smooth Experience: A Talk on 90Hz.

The purpose of this series is to view the overall operation of the Android system from a different perspective using Systrace, while also providing an alternative angle for learning the Framework. Perhaps you’ve read many articles about the Framework but can never remember the code, or you’re unclear about the execution flow. Maybe from Systrace’s graphical perspective, you can gain a deeper understanding.

As Systrace becomes increasingly feature-rich, combined with Android version iterations, the previous Systrace series tutorials have become somewhat outdated. Additionally, as my own skills have improved, I’ve been able to extract more information from Systrace, which has been very helpful in solving various performance issues. I need to document these skills to enhance my summarization and organization abilities, and if it helps those who read these articles, that would be excellent.

The purpose of this series is to view the overall operation of the Android system from a different perspective using Systrace, while also providing an alternative angle for learning the Framework. Perhaps you’ve read many articles about the Framework but can never remember the code, or you’re unclear about the execution flow. Maybe from Systrace’s graphical perspective, you can gain a deeper understanding.

High-refresh-rate screens have been common on PCs for years, but they’ve only recently made their way to Android. While the Razer Phone introduced a 120Hz screen last year to a quiet reception, I believe the 90Hz screens on the Nubia Red Magic 3 and OnePlus 7 Pro represent the current “sweet spot...

I’ve been following the Sharp Tools Community Program for a long time. I’ve learned a lot from everyone’s sharing. As stated in the beginning: “Both tools and inspiration are sharp tools. When tools and inspiration from different fields and creators collide, more possibilities arise.“ Below are m...

I saw the Liqi Community Project a long time ago. I learned a lot from everyone’s sharing. As stated in the beginning: “Tools and inspiration are both Liqi. When tools and inspiration from different fields collide with each other, more possibilities will emerge.“ Below are my simple answers to th...

PhenomenonSome users reported that while scrolling on the phone, the list would jitter. This happens when scrolling on the desktop or settings (as long as it is scrollable), but this is not reproducible for everyone; it appears for some users, but not for others. Onlookers can scroll directly to ...

At the beginning of 2018, I wrote 2017 Best Items Recommendations. Recently, some people asked if I’d do one for 2018. Although 2018 was a tough year, there were still some great things worth recommending to everyone.

Just like in 2017, I’ll share things that I found helpful for work or life. The recommendations include apps, hardware, books, blogs, and columns. I hope they provide value to you in 2019.

Whether you are an Android App developer or a System developer, having a foundational understanding of the Android system is extremely beneficial. I recently set up a development environment at home and decided to share the process for anyone interested. The general steps involved are as follows:...