iOS 7.1 to Fix Geolocation Issue That Broke Location-Based Apps

Apple has reversed a change it made to how users quit location-aware apps in iOS 7. In the new OS, Apple changed how location-aware applications work when they are force-quit by users. In iOS 7.0, users who force quit an app -- by double-tapping the home button and swiping up -- also disable all location-aware functions which previously would continue to run in the background.

One app in particular, Life360, uses background location abilities to allow family and friends to locate each other. In iOS 7, when a user force quits the app, all location-aware background services were disabled. This caused the company to have a sudden influx of negative reviews and disappointed customers. Some apps even saw 30-50 percent drops in users following the change, according to Life360 CEO Chris Hulls who spoke to MacRumors yesterday.

Now, in iOS 7.1 beta 5, released a week ago, the change has been reversed and Hulls attributes that to a letter that Life360 and a number of other developers sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook on February 1. In the beta, background location services remain running when an app is force quit, same as in iOS 6.

VentureBeat has the first several paragraphs of the letter:

Dear Apple iOS Development Team,

We are a group of Apple developers who rely on iOS geolocation services for core parts of our businesses. iOS 7 was hugely exciting to us, as new features such as Location Beacons, Background Networking, and Multi-Peer Connectivity give us the ability to do things we never thought were possible.

In previous versions of iOS, if a user killed an application in the app switcher, developers were still able to get geolocation in the background. With iOS 7, once a user kills an application, all processes are terminated until the user manually restarts the app. We appreciate the intent behind this change, which we realize was done to give users more control over what is running on their phones, but it has caused major unintended consequences. … Many developers who rely on background geolocation have seen their app ratings fall by over 3 stars.

Life360 is a free download on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

iVoid

59 months ago

Huh? "In iOS 7, when a user force quits the app, all location-aware background services were disabled."

Well, DUH.

When I force quit an app i *EXPECT* all processes used by that app to stop running.

If i want it to keep running, I don't force quit an app.

I'm amazed that people can't figure that one out.

So basically, with 7.1 any app that has location services running in the background can't be stopped without disabling location services for that app or rebooting the iPhone.

Bad idea Apple.

Rating: 14 Votes

Jack Delgado

59 months ago

Hmm... I mean... if someone force closes an app, I wouldn't necessarily say the old behavior was... wrong.

Rating: 13 Votes

recklesslife85

59 months ago

No. You can disable location services for each app.

But you wouldn't download a location app to start with to do that. Kill an app should mean kill an app.

Rating: 13 Votes

bluespark

59 months ago

People continue to misunderstand when and why to force-quit apps. I know many people who incorrectly think they need to do this routinely to manage their phone's memory use.

Rating: 10 Votes

recklesslife85

59 months ago

User should have total control over location based apps. If I want to kill an app that should be my choice. Simple solution, don't download apps like theres.

Rating: 9 Votes

MikhailT

59 months ago

[LIST=1]
* The change in iOS 7 didn't break the apps, the developers broke it themselves by not educating the users as to what happens when the app is forced to be closed.
* If I'm force-quitting an app, I expect all processes related to the app to be terminated. By reverting this, it now breaks the whole consistency of explaining things to users, how apps should work, and so on.
* Apple, really? Caving in to developers because they're whining about getting bad ratings when it's just a matter of educating users rather than changing something that could hurt the battery life?

Everybody here who disagrees with this should send an email to Apple to undo this revert because it is not right.

Now, I'm definitely going to leave bad reviews for those developers who requested such a change.

Rating: 8 Votes

CoreForce

59 months ago

Feel the Force, AppDevelopers!

That will be painful with apps like Foursquare and Flickr as they are right now. I kill them just because they don't terminate location based services for no reason, draining my battery.

Rating: 7 Votes

Zxxv

59 months ago

this is crap. when i kill an app I mean to kill it, entirely. If I want its features running I will open it again. Kill means stop what your doing not stop half of what your doing.

Rating: 7 Votes

spooky2k

59 months ago

If a user really wants to kill an app, they can outright delete it off their device. That's absolute control!

Users often download location apps and other apps to try them out. If one turns out useless or bothersome, just delete it.

Don't just ignore the problem.

The behaviour requested by these devs and granted by 7.1 beta 5 doesn't make any logical sense.

Rating: 5 Votes

StyxMaker

59 months ago

Most users don't use the quick launch view for this and they don't realize what they are doing. My mom kills all the apps in the launch view because someone in the ATT store told her it saved battery and she doesn't expect things to stop working.

I think everyone agrees that people should have control over what is running on their phone, but the average non-power user has no clue what happens when they kill apps. Eventually I hope Apple makes some sort of permission set that let's user decide what happens when a specific app is killed.

This is the best thing Apple could have done for now. I have a small geo app myself and this was a big problem. I'm glad more prominent developers were able to get Apple's attention to fix this.

Then they should educate their users. When I force kill an app I want everything to do with that app to stop. I don't want to take an additional step of turning off Location Services for that app, then having to remember to turn Location Services back on the next time I launch that app. That is truely rediculous.

Rating: 5 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]