To maximize battery life and minimize cellular data usage, modern Android smartphones employ aggressive background data restriction policies. If you minimize a messaging app (like WhatsApp or Telegram) or a fitness tracking app, the Android operating system will eventually pause its background processes, preventing it from utilizing the internet until you manually open the app again.
While this saves battery, it completely breaks critical notifications. If your email app is restricted from accessing background data, you will not receive new emails in real-time. Instead, all your emails will suddenly flood your screen only when you physically unlock the phone and open the app.
You can exempt specific, mission-critical applications from these background restrictions to ensure they stay connected to the internet 24/7.
How to Allow Unrestricted Background Data
You must change this setting on a per-app basis via the App Info menu.
- Open the Settings app on your Android device.
- Tap on Apps (or Apps & notifications).
- Tap on See all apps to view your full app list.
- Scroll down and select the specific app you want to keep connected (e.g., WhatsApp).
- On the App Info page, tap on Mobile data & Wi-Fi.
- Locate the toggle switch labeled Background data (Enable usage of mobile data in the background).
- Ensure this toggle is turned to the On position.
- Right below it, turn On the toggle labeled Unrestricted data usage. This ensures the app can use background data even if you have Android’s global “Data Saver” mode enabled.
By forcing these toggles on, the selected app will maintain a permanent connection to its servers, guaranteeing that your calls, messages, and alerts will arrive instantly, regardless of whether your phone is awake or asleep.