Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking

Fraser Speirs wrote a well-written, in depth post about multitasking on iOS. However, while correcting the misconception, it doesn’t quite address why it exists.

If you were going to explain background applications on iOS to a normal person, you would have to say something like this: “Apps don’t actually run in the background. Unless you’re playing music from them. Or if they are a Skype-like app. Or if you’re getting turn by turn directions from one of them. Or if it’s one of the built in apps that doesn’t play by the third-party development rules, like Mail.”

Put simply, the misconception exists because it’s easier to explain than the correction. Really, the only acceptable way to think about background apps on iOS is this:

“Don’t worry about it, the apps aren’t going to kill your battery when you’re not using them.”