On October 8, some netizens broke the news that WeChat repeatedly read user photo albums in the background.Questioned whether WeChat repeatedly reads the user’s photo album in the background without actively activating the App, does it involve infringement of user privacy? WeChat responded that the iOS system provides App developers with the standard ability to notify the album update. When the album content is updated, the App will be notified, reminding the App to make preparations in advance, and the preparation behavior of the App will be recorded as reading the system album.
After the user authorizes the premise that WeChat can read the “system album permissions”, in order to facilitate users to quickly post pictures when they press “+” in WeChat chat, WeChat uses this system capability to make the user experience of sending pictures faster and smoother.
WeChat emphasized that the above actions are only performed locally on the mobile phone. “In the latest version, we will cancel the use of the system’s capabilities and optimize the function of quick image posting.”
According to a netizen who initially broke the news, the official WeChat team has contacted him and has already connected with the person in charge of the album/photo-related technology.
Regarding WeChat’s image selector,WeChat officials have promised to make improvements immediately. No preprocessing will be done in the background anymore, but a sub-thread method will be used instead to retrieve the album at the moment the button is clicked. After the next version arrives, WeChat will not consume too much battery life and memory in the background to do this, so as to reduce the burden on everyone’s iPhone.
To put it simply, WeChat uses the “album update notification standard capability” just to send a photo. There is a suspicion of “killing a chicken with a sledgehammer”, which has a significant impact on memory and battery life.
In addition, it is recommended that you turn off the “Background App Refresh” function of the iPhone, which allows the APP to still initiate activities after exiting the background. After closing, it will not affect the message push of the App at all, because the push service of iOS is independent.
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