Short answer: keep Background App Refresh on for apps that do useful work while you are not looking at them — messaging, email, and anything whose job continues with the screen off. Turn it off for everything else: news, shopping, video, games, utilities and most of what is on your phone. If you want the preloading but not the mobile-data cost, use the Wi-Fi position of the master switch rather than Off.
That is a decision rule rather than a list, which matters, because nobody's app collection is the same. What follows is the question that decides each app, the groups that usually answer it the same way, and the two things that override your choices afterwards.
The question that decides it for every app
Ask one thing: does this app do work for me while the screen is off? Three tests reduce that to a yes or no in a few seconds:
- Would I want it to have acted already by the time I open it? A message thread, a mailbox, a delivery status: yes. A shop front, a news feed, a game: you will read it when you read it, and a one-second load costs you nothing.
- Do I care about its notification? This is a trap worth naming. Notifications do not need Background App Refresh — alerts are delivered by the push service to the system regardless. So "it notifies me" is not a reason to keep it on. What it changes is whether the content behind the alert is already loaded. See Does Turning Off Background App Refresh Stop Notifications?.
- Is the app doing a job that never was Background App Refresh? Screen-off navigation, audio playback, workout recording and internet calls run through separate background support and are unaffected either way. If that is the app's whole purpose, this switch is not the setting you are looking for.
Keep it on for these
| Group | Why it earns its place |
|---|---|
| Messaging and chat | The thread is loaded when you tap the alert instead of a moment later. This is the single most noticeable difference in daily use. |
| Mail is waiting rather than downloading when you open the mailbox, which matters on weak cellular. | |
| Calendar and shared lists | Invitations and shared edits show up without you opening the app to pull them. |
| Smart home, doorbells, alarms | Status is current when you open the app, which matters when you are checking whether the door is locked. |
| Delivery and ride tracking | Status is pre-fetched, so opening the app shows the current position rather than waiting for it. |
| Podcasts and offline media | Automatic downloads of the next episode are a genuine Background App Refresh feature, not a side effect. |
| Anything whose alerts you have personally seen go late | A practical observation beats a category rule. If one app's alerts lag with the switch off, keep that one on. |
Turn it off for these
| Group | What you give up |
|---|---|
| News and reading apps | The front page loads when opened instead of being ready. Barely perceptible. |
| Shopping and marketplaces | Search results and carts fetch on open. You will not notice. |
| Social feeds and video | The feed loads on open. If the app also carries messages, see the note below. |
| Games | They fetch when launched anyway, and offer nothing while closed. |
| Utilities: scanners, rulers, flashlights, editors | No meaningful background work to do. |
| Weather and travel | The forecast is a second old when you open it. That is fine. |
| Banking and finance | Balances are pulled when you open the app, which is when you want them. |
One qualification: you cannot split a single app. A social app that also delivers messages is one switch. Decide by the half you care about — if missing a message prompt would annoy you, keep it on, and accept that its feed is also refreshing. Turning it off is the right call only if you genuinely never rely on that app for timely contact.
The Wi-Fi only shortcut
If your objection to Background App Refresh is data usage rather than battery, the middle position of the master switch answers it directly. Wi-Fi lets apps refresh in the background on Wi-Fi networks and stops them on cellular. In practice:
- Preloading still works at home, at the office, and on any trusted network.
- Out of the house, apps fetch when you open them, exactly as they would with the switch off.
- Your mobile data stops paying for content you had not asked for yet.
For anyone on a limited data plan, this is a better default than Off, because it keeps the feature where the cost is zero. The three positions and what each does are covered in What Is Background App Refresh?.
Two things that override your choices
Your per-app decisions are not the last word, and knowing this prevents a confusing afternoon:
- The master switch set to Off overrides the whole list at once. It does not delete the per-app switches — set it back to Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi & Cellular and your choices are still there, which is why the two controls are safe to experiment with.
- Low Power Mode pauses background refresh while it is active. The switches keep their positions, but apps stop refreshing until it turns off or the phone charges. So if you turn something off and see no difference at all, check whether Low Power Mode was already doing it for you. See Low Power Mode: What It Actually Does.
Setting it up in two minutes
Do not audit forty switches one by one. Work from evidence instead:
- Open
Settings → Batteryand look at the last 10 days by app. That tells you which apps are actually doing background work on your phone, which is a better starting list than the full Settings list. - Open
Settings → General → Background App Refreshand set the master switch to Wi-Fi if data is your concern, or leave it on Wi-Fi & Cellular. - Turn apps off in the order the battery list suggests, except the messaging, email and screen-off-job apps above. Stop when the remaining list is the short one you would defend.
- Recheck in about a week. If an app turns out to have needed it — its alerts lag, its content is stale on open — turn that one back on. Nothing here is destructive, and nothing is permanent.
If you would rather start from the other direction and see what a given app loses, What Happens When You Turn Off Background App Refresh? covers the consequences by app type, and the battery-first version of the same argument is in Background App Refresh: What to Keep On, What to Turn Off and Background App Battery Use.