General Android Memory Question

[David Rosen]

So here's something I've been thinking about lately.

I've been an Android user since the G1. Never even considered going iOS, although I got a first gen iPad as a gift back in the day.

I remember all the talk of iOS can't do multitasking but Android can. The thing is though, and I have no idea if recent versions of iOS have become bloated to the point where this doesn't happen anymore, but I remember on the iPad (1st gen remember) jumping back & forth between apps and they'd be left off exactly where I left them. I even remember opening a game I hadn't played in months, and it would be exactly paused exactly where I left it.

Android still doesn't do this. Sometimes it does for a few minutes. Sometimes a few seconds. But I can guarantee that in the time I took to write this, my game of Nibblers has been reset and when I go to open it it will open to the Rovio logo loading screen.

Again, now that iOS has "real" multitasking, maybe it too clears apps/games out of memory within seconds or minutes. I don't know... But I guess the question is, what's it gonna take for Android to be able to do this? 8gb RAM? 16gb? It's gotta be a RAM thing or the way RAM is being used, right?

In Windows on a desktop, nothing ever restarts unless it crashes. That's multitasking. Aside from not being able to play audio or get GPS in the background, iOS used to do that on my 1st gen iPad...I'm pretty sure it doesn't anymore from what I've read... But neither does Android. I'm just curious if and when that will be a reality.

 

[thejesse]

So here's something I've been thinking about lately.

I've been an Android user since the G1. Never even considered going iOS, although I got a first gen iPad as a gift back in the day.

I remember all the talk of iOS can't do multitasking but Android can. The thing is though, and I have no idea if recent versions of iOS have become bloated to the point where this doesn't happen anymore, but I remember on the iPad (1st gen remember) jumping back & forth between apps and they'd be left off exactly where I left them. I even remember opening a game I hadn't played in months, and it would be exactly paused exactly where I left it.

Android still doesn't do this. Sometimes it does for a few minutes. Sometimes a few seconds. But I can guarantee that in the time I took to write this, my game of Nibblers has been reset and when I go to open it it will open to the Rovio logo loading screen.

Again, now that iOS has "real" multitasking, maybe it too clears apps/games out of memory within seconds or minutes. I don't know... But I guess the question is, what's it gonna take for Android to be able to do this? 8gb RAM? 16gb? It's gotta be a RAM thing or the way RAM is being used, right?

In Windows on a desktop, nothing ever restarts unless it crashes. That's multitasking. Aside from not being able to play audio or get GPS in the background, iOS used to do that on my 1st gen iPad...I'm pretty sure it doesn't anymore from what I've read... But neither does Android. I'm just curious if and when that will be a reality.

I believe what you are referring to in iOS is a saved state. Android has this to some degree of you open an app from the overview button. Although it is developer dependent.
The problem with multitasking is that your app only runs in the background until the system decides it needs to reclaim memory and kills that task. How soon tasks are killed varies by OEM so there is no unified Android experience when it comes to Android.

 

[David Rosen]

So saved state... Why aren't they working on something like that for Android? Or are they? I guess the point is I (and really no one should) don't care if it's REALLY still running & multitasking in the background... But "saved state" sure makes it seem like it is.

Even coming back to this thread on Tapatalk required me to go open the app, load the notifications, click on this thread... It should have just been sitting on this thread.