App developers abusing background refresh

[C DM]

And what makes it so hard to tap a button before pressing Home button?

It's more to say that it's not that different that closing the app after using it. It's still an extra action that the user needs to do vs. simply leaving the app and the app no longer using resources on its own when it's not in the foreground--nothing complex or anything like that, but not the same nonetheless (and not really much of a difference between doing that and just closing the app that is always available anyway).

Again, I was thinking it all was in reference to some setting within the app itself that would take care of it, like there used to be a "location reporting" setting that would in a sense control that. Or, even better, if like most apps, the location settings options were fully implemented and the option to only allow location service access while the app is running would be there.

 

[Zaft]

waze constantly monitors where you are to predict traffic. Great app but it's a battery killer. Last time I checked, you can't turn it off. If you want to use the app, you have to have it on or you can't navigate without that setting on. PITA.

There is a sleep mode right in the app.

 

[itsmilo]

I made it a habit to close Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter (Twitterrific), Whatsapp and FB (Friendly) from the app switcher as soon as i leave them. They cannot be trusted, especially Snapchat hammers the battery. I can tell by how warm my iPhone gets

 

[stulaw11]

i've seen it in many apps too; especially chat apps. You can tell when background is 2 hours alone. The main abuser is chat apps; Kik, Whatsapp, etc. Have to double click and kill them each time.

Why they need to be running when they push notifications is unknown. Even after force closing them they still get notifications of new messages just fine, so running in the background abusing the system is unneeded.

Facebook/messenger doesnt touch my phone.

 

[rijc99]

From inside the Waze app: Settings -> General -> Location Change Reporting: Turn this OFF.

Also turn off calendar sharing with Waze.

 

[C DM]

From inside the Waze app: Settings -> General -> Location Change Reporting: Turn this OFF.

Also turn off calendar sharing with Waze.

That option either doesn't seem to exist in the latest versions of Waze or doesn't exist for everyone for some reason.

 

[rijc99]

I think the calendar sync and planned drive reminder in the in app notification setting has to be turned on. Once you have these two turned on you need to force close the app and restart it. It'll be there.

With location change reporting setting off, put the app to sleep and go back to privacy>location services... after a few seconds the purple location use icon will switch to grey.

 

[C DM]

I think the calendar sync and planned drive reminder in the in app notification setting has to be turned on. Once you have these two turned on you need to force close the app and restart it. It'll be there.

With location change reporting setting off, put the app to sleep and go back to privacy>location services... after a few seconds the purple location use icon will switch to grey.

Seems like that get that option to appear. However, disabling location change reporting doesn't seem to stop Waze from continuing to use location services after you leave the app--the location services arrow remains active in the status bar.

 

[rijc99]

Seems like that get that option to appear. However, disabling location change reporting doesn't seem to stop Waze from continuing to use location services after you leave the app--the location services arrow remains active in the status bar.

Have you gone into the the phone's location privacy settings and looked at Waze directly? Don't rely on the status bar. My location service for Waze shuts off after about 30 secs to a minute after putting it to sleep.

I have the location change reporting off... calendar sync off... planned drive reminder in notifications off.

 

[C DM]

Have you gone into the the phone's location privacy settings and looked at Waze directly? Don't rely on the status bar. My location service for Waze shuts off after about 30 secs to a minute after putting it to sleep.

I have the location change reporting off... calendar sync off... planned drive reminder in notifications off.

Waited a few minutes and it still stayed on. Not sure why the status bar wouldn't be reliable, unless you are thinking that something else might be using location services at the same time causing the arrow to be there, which isn't the case for me as I Waze is the only thing using it at the time (and it disappears as soon as I close Waze by swiping it away in app switcher).

 

[rijc99]

Waited a few minutes and it still stayed on. Not sure why the status bar wouldn't be reliable, unless you are thinking that something else might be using location services at the same time causing the arrow to be there, which isn't the case for me as I Waze is the only thing using it at the time (and it disappears as soon as I close Waze by swiping it away in app switcher).

Yes I have other apps that poll location every once in a while. Not sure why it's not working for you but Waze goes off purple for me after at most a minute.

 

[GreyOS]

About apps in background, how does WhatsApp works ? When using WhatsApp web or the WhatsApp app on a computer, it works only if the phone is connected (wifi or cellular), but it works even if WhatsApp is not running (background app refresh disabled and WhatsApp killed from task manager). So, even if the app is killed, there must be some background process still running to communicate with the web / computer app version, right ?

WhatsApp uses PushKit, which is the only way in iOS to guarantee a push message will be delivered and actioned on an iPhone even if the app has been closed. WhatsApp can legitimately use PushKit because it's a VoIP app, but it uses it even for regular messages - not just incoming calls - to ensure that they can be routed through for WhatsApp Web. I believe this is questionable, but they've probably come to an agreement with Apple over this after it took a while to bring WhatsApp Web iPhone. Although it may seem sneaky they're using it, the advantage is at least that PushKit doesn't require the app to run constantly, waiting for messages. It can completely shut down between messages while the OS handles push messages, and WhatsApp only wakes up when it receives messages. In an old way (before iOS 8), VoIP apps used to run constantly in the background with their own connection to their servers.

 

[lemimouth]

Great answer, thanks !

 

[AeroZ]

Have you gone into the the phone's location privacy settings and looked at Waze directly? Don't rely on the status bar. My location service for Waze shuts off after about 30 secs to a minute after putting it to sleep.

I have the location change reporting off... calendar sync off... planned drive reminder in notifications off.

You mean after your press the sleep button in Waze and exit app then in 30 seconds the arrow disappears?
PS. I also tried the method to disable location reporting and just leaving the app using Home button and it continued to use location services.
Seems to me that the only way to stop Waze using location services in the background is to either put it to sleep mode or close it from the app switcher.

 

[gaanee]

Option to turn off Location in Waze settings was mentioned before but it didn't show up... now will try this method of calendar sync, though I wonder what's the connection of Location with Calendar sync and why that option is hidden in the first place.... sounds like Waze is forcing you to sync your calendar if you want to access Location settings.. not a good practice. Also this is not iOS system wide setting since it doesn't show up in Location Services, so not sure how and if it is doing anything.
Best option would be to Allow access only when the app is in use under iOS or don't use Waze if it's affecting the battery life.

I think the calendar sync and planned drive reminder in the in app notification setting has to be turned on. Once you have these two turned on you need to force close the app and restart it. It'll be there.

With location change reporting setting off, put the app to sleep and go back to privacy>location services... after a few seconds the purple location use icon will switch to grey.

 

[Shirasaki]

My choice to clean up some background processes is to use the trick someone told me a few years ago:
Long press power button, until seeing power off screen.
Release power button, then press home button only, until the screen turns to home screen.
I can see if it works by monitoring memory usage. Often after that, memory usage will be low for a short while.

 

[mpavilion]

I have the calendar sync and time-to-leave reminder features turned on in Waze, along with location reporting. So I always have the black arrow lit up in my status bar. But I turn off Waze when I'm not using it to navigate. And on days when I don't fire up the app, it doesn't use battery (trust me). So while the always-on location arrow bugged me at first, I quickly got used to it; and I'm not concerned about the fact that Waze always needs to know my location to give me time-to-leave reminders (which I value).

I also haven't experienced Instagram using battey in background. The app uses very little battery, actually, and I open it pretty frequently.