Why is quitting iOS11 apps so difficult?

[MachCrit]

I don’t think he linked that to explain how to quit an app. He linked it because of this part:



Meaning that Apple is likely not concerned with force quitting an app quickly since it isn’t an action they don’t think you should be performing often.

How about the ability to kill apps just to declutter the switcher screen? If you get more than four to six apps, then you are back to scrolling though endless lists to find the app you want to run like iOS10. Sort of negates the value of the app switcher if it is quicker to go back to home screen to access an app.

Might be nice if the dock showed what apps were active in the switcher too.

 

[Julien]

How about the ability to kill apps just to declutter the switcher screen? If you get more than four to six apps, then you are back to scrolling though endless lists to find the app you want to run like iOS10. Sort of negates the value of the app switcher if it is quicker to go back to home screen to access an app....

A Better idea might be to replace the two "flat" rows with a "cover flow/deck of cards" like in the iPhone and iOS 10 iPad. It would fit nicely in the space while still allowing the Dock and Control Center.

 

[Feenician]

Oh...
Forgot that.
Well....

It feels like an unnatural gesture on iPad, because the are already arranged horizontally.

 

[blackxacto]

Have been trying to avoid the Home button, w success today, thanks, Tycho24. Noticed that some apps Do Not share the screen w others, as in using split screen. I can tell when I drag the dock icon and the icon becomes huge, like Periscope, unlike apps that share the screen.

I want to read more on never quitting/killing these apps. Why aren’t they wasting battery being open? Where am I? Where am I?

 

[Feenician]

I want to read more on never quitting/killing these apps. Why aren’t they wasting battery being open? Where am I? Where am I?

For the most part, when you’re not looking at them they’re not running, with a few exceptions. For instance, audio apps may keep a thread running to play audio, navigation (or other apps that need to know your location) apps may continue using gps either continually (you’ll see a blue bar if they do this) or by polling less frequently. Apps that upload or download data may opt in to a system where they have a few minutes to complete their work and tidy up after themselves, before being paused. There’s also a slightly different concept called background refresh where apps, even when you’re not running them, may wake and do a small amount of work in a limited time frame. For example, a newsreader might refresh your feeds in the background so that next time you open it, it’s already up to date

These are just examples and there are some more types of services but what you should take from this is that, generally, apps can only do certain types of task in the background and most of these only for a limited time or periodically. Something like a game will likely not have any of those abilities and when you are not looking at it, it’s not running at all. On the other hand it is very expensive, energy wise, to kill and restart apps as startup is often when they do most work and consume most energy and a lot of system level things need to be done.

 

[DNichter]

Why do you need to close your apps so often? Just let them be and it’s all good.

 

[MachCrit]

Welp, say you are listing to a podcast, or music, and you are using the nifty multitasking feature to surf the web for intellectual content. If you come across a webpage with a video advert, whether it runs or not, often your podcast will stop playing until you close Safari. The problem is that the advert isn't playing, so it doesn't show as such, so you can't find the individual tab that is causing the problem.

 

[Feenician]

Welp, say you are listing to a podcast, or music, and you are using the nifty multitasking feature to surf the web for intellectual content. If you come across a webpage with a video advert, whether it runs or not, often your podcast will stop playing until you close Safari. The problem is that the advert isn't playing, so it doesn't show as such, so you can't find the individual tab that is causing the problem.

I haven’t ever had media which isn’t playing stop other audio, though I wouldbn’t be surprised if ad scum found a way. Block ads. Block all ads.

 

[MachCrit]

I haven’t ever had media which isn’t playing stop other audio, though I wouldbn’t be surprised if ad scum found a way. Block ads. Block all ads.

Weird, but it happens consistently on a handful of news sites.

 

[Feenician]

Weird, but it happens consistently on a handful of news sites.

A lot of Adblockers are broken by a bug in the betas right now but Adguard works if you enable minimal filters. Safari filter and easylist still block 99% of ads. It should at least work around your issue.

 

[penajmz]

Apple has always said the apps shouldn’t be killed. I don’t think this is why they did this but surely they don’t care about how fast you can close apps.

 

[d5aqoëp]

Apple has always said the apps shouldn’t be killed. I don’t think this is why they did this but surely they don’t care about how fast you can close apps.

This Apple's reply is full of FUD. Sometimes, app starts misbehaving or simply does not connect to net. In such scenarios, it is needed to force quit the app and open it again. So many times it happens.

 

[Feenician]

This Apple's reply is full of FUD. Sometimes, app starts misbehaving or simply does not connect to net. In such scenarios, it is needed to force quit the app and open it again. So many times it happens.

