iOS 16.1 Beta 3 Lets You Preload In-App Content After Installing Apps So They're Ready to Go

[allebone]

I can't recall the last time an app required an additional download after installing. Does anyone have any examples? The only ones I can think of are games.

I could see this being very helpful in MDM-enabled corporate settings. We push lots of App Store apps, specifically ForeFlight for aviation users, but the user wont be logged into it until we issue it to them. ForeFlight is awesome but before you can do anything you need to download like 34-100GB of Maps and such. This would pretty much allow this iPad to be issued out nearly complete and ready to use.

Some of our other corporate internal apps could use something like this because they have DB and such which are just large enough to make them too big for Apple Store approval. Now we can use B2B and still have the user ready in time.

I would agree with you though, it only works for things that are common to majority of users to be truly helpful. Game Files, Aviation DB, Map files, etc.

 

[CarlJ]

I can't recall the last time an app required an additional download after installing. Does anyone have any examples? The only ones I can think of are games.

The ones I can recall offhand word learning apps for kids, with lots of animations and interactions for every letter and word. The programs were modest sized, and then had huge additional downloads. Haven’t seen those in a while, though, my nieces outgrew them.

 

[_Spinn_]

I can see this being useful for some apps.

 

[Shirasaki]

I find it humorous that in an Apple Store yesterday, a hardware genius literally told me I should disable background refresh completely or for as many apps as possible, to improve battery life. Haha!

I've seen a number of games wanting to download extra content, usually with a dialog asking if that's "ok." Why is this even the case? What's the point of an app that doesn't include all the components and data needed to run/play? This is quite different from the examples of a music app, HBO, or podcast app....

This makes me wonder two things:
1. What is the best practice for background app refresh settings?
2. Why is this new setting even necessary? 🤔

Some games, such as genshin impact, has more than 20GB of data needing to be downloaded. App Store likely has a maximum size limit so they couldn’t just pack everything in it. Another one is about apple’s stupid mobile data download limit back then. App itself was very small, and upon game launch, some 8GB or so contents are downloaded before playing the game. This way, player can update everything using mobile data without triggering “need to download through wifi” warning.

As for background app refresh, turn them off unless absolutely necessary is the best practice. And that new setting benefit pretty much only games. If you don’t play games, turn it off. On the other hand, gamers like me would not need to remember to launch the game after updating but before playing it, smoothing out the experience.

 

[reklex]

I dont get it. Why? If you are downloading an app, aren't you most likely going to open that app as soon as its installed? Why even make it an option?

probably but it's good that Apple gives us options on iOS anyway, they used to be very strict against having you tinker with settings or other app definitions.

 

[pizzzle]

These features sound good in principle but they never seem to trigger. I have app updates enabled and always have to manually update games when I open them and they tell me there is an update available in the app store.

 

[svish]

Might be useful for certain apps.

 

[somnolentsurfer]

Many games do this. But I am not sure if that setting is a good idea. Like, the game might say it's 1GB on the app store, and then they want to hit you with another 15GB after you launch it.

Yes, would be better if Apple just removed the limit on app sizes on the store. It's not 2007 any more, where storage tops out at 16GB. Let us see honest size information on the store page so we can make an informed decision about what we download.

 

[zarmanto]

A lot of games update content very frequently (weekly or more often). To avoid having to publish a new app version for review each time, the apps are segregated ...

That is one use case which this feature, as described in the article, would actually not help much. The feature does not appear to be described as one which enables perpetual access to background content updating; only a one-off download immediately after installing the app. I could be mistaken, of course, but that's my interpretation.

That said, The Simpsons Tapped Out is on example of a game which doesn't completely match up to your use case; the developers update the game engine very nearly every time they update the content. So assuming that an app update event also triggers the background content download behavior, this is clearly the type of app which stands to benefit the most from this feature.

 

[TimmKook]

I find it humorous that in an Apple Store yesterday, a hardware genius literally told me I should disable background refresh completely or for as many apps as possible, to improve battery life. Haha!

I've seen a number of games wanting to download extra content, usually with a dialog asking if that's "ok." Why is this even the case? What's the point of an app that doesn't include all the components and data needed to run/play? This is quite different from the examples of a music app, HBO, or podcast app....

This makes me wonder two things:
1. What is the best practice for background app refresh settings?
2. Why is this new setting even necessary? 🤔

Keep Background App Refresh off. No need for it, ever. I'm Timm Kook and I've never used it on any iOS device.

 

[Lord Hamsa]

That is one use case which this feature, as described in the article, would actually not help much. The feature does not appear to be described as one which enables perpetual access to background content updating; only a one-off download immediately after installing the app. I could be mistaken, of course, but that's my interpretation.

Oh correct. Just explaining why these apps have separate core engine plus data downloads in the first place. That initial data download tends to be fairly large and the incremental ones vary in size based on the update content.

 

[CarlJ]

Yes, would be better if Apple just removed the limit on app sizes on the store. It's not 2007 any more, where storage tops out at 16GB. Let us see honest size information on the store page so we can make an informed decision about what we download.

Some people may be downloading over cellular and not have unlimited plans. And some apps may download different data in different environments (oh, you have one of these newer iPhones, we'll download the more detailed texture set rather than the less detailed texture set for older phones), or they may have lots of additional optional downloads (like DLC on consoles). If you're required to download everything at once, it will make the experience worse for a bunch of people. Some apps list in their description what additional downloads there are and how big they are. It would be better to have Apple incorporate a formatted way to include this in the size numbers ("125 MB + 50 MB required additional data and 200 MB optional additional data", or some such), to let consumers make a more informed choice.

 

[CarlJ]

Keep Background App Refresh off. No need for it, ever. I'm Timm Kook and I've never used it on any iOS device.

Repeat along with the rest of the class, Timm: "My use case is not necessarily the same as everyone else's use case".

Plenty of legit uses for background refresh. Weather apps would be one such use case.

 

[TimmKook]

Repeat along with the rest of the class, Timm: "My use case is not necessarily the same as everyone else's use case".

Plenty of legit uses for background refresh. Weather apps would be one such use case.

This is false information, Carl. Your weather apps will still continue to update you with severe weather alerts with BAR turned off. That does not affect any of that. Your widgets will also refresh at their usual 15 minute intervals, those are not affected either. Please, only speak on subjects you understand. We don't need more misinformation posted on this forum. 🚮

 

[1796677]

A lot of apps on the store, that are actually just web views, will benefit from this. The website will be pre-downloaded in the background, and will be ready to go as soon as you open the app, making it feel more native.

 

[SaguaroSeven]

A lot of apps on the store, that are actually just web views, will benefit from this. The website will be pre-downloaded in the background, and will be ready to go as soon as you open the app, making it feel more native.

I would keep this off then, so I am more aware of this kind of crappy app approach.

 

[SaguaroSeven]

Repeat along with the rest of the class, Timm: "My use case is not necessarily the same as everyone else's use case".

Plenty of legit uses for background refresh. Weather apps would be one such use case.

Perhaps a better use case is a podcast (or video) app that checks for updated content and downloads it (in the Background). Or an app that syncs information from a "smart" scale to Health. @TimmKook is correct about the weather apps refreshing, but I won't endorse "No need for it, ever." YMMV.