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How to see running apps?

M

MacMan988

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 7, 2012
894
176
Hi, I'm worried about the running apps and the battery life of my iPhone. I installed SmartSync and Facebook app today and how do I know if these apps are running in the background ? Specially the facebook notified about push messages. How to see if there are any apps with running services are installed? (I prefer apps that starts, runs and exists and free up the memory after execution. I want to avoid any apps that leaves itself or a portion of it running behind)

Thanks.
 
double tap the home button. hold your finger on an icon like you do to delete it, and then kill the app by pressing the minus sign.
 
MacMan988 said:
Hi, I'm worried about the running apps and the battery life of my iPhone. I installed SmartSync and Facebook app today and how do I know if these apps are running in the background ? Specially the facebook notified about push messages. How to see if there are any apps with running services are installed? (I prefer apps that starts, runs and exists and free up the memory after execution. I want to avoid any apps that leaves itself or a portion of it running behind)

Thanks.
Click to expand...


Wired Article About iPhone Battery Myths

Apple support Document Explaining the Same Thing
 
mattopotamus said:
didn't know that, but i just did a quick read and came across this.

"The exceptions to this rule are apps which use ambient location services "

....don't most apps use your location if you have location services on, so it actually would help to kill them?
Click to expand...

Yes and no. Active apps with location services (ESPECIALLY free apps that have location-based ads) use more memory & especially battery, but unless they're active in the background, and almost none are, then it's irrelevant because they're sent into suspend mode.
 
mattopotamus said:
didn't know that, but i just did a quick read and came across this.

"The exceptions to this rule are apps which use ambient location services "

....don't most apps use your location if you have location services on, so it actually would help to kill them?
Click to expand...

I think "ambient location service" apps are apps that literally track your location while they are in the background. And I don't think many apps do this. If they do, do this, then you would see the little filled in arrow at the top right of your screen in the status bar when you have no apps in the foreground.

Not sure if I'm correct, but maybe someone could clarify.
 
So what you tell me is any bit of code that runs (takes memory/processor cycles) will appear when the home button is double tapped? No matter how many apps I install, i can make sure that non is running apart from what came with the iOS by looking at what comes up when the home button is double tapped? no background services, daemons etc ?

in a developers perspective, theres no way to make an app running in the background (eg to recieve constant notifications from a server etc) but hidden from the user?
 
quietstormSD said:
I think "ambient location service" apps are apps that literally track your location while they are in the background. And I don't think many apps do this. If they do, do this, then you would see the little filled in arrow at the top right of your screen in the status bar when you have no apps in the foreground.

Not sure if I'm correct, but maybe someone could clarify.
Click to expand...

makes sense...I use location services and rarely see that little arrow :)
 
MacMan988 said:
So what you tell me is any bit of code that runs (takes memory/processor cycles) will appear when the home button is double tapped? No matter how many apps I install, i can make sure that non is running apart from what came with the iOS by looking at what comes up when the home button is double tapped? no background services, daemons etc ?
Click to expand...



No. Any programs/apps that you have been using appear there. There are apps (utilities section) for giving you such specific info about your iDevice & it's system resources.
 
MacMan988 said:
(I prefer apps that starts, runs and exists and free up the memory after execution.)
Click to expand...

No iPhone apps will do this because that is not how the iPhone is designed. Things stay in memory until something else needs that memory. If you just close the app no RAM will be cleared until you open another app.

So what you're looking for just doesn't exist.

But that's memory I'm talking about. Actually running a background service in the background, that's different. An app like iStat can help show you what's going on behind the scenes.

But I wouldn't worry too much about it. Things like notifications are being run on Apple's servers, not your phone. The iPhone is built to minimize stuff happening in the background.

Is it possible to leave on an app that's using the GPS to track you in the background or something? Yeah, sure, but these are the exceptions, not the average rule. Learn how your apps themselves work (like, turn off an app's settings for things like "track me in the background") and you'll be far better off than messing around with trying to watch all your phone's processes.
 
MacMan988 said:
in a developers perspective, theres no way to make an app running in the background (eg to recieve constant notifications from a server etc) but hidden from the user?
Click to expand...

iOS multitasking is not true multitasking. What it does is allow an app to perform any of 7 different types of background tasks. Most of these either finish fairly quickly or are managed by the system. None allow the app to "run in the background" as they might on a computer.

Googled this : http://charlesesmith.net/post/11244398163/ios-multitasking?adb4e7f0

It summarizes things pretty well.
 
fishcove said:
iOS multitasking is not true multitasking. What it does is allow an app to perform any of 7 different types of background tasks. Most of these either finish fairly quickly or are managed by the system. None allow the app to "run in the background" as they might on a computer.

Googled this : http://charlesesmith.net/post/11244398163/ios-multitasking?adb4e7f0

It summarizes things pretty well.
Click to expand...

That was really one of the better features I enjoyed on Android. When you would leave an app, it was right where you left it, in a true multi-tasking sense.
 
mattopotamus said:
That was really one of the better features I enjoyed on Android. When you would leave an app, it was right where you left it, in a true multi-tasking sense.
Click to expand...

The iPhone does this too, just a little different. Instead of leaving it running, it caches it to the ram and suspends it do that it's not running in the background. Next time you open the app it goes right back to where you left off.

The kind of cached apps is all dependent on ram. So as more ram is needed, the older closed apps will fully close and will start from scratch. Newly closes apps are not affected.

iPhone is basically designed so you can switch between a few apps back and forth without losing place. But don't expect an app that you haven't used in a few days to open where you left off.

As for the apps in the multi-task bar, only the first page or two worth have any kind of cached data. Closing them out from there will allow you to delete the cache for it immediately, freeing up more ram. Normally you never need to do it, but it's nice for the times when an app isn't behaving properly and you want to fully stop it.

The only thing that actually runs in the background is one of the 6 or 7 services that apple allows the devs to use in their apps. Like navigation or to finish a download/upload, etc. these services allow apps to finish stuff without running at full capacity and wasting resources.
 
Last edited:
how about the apps such as vibe, whatsapp, facebook messenger? they receive messages from the server and give us notification even when the app doesn't seems like open?
 
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