A mandatory feature of any tracking app will be to compute the users' geolocation in the background (typically, when the smartphones' screen is turned off/blocked). Android may kill running applications to increase battery life once the screen is turned off or if they enter background mode. This is only desirable if the application is intended to only run in foreground (e.g. wayfinding applications), but will cause inconveniences in all other cases (e.g. tracking apps).

Android apps that integrate Situm SDK will be able to work safely in the background with just a couple of configurations: Situm takes care of everything. From Android SDK v.2.13.0+, Situm incorporates a Keep-Alive mechanism (activated by default) to prevent Android from killing or limiting the execution of applications using Situm SDK. This mechanism will cause the application to run always, even in the background or if the screen has been turned off. This comes with the following costs:

• Users will see an always-on notification in the notification area.
• Battery life will be significantly reduced.

For more information about battery life optimizations, please refer to Optimizing for Doze and App Standby and Background Execution Limits.