So I have a very simple android activity that starts a timer when you hit a button. Timer timer = new Timer(); timer.schedule(new TimerTask() { @Override public void run() { doStuff(); } }, 15 * 60 * 1000); So this worked reasonably well for me when I was testing but as it turns out when the screen becomes inactive so does the timer. I was a bit surprised by this. I understand you need to create a service to have anything running in the background but I hadn't realized this is required for an activity in the foreground when the phone has inactivated the screen due to lack of activity. What confuses me is I think this worked as I expected originally and just in the last few weeks or so has the timer been affected by the phone saving power. I could be wrong though.. So basically my questions are: am I seeing expected behavior? Do I need to create all timers as services or somehow disallow powersaving? thanks for any advice, Patrick