Help Multitasking - IM (GTalk)

[naviwilliams]

I'm still trying to grasp the whole issue with multitasking. But, in particular for GTalk users...

When you log into GTalk, does it seem to stay logged in, or once you start using other apps like email, internet, etc. disconnect?

Thanks

 

[El Presidente]

Yep, stays logged in and active in the background. You can be checking email, on the internet, streaming or whatever and you'll still receive IM notifications.

 

[naviwilliams]

Thanks, that's what I thought...

I guess this makes matters worst. I don't understand so many posts online (Google and other forums) about people not liking 'multitasking'. The apps are in essence running in the background, no? So, is that not multitasking, or am I missing something?

 

[El Presidente]

I think folk are having issues with the way that it handles tasks via the recent apps menu, not stuff that's running in the background if see what I mean?

 

[r546]

Thanks, that's what I thought...

I guess this makes matters worst. I don't understand so many posts online (Google and other forums) about people not liking 'multitasking'. The apps are in essence running in the background, no? So, is that not multitasking, or am I missing something?

The issue is this. On Android, apps are supposed to be able to continue executing in the background, even after navigating away from them, until memory runs low and the system determines they need to be killed. Apps take advantage of this and this is true multitasking. On the One X it seems apps get killed much earlier, sometimes immediately after navigating away from them. This prevents the app from doing what it might have wanted to in the background. The state of the app should be saved and restored later, but this doesn't always save everything about what you were doing (for example, the zoom level on a webpage). You might not be seeing this issue with GTalk because it's a pretty light app. Try it with something like the web browser or YouTube or a game. You should see that switching between a couple apps loses your spot in apps like those, whereas it doesn't on other Android devices.