[Android] Idle apps keep the Choreographer running at ~60 doFrames/s (zero work, zero frames rendered) — four frame callbacks re-arm unconditionally

[capt-muji]

Summary

Every React Native Android app keeps the main-thread Choreographer armed at ~60 doFrames/second while completely idle in the foreground — no timers pending, no animations running, no mount items, zero frames rendered — on every Android version we tested (API 28 → 36). It is pure CPU/battery waste present in stock template apps with zero app code or third-party dependencies involved.

Measured on a stock react-native@0.86.3 template app (npx @react-native-community/cli init --version 0.86.3), Release build, app foregrounded and settled, no interaction:

Device	API	doFrames / 10s idle	median / p90 / max doFrame	App process CPU	Frames rendered (gfxinfo)
OnePlus 3T (SD820)	28	597–598	1.95 / 2.81 / 15.86 ms	~22.5%	0
OnePlus 5T (SD835)	29	599–601	0.99–1.82 / 2.11 / 14.67 ms	~9.3%	0
OPPO Find X8 (Dimensity 9400)	36	587–601	0.67–0.86 / 0.94–1.21 / 2.83 ms	~3.5–6.8%	0

The loop stops when the app is backgrounded (host pause) and restarts on resume. iOS is unaffected (Choreographer is Android-only).

Root cause

Four Android frame callbacks re-post themselves unconditionally at the end of their own doFrame, and are initially armed at host resume, with no pending-work check:

#	Class	Re-arm site (0.86.3)
1	JavaTimerManager$TimerFrameCallback	JavaTimerManager.kt:317 — posts itself after every frame even with an empty timer queue
2	FabricEventDispatcher$ScheduleDispatchFrameCallback	FabricEventDispatcher.kt:153 — doFrame re-posts unless stopped; events are actually dispatched synchronously in dispatchEvent, this callback only notifies BatchEventDispatchedListeners
3	NativeAnimatedModule$animatedFrameCallback$1	NativeAnimatedModule.kt:353 — enqueueFrameCallback() outside the hasActiveAnimations() guard (the guard protects the work, not the re-arm)
4	FabricUIManager$DispatchUIFrameCallback	FabricUIManager.java:1666 — finally { schedule(); } re-schedules even when all queues drained

Runtime attribution: replacing ReactChoreographer with a logging build (log POST/RUN/REMOVE with callback class names) shows, in a 10s idle window on the stock template:

604 RUN  type=NATIVE_ANIMATED_MODULE cb=com.facebook.react.animated.NativeAnimatedModule$animatedFrameCallback$1
604 RUN  type=DISPATCH_UI            cb=com.facebook.react.fabric.FabricUIManager$DispatchUIFrameCallback
603 POST type=NATIVE_ANIMATED_MODULE cb=com.facebook.react.animated.NativeAnimatedModule$animatedFrameCallback$1
603 POST type=DISPATCH_UI            cb=com.facebook.react.fabric.FabricUIManager$DispatchUIFrameCallback

with the timers/dispatcher callbacks cycling the same way on stock builds (source-verified).

Reproduction

npx @react-native-community/cli@latest init repro --version 0.86.3 --skip-git-init
cd repro/android && ./gradlew assembleRelease
adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk
adb shell am start -W -n com.repro/com.repro.MainActivity
# settle ≥40s, then:
adb shell atrace -t 10 -b 32768 view input -z -o /data/local/tmp/idle.atrace.gz
adb pull /data/local/tmp/idle.atrace.gz .
# → ≈600 "Choreographer#doFrame" sections for the app pid, each containing only
#   an empty "animation" stage; Android 16 also exposes DoFrameCB-IsEmptyDoFrame=1
adb shell dumpsys gfxinfo com.repro reset && sleep 10 \
  && adb shell dumpsys gfxinfo com.repro | grep "Total frames rendered"   # → 0

Control: a raw Java Activity with setContentView(new View(this)) and zero dependencies receives 0 doFrames at idle — the OS floor is clean; this is entirely framework-driven.

Validation of the fix direction

Patched-framework experiments on the stock template (Find X8):

• Demand-gating nil #1 and pthread.h not found #2 (re-arm only when work exists): app fully functional, but the loop persists (pumps docs(README): fix quickstart instruction #3/Set UIStatusBarStyleLightContent #4 still active) — proving each pump independently keeps the Choreographer armed.
• Gating docs(README): fix quickstart instruction #3 and Set UIStatusBarStyleLightContent #4 as well: 0 doFrames at idle, ~0% CPU, app alive and foreground — the loop fully collapses (notably, exactly one dropped re-post per pump is enough to kill each permanently: each callback was keeping only itself alive).

Proposed fix

Make each pump re-arm only when it has work, re-arming lazily from its registration path (PR to follow):

1. TimerFrameCallback.doFrame: re-post only if (timers.isNotEmpty()); re-arm from createTimer.
2. ScheduleDispatchFrameCallback.doFrame: never re-post (one-shot per schedule request).
3. animatedFrameCallback.doFrameGuarded: enqueueFrameCallback() inside the hasActiveAnimations() branch; re-arm in didDispatchMountItems after operation batches execute (startAnimatingNode et al.).
4. DispatchUIFrameCallback.doFrameGuarded: re-schedule only while mount items remain pending.

The newer subsystems (AnimationBackend, EventBeat) already follow this demand-gated pattern — these four are the legacy stragglers.

Impact

Every RN Android app, on every Android version, burns main-thread CPU at vsync rate whenever its screen is merely visible — reading, idling, screen-on standby. Worst on low-end hardware (22.5% of one core measured on a 2016 SoC) where it also competes with real frame work (15.9ms worst-case idle doFrames measured). After the fix, idle RN apps are frame-silent like native apps, with no behavior change whenever work exists.

[react-native-bot]

Warning

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[capt-muji]

Reproducer added per the bot's request: #58369 (RNTesterPlayground edited to render an empty View — the framework-level loop shows with zero app code; repro commands in the PR description and in this issue's body). Fix proposal: #58368.