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Don't kill my app

dontkillmyapp.com

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Re: Don't kill my app

#11

Post by ryandrake »

fritzo wrote: post #5
Torlan wrote: post #4

Don’t kill my battery

Yes, Dear app developers, different users want different things. The primary uses of my phone are (1) multi-factor authentication, and (2) as a GPS beacon whereby family can locate me if I'm injured in the wilderness. I definitely value battery life over app snazz.

Longer battery life is consistently number 1 on any survey of mobile phone users you'll find, ahead of camera. It's far and away what people care about. It's not surprising that phone manufacturers will do anything they can to improve theirs vs. competitions, including killing apps that are sitting there sucking up battery.

Longer battery life was the clear winner with 73% of people picking it as the most enticing reason to buy a new smartphone.[1]

60% of surveyed mobile phone users stated they would switch phones if the battery life improved (China) [2]

61 per cent cited battery as the key consideration, just behind the smartphone camera (India) [3]

76 per cent of iPhone owners and 77 per cent of Android users listed longer battery life as something that will get them excited about buying a new phone (USA) [4]

1: https://9to5mac.com/2021/03/19/iphone-buyers-want-battery-li...

2: https://www.gizchina.com/2023/05/08/do-you-have-mobile-phone...

3: https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/long-batt...

4: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/tech-design/article/218...

Re: Don't kill my app

#13

Post by dreamcompiler »

I don't have much sympathy for this idea. The vast majority of apps don't need to do anything in the background, but almost every app thinks it's the only app on your phone and wants to be running and online 24/7 so it can constantly send you notifications, mine your personal info, and upsell you on crap you don't need.

This is why we can't have nice things. It's a tragedy of the commons where the commons is your battery and your data and your attention.

Phone manufacturers try to restrict this nonsense as they should, but the better solution is to give users complete control over background behavior, with the default being "none."

Re: Don't kill my app

#14

Post by sebtron »

Torlan wrote: post #4

Don’t kill my battery

Can't you close your apps when you don't want them to stay open?

The reason I first discovered "don't kill my app" is that my apps would close as soon as I switched to another one, in most cases. For example if I used maps and switched to a call / browser tab / Telegram chat, when I got back to the map my search would be gone.

So no please, don't kill my app when I don't want you to.

Re: Don't kill my app

#15

Post by izacus »

ryandrake wrote: post #11
fritzo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Dear app developers, different users want different things. The primary uses of my phone are (1) multi-factor authentication, and (2) as a GPS beacon whereby family can locate me if I'm injured in the wilderness. I definitely value battery life over app snazz.

Longer battery life is consistently number 1 on any survey of mobile phone users you'll find, ahead of camera. It's far and away what people care about. It's not surprising that phone manufacturers will do anything they can to improve theirs vs. competitions, including killing apps that are sitting there sucking up battery. Longer battery life was the clear winner with 73% of people picking it as the most enticing re…

Of course, those very same users then also want their chat messages and calls to actually work and work immediately. Their health data and step counters to sync. Their GPS trackers and location sharing to be SPOT ON and never lag behind the real world. Their music to keep playing and their chromecast controls to keep working. Their iCloud and Google Photos to sync if their phone gets stolen or dropped into a toilet.

But sure, it's the battery - it's just that the best way to save the battery (turn off the phone) isn't REALLY what's important ;)

And comments like yours are funny on this very site, because what this site complains is OEMs killing competition and choice by selecting apps that are allowed to be used - e.g. apps like Signal are the ones that suffer the most because they're not blessed by exceptions.

Re: Don't kill my app

#16

Post by buzer »

arp242 wrote: post #3

Previous: Android vendors, don’t kill my app - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18901006 - Jan 2019 (407 comments) I'm not sure if it's been updated since then. Still lists Sony as "toxic" for having an opt-in battery extension feature which warns you of the trade-offs (which I've found very useful when I really wanted to, well, extend battery life, e.g. when hiking or travelling). I told them this back in 2019,…

> I'm not sure if it's been updated since then.

There seems to some updates, https://dontkillmyapp.com/samsung shows update from 2021

Re: Don't kill my app

#17

Post by sebtron »

I think many commenters supporting the "kill my app" behavior do not understand how bad using the affected devices can be.

The reason I first discovered "don't kill my app" is that my apps would close as soon as I switched to another one, in most cases. For example if I used maps and switched to a call / browser tab / Telegram chat, when I got back to the map the app would reload. My search would be gone, and I would have to set my destination again.

I hope you can agree that this is terrible user experience. If I wanted to save battery, I could have just closed my apps manually, I don't need my phone to take the initiative.

Re: Don't kill my app

#18

Post by sebtron »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #13

I don't have much sympathy for this idea. The vast majority of apps don't need to do anything in the background, but almost every app thinks it's the only app on your phone and wants to be running and online 24/7 so it can constantly send you notifications, mine your personal info, and upsell you on crap you don't need. This is why we can't have nice things. It's a tragedy of the commons where the commons is your bat…

Many app need to keep state while they are in background though. Imagine your browswer tabs reloading every time you swotch to a different app and back.

Re: Don't kill my app

#19

Post by matheusmoreira »

sebtron wrote: post #17

I think many commenters supporting the "kill my app" behavior do not understand how bad using the affected devices can be. The reason I first discovered "don't kill my app" is that my apps would close as soon as I switched to another one, in most cases. For example if I used maps and switched to a call / browser tab / Telegram chat, when I got back to the map the app would reload. My search would be gone, and I would…

Why can't the app save its state to storage and restore the saved state when it's started again?

Re: Don't kill my app

#20

Post by osener »

sebtron wrote: post #17

I think many commenters supporting the "kill my app" behavior do not understand how bad using the affected devices can be. The reason I first discovered "don't kill my app" is that my apps would close as soon as I switched to another one, in most cases. For example if I used maps and switched to a call / browser tab / Telegram chat, when I got back to the map the app would reload. My search would be gone, and I would…

This somehow seems to have become an inevitable reality of mobile phones. I had to upgrade from my iPhone 7 because it had essentially become a “single-process OS” where even switching to Google Translate to help me compose a message would have the messaging app killed in the background.

And now I am experiencing similar issues, although not as severely yet, with my iPhone 12 Pro Max. Restarting the phone seems to help but there seems to be some battery and/or memory pressure that causes iOS to kill the non-active apps.

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