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> no need to actually run it, and it can't do any damage without being run How sure about this are you? Some common apps like Hangout and Facebook misuse iOS

• jayvanguard 11y ago
  Up to iOS 7 at least, there was no way to run in the background without the app being launched at least once. I haven't worked with the latest two versions though.
• natch 11y ago
  iOS developer here. Pretty damn sure. All the ways I know of for running code in the background, and I've looked at this quite a bit, require at least one launch for them to be enabled.
• mikeash 11y ago
  Which features, exactly? The only one I'm aware of is marking the app as a VoIP app, which means the system will keep it alive and let it occasionally check in with the mothership. But Apple heavily scrutinized apps marked as such to make sure they actually need it. And even then, I don't think they run until the user starts them at least once. Even if the app could automatically run on download, it couldn't access any interesting information without being activated by the user and prompting to allow access to location, contacts, photos, etc.