> I think you misunderstood the core issue here - it's not that the USER can decide what runs. It's that the USER cannot override those settings and decide that something can run and function if required. There are special whitelists for apps that are allowed exceptions (e.g. Facebook and other common apps are usually allowed to work) and others are killed against the Android API guarantees (e.g. you install Signal messaging app and you don't receive messages because Huawei didn't whitelist the app).

I blame it on stock Android. Phone manufacturers probably don't want to spend money on OS changes but Android doesn't do the right thing by default so they have to make changes.

The right thing to do is to deny apps launching at startup, apps running in background, and apps getting network access. Let the user say yes or no. Your use case for signal is different from mine. Maybe I just want to see messages when I open the app?

But yeah I agree, the user should be in control.

Android has done the right thing at least since 6.0 and that has resulted in massive battery life improvements.