How offloading technology can improve smartphone performance
Instead of spending time and effort yourself doing chores around the house, imagine you had a team of little helpers to do them while you were asleep. Wouldn’t that be nice? It might sound far-fetched for your house, but it’s possible for your smartphone. An open-source technology called CHRE (Context Hub Runtime Environment) can offer similar benefits for Android phones by offloading tasks.
Today, OnePlus announced new Android devices, including the OnePlus 11 smartphone with CHRE technology built into Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors. We’re here to explain what CHRE technology actually is, the performance benefits it can offer and its future potential for boosting the connection between all your devices.
How CHRE technology works
Modern smartphones contain multiple processors, which function similarly to the human brain to help manage tasks. While one central unit called the Applications Processor manages all applications on the phone, its size means it takes considerable battery power to run. Smaller processors can handle simple tasks much more efficiently, which is exactly where CHRE comes in.
CHRE, or Context Hub Runtime Environment, is an open-source technology that enables Android phones to efficiently use their smaller processors, so they can run simple tasks without noticeable impact to your battery life.
Android’s Fast Pair and CHRE
With Fast Pair, your Android phone discovers supported Bluetooth accessories that are nearby and lets you pair them in a single tap. Now, by making use of CHRE, new OnePlus 11 users will notice increased responsiveness with Fast Pair when they pair the phone with new devices like earbuds. This is thanks to CHRE's power efficiency which helps prepare information for the Application Processor while it's asleep—so it's ready near-instantly when you need it.
With CHRE, users will notice increased responsiveness with Fast Pair
When partners like OnePlus use CHRE with Fast Pair, enabled by Snapdragon’s low-power, low-latency capabilities, users will have an even easier time connecting all of their favorite devices together.
How the benefits of CHRE could expand
With the addition of OnePlus, we’re looking forward to seeing new partners incorporating support for CHRE. In the future, we imagine the tech being able to boost other Android features like Nearby Share, improving responsiveness when it comes to sharing files with friends from your phone.
Recently at CES, we outlined how Android is built to help your devices work better together. With CHRE technology, Android is making it simple and easy to use multiple devices, while keeping your battery in mind.
