For it seems like as long as there has been an iPhone, the debate has been raging about whether it saves or prolongs battery life on the devices by force-shutting down background apps or not.  Now, according to the Washington Post, Apple has finally taken a stand in the controversy.

In an e-mail response to a iPhone user, identified only as “Caleb”, Apple senior vice-president Craig Federighi said that multitasking apps do not have an affect on the iPhone’s battery life when they are not being used.  A large number of iPhone users shut down an app after using it, in the belief they are saving battery power by doing so.  In fact, there are reports that indicate the process may do just the opposite, and reduce battery life instead.

Most of the apps running behind your lock screen are suspended and stop using system resources after you finish using them, until you return to the app and start using it again and it reawakens from its suspended state.  By doing a forced shut down and restart each time you use the app, the operating system has to reload the app and all its peripherals, causing more stress to the phone and its battery, and may contribute to less total battery use time.

The article suggest one way to preserve battery time is to disable the “Background App Refresh” option in the phone’s settings menu.  But still, the phone has a smart refresh and usually updates when your phone is being charged or is inactive anyway, so there is not a great deal of benefit.

Turning the phone’s Location Services feature off is another good way to extend the life of the phone’s battery as well.

You can see which apps are draining your battery the most by viewing the “Battery Usage” section, also located in the settings menu.  This feature shows which apps are the biggest battery users on your device.