Disabling background tasks and push notifications

[afgzee]

If I disable background tasks for apps like whatsapp, messenger, viber, facebook etc... will I stop getting push notifications?

Thanks

 

[xandros9]

Don't quote me, but I believe yes.

 

[afgzee]

Don't quote me, but I believe yes.

thank you, I just tried it with whatsapp and notifications stopped.

What about live tiles? would they stop moving or just stop being updated with a newer picture?

 

[troylytle]

Definitely kills push. Toasts might pop up but I doubt it.

 

[sidn625]

If I disable background tasks for apps like whatsapp, messenger, viber, facebook etc... will I stop getting push notifications?

Thanks

How do I disable background tasks in wp 8.1
I was wondering, if there was a way to disable some background tasks to free a little RAM, bcoz rovios new game Angry Birds Epic crashes a lot on my Lumia 720

 

[troylytle]

Love tiles stop working.

 

[xandros9]

thank you, I just tried it with whatsapp and notifications stopped.

What about live tiles? would they stop moving or just stop being updated with a newer picture?

i think they will just stop being updated

 

[anon(123856)]

How do I disable background tasks in wp 8.1
I was wondering, if there was a way to disable some background tasks to free a little RAM, bcoz rovios new game Angry Birds Epic crashes a lot on my Lumia 720

Open Battery Saver, tap on Usage then long press whichever app you'd like disable. Not all apps can be controlled this way though. I don't why.

 

[hprvez]

Background tasks are just little pieces of code, they use ram only when they run, a very little amount. Anyway the os manages the ram and tried to keep everything in memory unless a process needs it, this way everything you have already used before is ready to be recalled again, it's counterproductive to free the ram when not necessary

 

[sidn625]

Background tasks are just little pieces of code, they use ram only when they run, a very little amount. Anyway the os manages the ram and tried to keep everything in memory unless a process needs it, this way everything you have already used before is ready to be recalled again, it's counterproductive to free the ram when not necessary

So, what do I do to prevent the app from crashing every now and then?

 

[jojoe42]

Does anyone actually know what functionality is lost by disabling IE for background tasks? There seems to be a bug where it completely kills my battery in the background...

 

[dKp1977]

Guys, please stop confusing push notifications and background agents. These are two very different things. If an app uses a background agent, it does so, because it periodically updates your live tile and may furthermore send a toast notification. The agents sort of perform a pull request and depending on the response start a certain action. Push notifications on the other hand are triggered server side. No background agent is needed for these to work. The Twitter app is a good example, as it uses a background agent to periodically update your lockscreen wallpaper (if you have enabled it, that is). Disabling the background agent will stop updating the wallpaper, but you will still receive push notifications.
Whatsapp always had issues with notifications on Windows Phone, which is why they made use of the background music streaming API earlier and use a background agent to perform a pull request. This would ensure to have notifications even if their push services fail.

 

[afgzee]

Guys, please stop confusing push notifications and background agents. These are two very different things. If an app uses a background agent, it does so, because it periodically updates your live tile and may furthermore send a toast notification. The agents sort of perform a pull request and depending on the response start a certain action. Push notifications on the other hand are triggered server side. No background agent is needed for these to work. The Twitter app is a good example, as it uses a background agent to periodically update your lockscreen wallpaper (if you have enabled it, that is). Disabling the background agent will stop updating the wallpaper, but you will still receive push notifications.
Whatsapp always had issues with notifications on Windows Phone, which is why they made use of the background music streaming API earlier and use a background agent to perform a pull request. This would ensure to have notifications even if their push services fail.

I don't get it. So I have WP 8.1 and disabled background task on Whatsapp, no push notifications came through, had to open the app to see, now I enabled background task for Whatsapp and the notifications started coming through straight away.

Explain this because I don't understand it?

 

[samy_a]

Guys, please stop confusing push notifications and background agents. These are two very different things. If an app uses a background agent, it does so, because it periodically updates your live tile and may furthermore send a toast notification. The agents sort of perform a pull request and depending on the response start a certain action. Push notifications on the other hand are triggered server side. No background agent is needed for these to work. The Twitter app is a good example, as it uses a background agent to periodically update your lockscreen wallpaper (if you have enabled it, that is). Disabling the background agent will stop updating the wallpaper, but you will still receive push notifications.
Whatsapp always had issues with notifications on Windows Phone, which is why they made use of the background music streaming API earlier and use a background agent to perform a pull request. This would ensure to have notifications even if their push services fail.

This was the case with WP 8.0.

Since I installed WP 8.1 dev preview, I don't get notifications when the background task is disabled.
Tested it with WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger.

 

[dKp1977]

I don't get it. So I have WP 8.1 and disabled background task on Whatsapp, no push notifications came through, had to open the app to see, now I enabled background task for Whatsapp and the notifications started coming through straight away.
Explain this because I don't understand it?

This was the case with WP 8.0.
Since I installed WP 8.1 dev preview, I don't get notifications when the background task is disabled.
Tested it with WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger.

If it wasn't the case anymore, why did FB remove it from their Messenger app? Seriously, I have disabled background agents for Twitter, Whatsapp, Facebook and many more services of which I know for certain they use push notifications. And I've always kept it that way (WP7, WP8, 8.1). The usual issues on their end aside, I haven't missed a single notification.
Facebook and Twitter use their background agents to update the lockscreen wallpaper. That's for certain. Whatsapp used the background agent as soft of some friendly hack to bypass certain Windows Phone restrictions. I know these were somehow related to notifications, but just like their streaming music API hack back in the days, it always worked for me without these hacks.

 

[samy_a]

If it wasn't the case anymore, why did FB remove it from their Messenger app? Seriously, I have disabled background agents for Twitter, Whatsapp, Facebook and many more services of which I know for certain they use push notifications. And I've always kept it that way (WP7, WP8, 8.1). The usual issues on their end aside, I haven't missed a single notification.
Facebook and Twitter use their background agents to update the lockscreen wallpaper. That's for certain. Whatsapp used the background agent as soft of some friendly hack to bypass certain Windows Phone restrictions. I know these were somehow related to notifications, but just like their streaming music API hack back in the days, it always worked for me without these hacks.

I have no problem believing you, as that's how it's supposed to be: push notifications and background task are two separate things.

However, I can't get notifications without background task enabled in WP8.1

I just tested it again with the FB Messenger, and got notifications only when the background task was allowed to run.
Maybe there is some setting I'm missing, as you get other results.

 

[dKp1977]

I have no problem believing you, as that's how it's supposed to be: push notifications and background task are two separate things.

However, I can't get notifications without background task enabled in WP8.1

I just tested it again with the FB Messenger, and got notifications only when the background task was allowed to run.
Maybe there is some setting I'm missing, as you get other results.

I'm wondering why you're even having an option for background tasks for the messenger app, as this has apparently been removed in the latest update. oO When I go to battery sense, swipe over to applications and tap on the messenger, it doesn't have any options at all.

 

[samy_a]

I'm wondering why you're even having an option for background tasks for the messenger app, as this has apparently been removed in the latest update. oO When I go to battery sense, swipe over to applications and tap on the messenger, it doesn't have any options at all.

The option is still there in Battery Saver, though:

 

[dKp1977]

The option is still there in Battery Saver, though:

View attachment 69354

Are you sure you've updated to the latest version?

 

[samy_a]

Are you sure you've updated to the latest version?

Looks like it, version 5.0.3:



Weird how things can be so different on two phones. Mine is a Lumia 920, with the last version of the 8.1 dev preview.