What does the iOS Background App Refresh switch do?

What about “Find My” app, will that app not be able to track my phone in the background if I switch off the iOS Background App refresh?

On same topic, what about iPhone used by children where parental controls have been applied. Will the iOS Background App Refresh switch set to “OFF” disable “Find My” app on the parents iPhones from locating their children?

The answer listed as best is not a great answer. Here’s a link and a summary that definitely is more concise and easier to understand.

https://www.next7it.com/insights/background-app-refresh-iphone/

While each app utilizes the function differently, these are some common examples of how Background App Refresh works in practice:

• Apple News loading the newest stories so they're ready as soon as you open the app.
• Cloud storage apps like Dropbox syncing your file changes in the background.
• Social media apps loading fresh posts so you don't see old content, or placeholder text, upon opening the app.
• Your weather app pulling the forecast throughout the day.

Apps don't alert you that they're refreshing, so it all happens seamlessly. You should also know that on iPhone, Background App Refresh does not affect notifications. Thus, you can disable the feature without worrying about losing timely alerts.

The Background App Refresh toggle switch in iOS allows you to control whether apps are allowed to refresh their content in the background. When Background App Refresh is enabled, apps can check for new data and updates even when you're not using them, which can drain your battery and use up your data.

Disabling Background App Refresh can help to improve your iPhone's battery life and performance. It can also save you data if you're on a limited data plan.

Here are some examples of what happens when you disable Background App Refresh:

1. Battery Conservation: One of the main advantages of disabling Background App Refresh is improved battery life. When apps are not allowed to refresh in the background, they consume fewer resources, which helps preserve your device's battery.
2. Reduced Data Usage: Background App Refresh can consume data as apps fetch new content in the background. Disabling it can help reduce data usage, which is particularly beneficial for users with limited data plans.
3. Reduced Network Activity: When Background App Refresh is disabled, apps won't be able to perform background network tasks, such as fetching new emails or social media updates. This can result in reduced network activity.
4. Limited Real-Time Updates: With Background App Refresh disabled, apps may not have the latest information readily available when you launch them after being inactive for a while. You may experience some delays as the app updates its content upon opening.

Here are some examples of how disabling Background App Refresh can affect specific apps:

1. Social Media Apps: If Background App Refresh is disabled for a social media app like Facebook or Twitter, you might not receive real-time notifications about new posts, messages, or updates until you manually open the app.
2. Email Apps: Without Background App Refresh, email apps won't fetch new emails in the background. As a result, you'll need to manually refresh the app to check for new messages. Apps that use push notifications, like email and messaging apps, will still work as expected, even with Background App Refresh disabled.
3. News Apps: When Background App Refresh is disabled, news apps won't update their content in the background. So, when you launch the app after a period of inactivity, you may see older news until you manually refresh the app.
4. Weather Apps: Without Background App Refresh, weather apps won't automatically update their data in the background. You'll need to open the app to get the latest weather information.
5. Navigation Apps: Disabling Background App Refresh for navigation apps may prevent them from providing real-time updates and turn-by-turn directions when the app is not actively in use.

Overall, disabling Background App Refresh can help conserve battery and data usage, but it may result in reduced real-time updates for certain apps. Users can choose to disable Background App Refresh for all apps or selectively enable it for specific apps they want to keep up-to-date in the background.

To disable Background App Refresh for all apps, go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and toggle the switch to Off. You can also disable Background App Refresh for individual apps by going to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and tapping the name of the app you want to change.

iOS background App Refresh is a feature , which is protect the battery from consuming so much. If you off the background app refresh, it will not going to charge unnecessarily battery.