What is Background App Refresh for iPhone and Android and How to Enable and Disable It?

Ever wondered how the weather app on your phone shows the latest data and social media apps pop up the latest content the moment you open it? Meet the handy feature: Background App Refresh, which enables the apps to run in the background, ensuring you always stay on-loop. 

While this makes your digital life better, is it good for the battery, data plan, and overall performance of your device? Let’s find out the answer. 

Read this blog to know what is the background app refresh, how to enable and disable it, and its benefits and drawbacks. 

What is Background App Refresh?

Background app refresh is a smart feature in mobile phones that enables all the apps to automatically stay updated by fetching new data when not actively in use. In simple terms, the applications complete the tasks in the background and present the latest data the moment you open it. 

For example, you are using any food ordering application and the news or weather application sends you an updated report in notification because of running in the background. 

This feature has its own set of benefits and drawbacks, which we have discussed in the next sections. 

Benefits of Using Background App Refresh

This feature is available on Android and iPhones, both, and provides distinct advantages. Let’s discuss them here: 

• High App Performance: The apps preload in the background, load faster, and show the latest data when you open them. This feature provides a seamless experience to the users.
  
• Better Personalization: The apps run in the background and keep track of all your activities. This helps to recommend better and tailor custom personalization based on your interest.
  
• Timely Alerts: When an app runs in the background, it sends alerts and notifications to keep the users updated with their service. You can think of it as social media app notifications, location-specific promotions, alarms, and reminders. 

These are certain benefits you can utilize when the background app refresh feature is working on your smartphone. 

Drawbacks of Using Background App Refresh

Despite having lots of benefits to its name, there are some potential downsides that you must know about: 

• Drop in Battery Level: As multiple apps run in the background, the device gets worked up because of the consumption process. This drains your battery level faster than usual.
  
• Excessive Data Usage: When apps run in the background, they consume data, which results in slow speed unless you have an unlimited data package.  

Considering these downsides, you can disable the feature anytime you want. We have explained the step-by-step process of turning off background app refresh on Android and iPhone in the coming section.

How to Turn Off Background Apps on Android?

Are you disturbed by the slow speed of your Android phone? Background running apps might be a significant reason for poor performance. This feature stores a cache of apps like Facebook, which requires manual clearing. However, if you turn off the feature, an extra load will be taken from your device. 

Note that the term background app refresh is only for iPhones; for Android, you can simply disable the notifications and alerts for any application. 

Follow the steps written below for the same: 

1. Unlock your mobile, go to the Settings app.

   

2. Then, tap on the Apps section. 

   

3. Tap on All Apps to see the complete list.
4. Now, select the app you want to disable running in the background. 
5. You can choose between Mobile Data & Wi-Fi or Off button on this new page.
6. Lastly, click on the Off button. 

Once you do the steps, the app will stop updating itself and sending notifications. 

To turn on the background app refresh on Android:

 Go to Settings<<Connections<<Data Usage<<Mobile Data Usage<<Allow Background App Refresh 

How to Turn Off Background Apps on iPhone?

Apple mobile devices generally require a lot of battery optimization to keep their health in check, and background app refresh can be a negative contributing factor. In such a situation, it is best that you turn off background apps iPhone. Here are the steps for the same: 

1. First, you need to open the Settings app on your device and tap on the General section. 
2. Here, scroll to the bottom and click on the background app refresh. 

   

3. On this page, you will see the list of all the apps. 

   

4. Tap the toggle button next to the name of the application, and a new page will appear. Select Off from the options. 

   

That’s it, the background apps will stop running in the background entirely. 

To turn on the iPhone Background App Refresh again:

 Go to Settings<<General<<Background App Refresh<<Turn the toggle to green for the application. 

Should You Turn Off Background App Refresh?

Though the background app refresh feature is convenient, it can hamper the performance of your device. It allows all the apps to function idly even when you aren’t using it. 

So should you disable background app refresh or not? Well, turning off the feature will save battery and improve speed and device performance. But if you hate waiting for a few minutes for the apps to fetch updated data, in such a case the best thing is to prioritize.

You can consider turning off the feature for: 

• Social media apps and sites.
• News, shopping, and other apps.
• Gaming applications. 

And, you can leave it on for important ones like: 

• Messaging apps.
• Fitness and navigation apps.
• Banking and finance apps.

This way you will optimize your device even while not disabling the feature entirely. 

Additional Tips to Save Battery 

Well, background running apps aren’t the only factor causing a drop in battery level. You need to keep your phone updated and clear cache from apps like Instagram, Snapchat, etc. to optimize for better functioning. Here are a few helpful tips for saving battery:

• Heavy applications such as YouTube and streaming services consume excessive data and cause battery levels to drop quickly. You can disable autoplay or use Wi-Fi to download and view content. This reduces the unnecessary load from your smartphone.
  
• Turn on low power mode on your iPhone or enable battery saver on Android to reduce background processes, screen brightness, and battery-draining activities when your device’s battery is running low.
  
• Turn off cellular data on your device when not using apps running over the internet. 

These simple hacks will save you multiple minutes of battery time. 

So this was all about what does background app refresh do, how to turn it off on Android and iPhone, and its benefits and drawbacks. This blog has covered all the necessary points that will help optimize your mobile device. Make sure to share the tips with other people too!