Managing a huge smartphone platform like Android is tough, so sometimes the managers need to get tough.

There are a lot of ways this can fit into any words about Android, but one that's especially bad if you're a developer is that companies like OnePlus, Huawei, Samsung, and Xiaomi build phones with software that can randomly kill any app that's not on a list of apps that get special treatment.

That's because for any developer who isn't working on any of the top handful of apps in Google Play is seeing Android phones from the top manufacturers shutting down their apps indiscriminately as some sort of half-baked add-on to Android's power management system.

We've been in discussions with many device manufacturers to understand the reasoning behind their implementations, not just to preserve battery life, but also to protect users from misbehaving apps.

This is not the same thing Android itself does and not every manufacturer gets a queue of thumbs down, but a look at the ratings shows that the biggest offenders are also the biggest phone makers.

It says that Android 11's licensing agreements will force manufacturers to tell users that their phone is closing apps, but most users are going to trust Samsung and think the app sucks.

This isn't good enough and while Google has the tough task of sorting it all out, it really does need to be sorted out.

Join us for a look back at the best (and worst) of Android and Google over the years in our series Technostalgia

There are so many great Android phones to buy, so it can be tough to know which one to buy