Background & battery
Phones put apps to sleep to save battery. On Android a sleeping app's network is cut, and messages then wait until the next time you open it. APRS Connect can keep receiving and beaconing with the screen off; this page explains the one switch that controls it, the Android settings that affect it, what an iPhone does differently, and what it costs.
One switch
On the Radio screen on the tab bar, the Run in the background row opens the background screen. It has a single switch, Keep running in the background, and it is on by default.
On Android, on means: whatever is already running carries on when the app leaves the screen. If an APRS-IS or TNC link is up, it stays up; if beaconing is on, your beacons keep going out. The switch never starts anything by itself, so a fresh install with nothing switched on posts no notification and transmits nothing.
Off means the app receives only while it is open, and leaving the app stops your beacons too, so your station drops off the map until you come back.
On an iPhone
On an iPhone the same switch covers less:
- Beaconing carries on with the app in the background, and iOS shows its location indicator while it does. This needs location access set to Always: iOS asks with its own dialog, and Settings → APRS Connect → Location can change it later.
- Receiving pauses until you return to the app. A Bluetooth LE radio can wake the app when it has data for it.
- A short check for messages. While the switch is on and an APRS-IS channel is switched on, iOS lets the app connect to APRS-IS briefly from time to time, no more often than every 15 minutes and at moments iOS chooses. A message addressed to you that arrives during one of those checks shows as a notification. What this catches is senders' retries, so a message sent once while the phone slept can still be missed.
Messages to you still reach you while the app is paused: with Missed messages on, which it is by default, you get a notification for one the app did not hear, and it is added to its conversation when you come back. The QRX mailbox also holds messages you miss while the app is not receiving, until you collect them.
The persistent notification, battery optimization and the costs listed below apply to Android.
On Windows
The Windows app has no switch for this. It is always on: closing the window leaves the app in the system tray, still receiving and beaconing, until you choose Quit from the tray icon. Start with Windows, on the same screen, opens the app in the tray when you sign in to Windows.
The persistent notification
While the app is running in the background, Android shows one persistent notification, naming whichever of receiving and beaconing are actually running. If the notification is gone, the app is not receiving. And if the link could not be held open the last time the app went to the background, the background screen says so, in words, with the reason. The switch records what you asked for; the screen reports what happened.
Battery optimization
Even with the switch on, Android's deep sleep can cut the app's network. The background screen has a Battery optimization section that reads the real state from the system and reports it plainly:
- Exempt: Android will not cut this app's network in deep sleep. Nothing more to do.
- Not exempt: in deep sleep Android can still cut the app's network, pausing reception even with the switch above on. The ALLOW UNRESTRICTED BATTERY USE button takes you straight to the system prompt to fix it.
Some phones freeze apps on their own on top of Android, which Samsung calls "sleeping apps". If reception keeps pausing with everything above switched on, exclude APRS Connect there too.
What it costs
On Android, the screen states the costs rather than hiding them, and they are worth knowing:
- Battery. Holding the link open keeps the CPU lightly awake, so the battery drains faster than with the app simply closed. How much depends on how busy the feed is.
- Swiping the app away does not stop it. Background running carries on with the screen off, with the app behind others, and after it is swiped out of the recents list. To stop it, turn the switch off. The notification is the truth: while it shows, the app is receiving; when it is gone, it is not.
When reception was interrupted anyway
Two more pieces keep the background story honest:
- A connection that claims to be up but has gone silent is detected and restarted automatically, so a dead socket is not allowed to sit there reporting "connected".
- Any stretch where the app was not receiving is marked in the packet log: a RECEPTION PAUSED row saying how long reception was down and why. You will never mistake the app being asleep for the band being quiet.
Beaconing with the screen off
Beaconing continues in the background under the same switch, so your smart-beaconed position keeps updating with the phone in a pocket. One limit, stated on the beaconing screen itself: a station last seen moving whose GPS has gone stale stops beaconing rather than re-sending a place it has left.
On an iPhone this needs location access set to Always. With While Using the App, iOS stops giving the app its position once the phone is locked, so the beacon stops too. The Radio screen says so under Beaconing, with a button that opens the app's page in Settings.
Recommended setup
For messaging and beaconing away from the phone: leave Keep running in the background on, and allow unrestricted battery use when the screen offers it. If you miss messages anyway, the QRX missed-messages service can hold them for you while you are off the air.
Last updated 30 September 2026