I don’t think anyone suggested you can’t kill misbehaving apps. You could, you can, and you will be able to. Routinely killing off apps for no reason is counterproductive though. It wastes time, it wastes power.

 

[macintoshmac]

Indeed. Problem is, stuff becomes like a motor reflex and takes time to unlearn. Too used to switching keyboard modes for special characters.

Happens with me when I pick up my mother's Android for something, or when I was on an Android for 6 months. The special characters are there to be used, the number keys are there, but I would still do the whole press 123 thing.

 

[blackxacto]

I don’t think anyone suggested you can’t kill misbehaving apps. You could, you can, and you will be able to. Routinely killing off apps for no reason is counterproductive though. It wastes time, it wastes power.

Would you find where Apple says that it wastes power to kill an app? Appreciate the link. I'm serious I have heard this before and I'd like to know for sure what Apples position is.

 

[Feenician]

Would you find where Apple says that it wastes power to kill an app? Appreciate the link. I'm serious I have heard this before and I'd like to know for sure what Apples position is.

Is an SVP good enough? Craig Federighi?

https://9to5mac.com/2016/03/10/should-you-quit-ios-apps-answer/

 

[blackxacto]

So the only thing that has ever been said from Apple is: No and No.
No research papers, no reports of scientific data, just no and no?
I've worked w Vice Presidents in the past. About half of them sneered at their pions.

 

[Feenician]

So the only thing that has ever been said from Apple is: No and No.
No research papers, no reports of scientific data, just no and no?
I've worked w Vice Presidents in the past. About half of them sneered at their pions.

Research papers? Apple need research papers on their software, according to you?

 

[penajmz]

This Apple's reply is full of FUD. Sometimes, app starts misbehaving or simply does not connect to net. In such scenarios, it is needed to force quit the app and open it again. So many times it happens.

But killing one app is not a problem. Is killing all apps, all the time that’s the problem. I forgot where I read it but that actually uses more battery than leaving them alone.

 

[KALLT]

There were several developer sessions were Apple implicitly supported the presumption that closing apps uses more battery. RAM is about the cheapest resource you have available on your device, as loading data from disk or from the network and processing it with the CPU costs relatively more energy. Apple encourages developers to minimise I/O and maximise CPU idling. Force-closing means that the memory for that app is purged and all data needs to be loaded from disk and processed into memory the next time you open that app.

It is generally a good idea to use the devices as intended. Although Apple (stupidly) decided to make it easier for users to close apps in iOS 7 (they even proudly showed how you can swipe away multiple apps at once), they still do not see closing apps as the norm.

 

[MachCrit]

Is an SVP good enough? Craig Federighi?

https://9to5mac.com/2016/03/10/should-you-quit-ios-apps-answer/

[doublepost=1499261105][/doublepost]I think that he is legitimately trying to understand how it wastes power.

Looks like KALLT explained it well.

 

[willmtaylor]

Would you find where Apple says that it wastes power to kill an app? Appreciate the link. I'm serious I have heard this before and I'd like to know for sure what Apples position is.

What I’ve heard/read, though I don’t have citations, is that it’s akin to a older desktop’s sleep mode.

When older computers were told to sleep or hibernate, the system could still awaken quite quickly, as it wasn’t fully shut down. In iOS, apps, once put into the background, remain suspended and little (if any) system resources are utilized, which is quite efficient. When they’re needed once again, everything is ready to go, and it takes little energy/resources to reanimate them.

However, completely shutting down older computers meant completely reloading everything, which took much more time and energy. After turning off my old desktops, I remember staring at the Windows 95 loading screen for what seemed like an eternity. In iOS, repeatedly quitting and restarting apps is like this. Instead of reanimating the app, the OS is having to completely reload the entire app, which uses more energy and data.

 

[KAB2010]

If there were "no need to kill apps ever", then why does snapchat certifiably run your battery down very much if left in the background? It clearly isn't being fully suspended.

 

[willmtaylor]

If there were "no need to kill apps ever", then why does snapchat certifiably run your battery down very much if left in the background? It clearly isn't being fully suspended.

I'm sorry, but whom are you arguing against? You didn't quote anyone.

Who said "There's no need to kill apps ever"?

 

[KAB2010]

I'm sorry, but whom are you arguing against? You didn't quote anyone.

Who said "There's no need to kill apps ever"?

No one specific since that seems to be the general opinion. I've proved it myself time and time again though that if you kill snapchat or other social media apps it makes a huge affect on limiting battery drain from such apps. iOS must operate a little different than described or these apps are violating how they're suppose to operate.