Does the GNex (ICS) support true multitasking?

[blahblahyoutoo]

Was reading up on the competition, Windows 8, etc. and an article stated that it had "true" multitasking, leaving only iOS to be using pseudo multitasking.

So I take it that it means that ICS has true multitasking as well but I'm not so sure about this.
Whenever I switch between 3+ apps, it always has to reload, as if it had just been launched.
When I go back to the browser, a page that had previously fully loaded has to full refresh and redownload and render the content.

This was not the case with my old Blackberry which I know had true multitasking.
Do I have to enable a setting?

 

[Tim K]

it depends a lot on the individual apps and how they are coded, as well as what you have running. Android will shut down apps as it sees fit to keep things running smooth, and part of how it determines what is "needed" is how the app is set up to behave as written by the developer. Both Chrome and stock browsers will sit idling in the background without refreshing for me. However, if I don't use them for 2 hours, then play a bunch of games, stream videos, make phone calls, run GPS, etc., it is possible that Android will shut the browsers down to free up memory and let other active apps run better. Then, when I come back to the browser, it remembers the page I was on, but has to reload the content.

A properly coded app will sit in the background doing nothing until you either come back, or Android shuts it down for something higher priority. If you are in an app, and go to check the weather, and come back only to have the app reload.... then the app is probably poorly written. I think Where's My Water used to do that.... and I've seen it a lot in other games.

 

[snapcase]

Basically... no. Apps will have to reload if the OS needed the memory elsewhere. Sure the way the app handles being a background process also makes a difference.

Old versions of Android had true multitasking, but there were performance issues (and is why task killers first became popular).

 

[blahblahyoutoo]

gotcha, so basically that article is wrong then. ICS isn't true multitasking either.
i recall seeing other complaints about the htc one x and how it (poorly) handled mt.

 

[blahblahyoutoo]

so knowing this, the SGS3 with 2GB ram will have a better "multitasking" experience than the GN?

 

[dhworph]

I think I would call this "true multi-tasking" --- multiple apps running in current memory simultaneously --- and going back and forth causes no change in the app. How can windows run multiple apps beyond memory capacity? Or is there some other requirement? Does iOS let apps sit in the background like Android without having to reload?

 

[callmeox]

Yes, it is a multitasking OS. Don't confuse specific app behaviors and memory management with multitasking.

 

[MachDelta]

This all depends on how you choose to define "multitasking". Android won't let more than one app run at the same time, but it does allow multiple services to run in the background. So if an app needs to do something behind the curtain, it can just run a service even if the originating app gets suspended. iOS, on the other hand, forces apps to use the OS for background functions (notifications) and as such are limited in what they can do. "True" multitasking on a phone is more of a bragging point than a useful feature for now -the hardware is just too limiting to approach the classical meaning of multitasking, with multiple windows.