Tetracom Help — Samsung Galaxy

One UI 5 / 6 / 7 — battery optimization, model-specific notes

Why your Galaxy needs special handling

Samsung’s One UI is more aggressive than stock Android about suspending background apps. On top of Android’s Doze and App Standby it adds three Samsung-specific layers that all need adjusting before Tetracom will reliably stay connected when your screen is off:

1. Background usage limits — sorts apps into Sleeping / Deep sleeping / Never sleeping buckets.
2. Auto-optimize daily — runs at 3 AM and partially undoes your manual changes.
3. Adaptive battery — ML model that pre-emptively suspends “rarely used” apps.

The full setup (one-time, ~5 minutes)

Step 1 — turn on Tetracom’s “Stay connected” toggle

1. Open Tetracom.
2. Tap the gear icon in the top right.
3. Scroll to Connection.
4. Turn ON Stay connected when phone is locked.
5. Confirm the popup explaining battery cost.

Once on, you’ll see “Tetracom is listening” in your status bar. This is the foreground notification that pins the process so Samsung can’t suspend it.

Step 2 — allow background activity (Apps → Tetracom → Battery)

1. Open Android Settings.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Find and tap Tetracom in the list.
4. Tap Battery.
5. Tap Allow background activity → turn ON.
6. Tap Optimise battery usage → switch to Unrestricted.

On older One UI 5, the “Optimise battery usage” toggle is in a slightly different place — same path roughly, but the wording is “Battery usage” instead.

Step 3 — remove Tetracom from Sleeping / Deep sleeping apps

1. Open Android Settings.
2. Tap Battery (or Battery and device care → Battery on older One UI).
3. Scroll down and tap Background usage limits.
4. Open Sleeping apps. If Tetracom is in the list, tap it → tap Remove.
5. Open Deep sleeping apps. Same — remove Tetracom if present.
6. Open Never sleeping apps. Tap + Add apps → check Tetracom → Add.

Step 3 is the most important step on Samsung. Without adding Tetracom to Never sleeping apps, the daily auto-optimizer will silently move it back to Sleeping apps after a few days of light use, and the connection will start dropping again. Re-check this list once a month if you’re seeing flaky behavior.

Step 4 — turn off “Auto-optimize daily” (optional but recommended)

1. Open Android Settings.
2. Battery → More battery settings (or scroll to the bottom).
3. Turn OFF Auto-optimise daily.
4. Turn OFF Adaptive battery.

These two are why even a perfectly-configured phone’s settings drift back to defaults overnight. Turn them off and the settings you set above stay set.

Step 5 — allow background data usage

1. Android Settings → Apps → Tetracom → Mobile data.
2. Turn ON Allow background data usage.
3. Turn ON Allow data usage while Data saver is on.

Quick test

Once all the above is set:

1. Lock your phone for 5 minutes.
2. Have a contact send you a blurt.
3. You should hear the alert (or the blurt itself, depending on your “When a blurt arrives” setting) within a couple of seconds — the screen lights up and the notification appears.

If the alert is delayed by 10+ seconds OR doesn’t arrive at all until you unlock, Step 3 (Sleeping apps) is almost certainly the cause. Re-check that Tetracom is in Never sleeping apps and not in either Sleeping list.

Model-specific guidance

The path names above match One UI 5 / 6 / 7 generically. A few popular Galaxy models have small wording differences — tap your model below for the exact menu labels.

Other Galaxy models (Note, Fold, Flip, Z, Tab S, A and M-series) work with the generic Samsung steps above. If you find a step that doesn’t match your phone, email help@tetracom.me with the model and we’ll add a page.

Common Samsung-specific questions

The persistent “Tetracom is listening” icon disappears after a few hours.

Samsung’s “Reduce notifications” or “Hide silent notifications in status bar” setting may be hiding the icon. The service is still running — check Settings → Apps → Tetracom → Battery → Allowed to run in background. If that’s ON, the icon being hidden is cosmetic; blurts still arrive. To always show: Settings → Notifications → Advanced settings → Hide silent notifications → turn off.

Edge panels / Bixby Routines / Modes & Routines kill Tetracom on schedule.

Samsung’s Modes & Routines feature can be configured to silence apps during sleep / driving / work modes. Open Settings → Modes and Routines and check that no active mode includes Tetracom in its “Pause apps” list. “Sleeping” mode is the common culprit — it pauses Tetracom every night.

I have a Galaxy Watch — does Tetracom show notifications there?

Yes, via the standard Wear OS notification mirror. No special Tetracom watch app yet. The persistent notification mirrors to the watch as a small icon; per-blurt alerts mirror as a regular notification.

Knox / Secure Folder containers?

Tetracom installed inside Secure Folder is a separate identity from the same app installed outside it (different signing key after the Knox sandbox repacks the APK). Treat them as two separate phones. Each needs its own Tetracom userid.