Zombie app still sending notifications

Question

Created 5d

Replies 2

Boosts 0

Participants 2

I haven't touched the code for my app (AirCompare) for months but I'm seeing a new and surprising behavior with it in iOS 26.5.2. (It may have started before this without me noticing.)

My app does some fetching of web data in the background and, when conditions are warranted, sends a local notification to get the user's attention. The weird thing is that now, even after quitting the app - by swiping it up to remove it from the carousel - I'm still getting notifications!

I've tried toggling the iPhone's power and the behavior remains.

This seems like potentially a very serious security issue, that an app can continue to run even after the user has killed it. I haven't tried un-installing the app.

How can I ensure my app is fully "off" after the user kills it?

Answer 1

Engineer OP

Apple

5d

If I were to take a shot in the dark here, I would guess your app either also has push notifications being sent to it - and that is what you are seeing, and/or being launched in the background despite swiping it up by a means that is immune to that, like region monitoring, which is then allowing your app to trigger the local notifications.

Answer 2

waynehend OP

5d

Hmmm... The only thing like that is location updates. The app does determine if the user has left or entered a geofence and will trigger a notification of that from the background. I'm not aware of any other source of incoming information. And as I noted, this is a new behavior. Swiping up used to kill it like a wooden stake in the heart.