Why do newer apps not close in the Background?

[Mchl5_5Dwrds]

I just installed Duolingo and the new Foursquare app. I keep noticing with these apps when you press the back button to exit, they remain open on the background. Why is this? It seems like more new apps are doing the same.

Sorry if this has been asked before.

 

[RumoredNow]

The back out to close became optional under 8.0 GDR 3 (Black). If the developer does not specify close, then the app stays open in the background as a default. When the card view became possible, the behavior of the back button became more flexible...

That is my layman's understanding.

I am now in the habit of long holding the back button every so often to check what is running. I also use the X to close those persistent Apps. For some reason (gut feeling) I think it is a more emphatic command to close rather than swiping the App off the screen. This habit of mine may be based solely on Android, where swiping away an App does not prevent it running in background.

 

[Piyush Raja]

By default, WP8.1 apps only suspend on hitting the back button, they don't close, like you've noticed. This is good because it allows you to launch the app a lot quicker because it actually resumes instead of starting. And suspended apps on WP use no resources. So its a good feature

 

[Mchl5_5Dwrds]

Thanks for answering!

 

[Im_Q]

The back out to close became optional under 8.0 GDR 3 (Black). If the developer does not specify close, then the app stays open in the background as a default. When the card view became possible, the behavior of the back button became more flexible...

This is incorrect. All apps for written for WP8 (Silverlight 8.0) are terminated at all times when the back button is pressed on the first page of the back stack. Starting with WP8.1 Silverlight, devs can turn on a flag called PauseOnBack which will allow it to suspend instead of terminating (allowing for better resume performance like Piyush Raja mentioned) but it still defaulted to the 8.0 behavior. Also in WP8.1, WinRT apps (the newer apps the OP is referring to) are suspended at ALL times when leaving the app (unless killed through the task switcher or low memory situations). This means that WinRT apps will always be available for resuming when multitasking or when launching from a tile.

 

[Mchl5_5Dwrds]

Thanks for the clarification!