Android RunTime - Who's Using It?

[Keydogg]

I've just switched over, gotta say that it's impressive.

I thought the Nexus 5 was pretty much as fast as Android could get, but now I've switched from Dalvik to ART it's super-duper-ridiculous quick. Battery life is meant to be about 10-15% better too but haven't had chance to test that yet.

For those who don't know, Dalvik has been the default Virtual Machine for Android since forever, and ART is the new (experimental) VM from Android 4.4 onwards. The main difference being that in Dalvik, when you run an app it would compile it on the fly and compute loads of stuff in the background while the app is running, but with ART the compiling and such is done at installation, meaning the launch times are much quicker for apps and they run a lot smoother as the CPU isn't being bogged down by processes in the background. The slight downside is that apps take up around 10% more space (whoop-de-do), and installation takes a little longer (we're talking a couple of seconds).

Not all apps are yet working with ART, but most are. You can find out if your apps are compatible here: http://www.androidruntime.com/list

The only app that wouldn't work for me was Whatsapp, but that has now been solved.

For those who have all apps compatible, I would definitely suggest reading up for 10 minutes and switching, it's very good.

 

[cava83]

Just looking into this now. Don't know much about it, thanks for the heads up.

 

[MatthewR]

Just made the switch. Can't say I've noticed a difference tbh. Are you using the stock launcher?

I suppose time will tell with battery life

 

[welshname]

Swapped myself now. Did the whatsapp fix which was easy enough and all the apps launch much faster

 

[cava83]

Swapped myself now. Did the whatsapp fix which was easy enough and all the apps launch much faster

Did you root or reset your device?

http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/android/28000002

 

[welshname]

Don't need to. I've managed to install it correctly

 

[cava83]

Don't need to. I've managed to install it correctly

Oh, I see. Smart.

Care to enlighten me on your methods?

I installed it prior to the change to ART, using the main, correct install (android store, hit install.....)

Installing it again is not an issue if required, but would like to backup my existing data.

Thanks

 

[welshname]

There's a guide somewhere that I used. Basically back up your chats in WhatsApp by opening WhatsApp, settings, chat settings and then backup.

Uninstall WhatsApp

Swap to ART

Go to your device settings and turn auto date time off and swap the date to before the second of December.

Go into the play store and turn off auto update on apps

Download this file https://www.cubby.com/pl/WhatsApp-2-11-50.apk/_6f9f3d7ddd8c4a228af482a17a4a9e19

Install it

Change your date and time back.

You can NOT update WhatsApp

 

[welshname]

Just so you know it won't let me attach images but if I go into gallery on my phone and select share with WhatsApp that does work


Edit: I've also noticed some issues with the camera app with the screen tearing after it being on for a short while.

 

[JamesBryan]

Just switched this over on mine.

Difinitely snappier opening apps, will see what happens with the battery life too.

So far it's a worthwile changeover :approve:

 

[welshname]

I've changed back already due to WhatsApp forcing me to update.

I use it more than any other app so I'm not going to swap until Google fix the bug as WhatsApp have said it's not an issue with their app

 

[Keydogg]

I've changed back already due to WhatsApp forcing me to update.

I use it more than any other app so I'm not going to swap until Google fix the bug as WhatsApp have said it's not an issue with their app

Same happened to me, so I used Wugz's toolkit to do quickly root, then flashed libart.so_flashable.zip and voila, all latest versions of whatsapp work. Well worth doing IMO. For those who don't rooting doesn't change anything on your device, it just means you can access the root of the phone (which is how you flash libart.so_flashable).

If anyone wants talking through it give me a shout and I'll reply with instructions.

 

[JamesBryan]

Once it's been rooted, you don't get over the air updates. Is that right?

You have to manually update it?

 

[welshname]

Rooted doesn't make a difference. It's only if you're running a non standard ROM

 

[Keydogg]

^ Above is correct. By rooting the phone everything is still exactly the same except you can now access the root file system of the phone. If you stay stock (I am rooted but stock) everything will be the same.

 

[JamesBryan]

So if you run a different kernel version, like say the Franco Kernel... it would then need manually updating after that.

 

[welshname]

Correct, you have to have stock everything to OTA update with official software.

 

[JamesBryan]

Anyone running the 4.4.1 version yet?

Should fix your problem Rhys

There are some bug fixes related to ART. This allows Whatsapp to work with the ART runtime.

 

[welshname]

Nice is that on a 5 or 4? Update isn't available on my 4 at the minute as I've just checked.

 

[JamesBryan]

Nice is that on a 5 or 4? Update isn't available on my 4 at the minute as I've just checked.

Available for both

 

[welshname]

Can't be bothered manually installing the update so I'll just wait until I get the notification.

 

[JamesBryan]

It's here if you want it

http://www.droid-life.com/2013/12/05/download-android-4-4-1-for-the-nexus-4-build-kot49e/

 

[welshname]

Nice one. Wasn't going to bother but got bored.

Still upset that they've only made the nav and notification bar transparent for the lock screen

 

[Addicted]

Updated my S4 to a new ROM after finally getting a replacement battery on saturday (my existing one was bulged to near twice the size in the middle - extremely dangerous and common problem it seems), got ART running and everything seems quite a lot faster, but it maybe the ROM as well so not sure but looking good!

 

[welshname]

I can see ART being of real benefit to some of the older devices with less processing power and RAM now that code isn't compiled during execute.

Shame that it'll never be released on them.

 

[JamesBryan]

Might update my N5 tonight with 4.4.1

I'm scared i'll end up breaking it though :S

 

[welshname]

The only reason I did it was to be able to use WhatsApp again but still use ART.

If you don't care about WhatsApp then just wait.

 

[Keydogg]

ART really is just so good. For people who have been on the brink of changing to Android but could never quite do it, this could be the thing that tips you over the edge.

 

[welshname]

Anyone just got the 4.4.2 update?

 

[Keydogg]

Yes, installing now. Wtf?

 

[welshname]

I thought that. It's clearly fixing some big flaws they must have found within 4.4.1.

 

[JamesBryan]

Not even got 4.4.1 yet lol

 

[welshname]

I had to sideload the 4.4.1 update but the 4.4.2 update went straight out to the people who had 4.4.1

Some people are reporting getting 4.4.2 straight from 4.4

 

[JamesBryan]

I tried to sideload 4.4.1 last night on my N5, adb would recognise the device and could reboot into recovery.

But when I put the command in to send the file, it came back with device not found.

Must be a driver issue, but it appears ok in device manager.

 

[welshname]

Have you downloaded the USB drivers? You have to add a line with the hardware ID for your device into the inf file before installing. Dead easy to do.

 

[JamesBryan]

Got the drivers yeah, seen something about editing the inf file yeah.

Seemed complicated lol

 

[welshname]

YHPM

 

[JamesBryan]

YHPM

Chap :approve:

Will try it later.

 

[Keydogg]

I went straight from 4.4 to 4.4.2 and I'm happy so far, seen the following improvements:

- Whatsapp now works with ART with no mod needed (yey!)
- snappy camera (so glad they fixed the shutter lag)
- louder volume from speaker

Haven't really had much chance to see what battery life is like (doubt it will be much different) or find any issues but I'll report back if I find any!

 

[JamesBryan]

Just about the try the manual update and the motherfucker receives the update OTA!

Cheers though Rhys!