What happened to background app updates, multitasking, and app sharing?

[phazelag]

When the 5S came out Apple said iOS 7 would learn when to update based on your usage, however my most used apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are never updated until I open them. Facebook is the worst.

Also many apps wont truly operate in the background on my 5s as they do on my HCT one. My Eye-fi card app will upload photos from my camera or to my mac with the app in the background on any Android, but wont work on iOS at all unless its the app on the screen. This goes for many apps that actually do real things.

Also if I take a photo and want to edit it with Snapseed and post it on Instagram, I have to work in each app independently on iOS but on android I can share from app to another do the operation much faster.

I am only bringing this up, because Apple Keynotes speak to these features, and Rene Ritchie talks about these advances all the time on Macbreak weekly but I still see no real advancement on my 5s iOS7 that I had with 4s with iOS5 for operations like this.

Any thoughts, what am I missing?

 

[John Yester]

Are to closing out applications.. That could be your cause for issue.

 

[John Yester]

Also this is how background refresh works based on the session they had at WWDC you can view it at:https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/videos/ I know this reply is going to be long so here goes.

In iOS 6 only a selected few type of applications can run in the background or program tasks in the background:

• Background Audio (Music apps like, Spotify can run in the background)
• VoIP (Like Skype)
• Newsstand Apps
• Location Services which includes: Region Monitoring, Significant Location Changes, and Continuous Location Monitoring. I think Reminders use this when using GeoFencing.

In iOS 7 apps can continue to update there content in the background without sacrificing much battery life. Apps can take advantage of a new API called, 'Background Fetch'. For example let's say you social networking app you may notice that when your app becomes frontmost, you refresh your feed. And the user has to wait for that feed to be updated which is not the best user experience. Now with Background Fetch your social media app can update it's content before the user returns to your app, in this case the feed.

Some key points about Background fetch:

• System-scheduled fetch
• Coalesced across applications (Saving a lot of battery life)
• Adapts to actual usage patterns on device
• Sensitive to energy and data usage
• Indifferent to actual app running state

Background fetch adapts to how you use your device. So say for instance you check Facebook every morning at 7:00 AM iOS will notice this and will try to give the app an opportunity to fetch content before 7:00 AM. It also coalesces fetches across apps so it doesn't drain to much power it even, avoids frequent fetching during periods of inactivity and when you have a low signal on your phone.

Remote Notifications

You may have noticed in the previous versions of iOS say, you got a message on Facebook and a notification pops up on your lock screen, and you swipe to you it there is a delay before the app downloads the message. Well in iOS 7 in Remote Notifications simply put is downloaded before you even receive the notification.
I have noticed in iMessage on iOS 7 the app is in the background, and I receive a message the app snapshot is updated, this also happens when the user is composing a message. I think that covers most of it, and I hoped I help in some way. Looking forward to your reply.

 

[phazelag]

Are to closing out applications.. That could be your cause for issue.

I thought about that but no I don't. I have been purposely leaving them open. And I have been talking to lots of people with new iPhones who say social media apps don't update very often until they are opened, even after a notification and when they are plugged in and on wifi.

 

[John Yester]

Background Refresh is amazing. However, the number of apps that TRULY support it is very small. That's why I have it turned off for most apps. I think we'll see a better iteration of this in iOS8 and maybe even more apps to support it by then.

 

[fatfury]

Anyone have a list of known apps that actually support/use background refresh?

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

Anyone have a list of known apps that actually support/use background refresh?

Probably would have to Google that. However, I know the way to find out if anything you already have installed on your phone supports it. Settings - General - Background App Refresh

 

[serglb]

Background refresh needs to be on for this to work but apple gave you the option to turn it off to save battery.


Sent from my Gold iPhone 5S using Tapatalk

 

[serglb]

Probably would have to Google that. However, I know the way to find out if anything you already have installed on your phone supports it. Settings - General - Background App Refresh

Any of the apps shows under the setting.


Sent from my Gold iPhone 5S using Tapatalk

 

[sau124]

Background App Refresh will work only when the apps support it. By default, an app that is going to request data will be listed in the BAR tab but if the developer has not supported it you will not notice the difference. One app that I know for sure uses the BAR API is google maps. Try it, turn off BAR and google maps will notify you to turn it on. I didn't see that notification with FB (not saying it is not using the API) but it is not clearly visible which apps are actually using the feature.