How To keep An App Open On iPhone

For apps you actively use, say a game app, you want to make sure that while you take a break to reply to a message on the messaging app, you can still return to where you left off. The pain usually hits differently when your progress gets lost without saving just because you took a short break off the app. 

Could this be remedied on iPhone? Well, you’re about to find out. In this article, you’ll learn how to keep an app open on iPhone

Can I Keep An App Open On iPhone?

Yes, it’s possible to keep an app open on iPhone. In a more technical term, it’s referred to as Background Refresh and just as the name goes, apps are able to refresh in the background, even while you open and use other apps. 

Some apps while refreshing in the background can actually collect and add in new data like they would when they’re actively in use. Some don’t, but at least will bring you right back to the point you were before switching to another app. 

Overall, the type of refresh an app is able to do in the background will depend on the developers of the app. Yes, Apple entirely has nothing to do with this, not more than making the function available and giving you the control to turn on or off the feature. 

This then would mean that some apps never do refresh in the background, that’s basically not Apple’s making, but the app developer’s. Well today, not a handful of apps exist without the background refresh instruction.

However, for properly built apps, you still have to turn on the feature before apps can remain open. The next heading has all the process explained. Continue reading to find out how to keep an app open on iPhone.

How To Keep An App Open On iPhone

The ability to keep an app open on iPhone is a function managed by software and your RAM. The iPhone manages the processes on your device by starting, running and ending programs automatically. In reality, there’s really not much expected from your end. 

Background Refresh can be enabled on an app basis, so you get to decide what apps should be kept open in the background when you switch to another app and what apps shouldn’t. 

Follow the below guide to turn on Background Refresh on your iPhone;

• Open iPhone Settings
• Tap on General
• Scroll down to Background App Refresh and click on it
• Toggle the button to the right of Background App Refresh
• Scroll down to the apps section below and select the apps that should be refreshed in the background. Do this by toggling the button to the right of the apps on or off. 

That’s pretty all you do to start keeping apps open in the background. Most users however have complained that although Background Refresh is turned on, it still doesn’t seem to work as the Background Refresh option remains greyed out even in the turned on state. 

If you’re experiencing the same, make sure to turn off Low Power Mode. With Lower Power Mode enabled on your iPhone, apps won’t refresh in the background as the features requires more battery power to keep apps open.

Follow the below guide to turn off Low power mode on your iPhone;

• Open iPhone Settings
• Scroll down and tap on Battery
• Scroll down to the Low Power Mode option and toggle the switch to the left to off.

However, bear in mind that only apps that run a background refresh code in their build will appear on the list of apps you can turn on Background Refresh for. If you don’t find the app you intend to turn on the feature for, you may want to check with the app developers and perhaps lodge you complaint to them. Developers are asked to submit or register their apps for background refresh occasionally which updates the list.

Why Should You Stop iPhone App From Closing

iPhone apps in reality do not close on their own, except you swipe them away from the app switcher tab. Although older apps in the multitask tab will after sometime get killed as you continue to open more apps, but they’re never really the same as apps that where never opened in your primary homes screen.

Just so you understand what it is I’m talking about, If you have app A launched on your iPhone and listed in the app switcher while you open say five other apps after, app A will get suspended and afterwards killed.

By being killed, it uses far less of system resources and will most likely not start you off from where you left off before you switched to another app. 

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However, though app A has been suspended and killed by software in a bid to make more RAM available for more apps, it’ll load faster than when the same app A was just getting launched from the app menu. This and the other two reasons listed below are why you should stop the the habit of always closing apps on iPhone.

iPhone Manages RAM Automatically

It’s widely believed that you have to constantly release load on the RAM by making out time to remove apps you have hanging on the app switcher. While this may be true for other devices by other phone manufacturers, it never does apply to Apple’s iPhone. 

Apple has often been called the king of Space management and the people who believe so can not be any wrong. With only 2GB and a highest of 3GB of RAM space on newer devices, the iPhone is able to manage processes effectively without the phone freezing. 

Here’s how it does that with such a small RAM size compared to other manufacturers. When you continue to launch apps on your iPhone, software prioritizes that newly launched apps should use more of the RAM than the older ones, hence, it transfers a little of the RAM memory used up by older apps to the phones internal memory temporarily. 

This is the almost flawless mechanism that gets your iPhone still performing at optimum. So my friend, you do not always have to bother swiping away apps from the app switcher, just let your iPhone figure it all out.

Save Battery Life

If you’re a bit more conversant with most mechanical and electrical systems, you’d have observed that the amount of resource or energy needed to start an thing from rest will be almost twice as the same that will be used to keep it going. Same thing applies when you constantly close iPhone apps. It doesn’t help your battery. 

Your iPhone battery is better off maintaining whatever the energy requirement is to keep an app running than to launch it from rest. The latter impacts on your battery to a high degree and when it continues that way for long, you may eventually shorten your battery lifespan.

Conclusion

 It’s good you’ve come to read how to keep an app open an iPhone and not the opposite that people often think is the best. Did I also mention that your iPhone is the fastest when apps are open rather than closing them to open them again when you need? Well, that’s true. iPhone manages space effectively and thinking about how to close apps to release more space should be the least of your problems. It has it all covered!