Background apps have become a huge part of our smartphone experience, and now that feature is being rolled out to our Android devices. With the newest Android 9.0 Pie release, you can have app functionality even when you are not in the app itself.
This means that an app can run in the background, process data or do functions even when you are not directly in the app. This is an excellent way for apps to process data continuously without having to constantly open and close itself.
With every new version of Android, there seems to be some confusion around how this function works and whether or not it is a good thing. Some people believe that allowing apps to continue running in the background is bad for your device due to excessive use of resources (i.e. battery, RAM).
This article will discuss what exactly continuing running background apps when Google Chrome is closed mean for your device and whether or not it is a good thing.
How to find out what closed Chrome
If you want to know what websites someone has been using, then you can check their Chrome history. You can also check what sites people have been using on their phones or other devices by checking their mobile browser history.
How do you do this? First, go to your Google profile and then click on Chrome. This will show you all the most recent versions of Chrome that have been installed on your account and other devices.
You can also just search for “chrome” and then click the icon that comes up to the left of the search bar. This will bring up the latest version of Chrome on your device.
Then, go to Settings > Advanced settings > Privacy and security > Content setting > Don’t run element from this domain. This will let you know which websites people have visited by letting you remove elements from the domain (or website name).
What closing Chrome means
When Google Chrome is closed, all the tabs in the browser are closed as well. All of the content that was being loaded is stopped, and the content that was already loaded is retained.
The saved content is stored in Chrome’s memory, which is called an instance cache. This allows you to go back to a page you visited before without having to reload it.
You can also reopen a tab you previously closed by going back to the list of tabs and selecting one. This reopens the content that was already there when you closed the tab.
However, some things related to content loading do not stop when Chrome is closed. Continued running background apps do not stop when Chrome closes, which can be confusing for some people. You may think you have shut down all of your browser’s functionality, but there are still things going on behind the scenes.
Closing the entire app
There is one more way to close Chrome that can be dangerous to your privacy. If you click the quit button in the top right corner, then choose quit, it will close the entire app.
This includes all of the background apps that are running for Chrome. When this happens, anyone who is logged into your account will no longer have access to any machines you have set up with sync.
They will also no longer have access to your saved passwords or any notes you have taken in Google Chrome. This is because all of this information is stored only in memory and when the app closes, so does memory storage.
Anyone who has access to your computer will be able to see what sites you have opened and searched for, but they will not be able to see your saved passwords or notes unless they take specific steps to do so.
What continuing to run background apps when Chrome is closed means?
Continuing to run background apps when Chrome is closed means that your apps will continue to run even after you close the Google Chrome browser.
This feature was introduced with the newest version of the Android system, called Pie. With this version, Android limited the ability for apps to run in the background.
Prior to Pie, third-party apps could keep running in the background even after you closed the app. This is what allowed applications like Facebook and Twitter to have their app icons on your home screen, constantly running in the background consuming battery life and data.
With Pie, only System Apps can do this, so having an icon on your home screen does not mean it will continue running in the background. Only System Apps like Phone, Messages, Email, etc., can do this.
Relaunch the closed tab
If you have to relaunch the closed tab, it means you have to clear your cache and delete your history and cookies. This takes a little more time, but it guarantees that your Chrome will run smoothly again.
If you are on a lower version of Android, then you will have to do some extra work. You will need to download an older version of Chrome and then re-install the latest version after deleting the old one.
This is not recommended, as it can cause some problems. If you feel like you need to do this, make sure to back up your data first!
Once you’ve done this, then all you have to do is clear your cache and delete your cookies and history.
Reload the page
When Google Chrome is closed, your open tabs are saved in the memory. If you have a lot of tabs open, the more likely it is for the browser to run out of memory.
When this happens, Google Chrome will automatically reload the pages you have open as you reopen the browser. This is a nice feature that saves you time when you have to re-open the browser.
You can also do this yourself by clicking on the grid icon and selecting Reopen pages. This will bring up a list of all your open tabs and allow you to choose which one to reopen first.
Check for a prompt
While most people know that background apps can drain your battery quickly, few know how to check for them or disable them. By default, you can’t check for them or disable them unless you have a special phone edition, like Android.
Google introduced a feature with the Pixel smartphones called Active Edge that lets you squeeze the sides of the device to perform a function. In this case, you can use Active Edge to automatically turn off all of the apps running in the background.
If you have any other phone make or model, there is still one way to check for background apps. You can go to your settings and then select battery and then see what’s using up power. This will only show you what’s running currently, though. It does not show what was running before you went to the settings section.
Both of these features are helpful but not perfect. You can still spend some time going through your apps and checking what they do when they are closed.
Ask Google Assistant
A new feature that was added in late 2017 was the ability to ask Google Assistant questions. This is similar to how you would ask an app or website, but instead, it is linked with Google search.
When you make your Google account, you create a digital profile using your information. This includes your geographic location, personal preferences, and interests.
With access to this information, Google can provide you with more accurate answers to your questions. For example, if you asked “What time is it in Paris?” Google would respond with the correct time instead of saying “I don’t know what time it is in Paris”.
You can use variations of “OK Google” or explicitly say “Hey Google” to activate the app.
Leave a Reply