I have an iPhone 5C with iOS 10, and I have several apps that are supposed to do things in the background - specifically I'm thinking of Google Photos, IFTTT, and Android Wear, although there are might be more that I haven't noticed yet - like FB Messenger, Allo, Duo, Skype, Life360, Hiya, etc...
For example, Google Photos is supposed to auto-backup my camera photos, IFTTT is supposed to perform actions on all newly created reminders and screenshots, and Android Wear is supposed to connect to my LG watch.
On my old Android phone, they just did their thing whether the app was running or not. On iPhone, apparently you have to open the apps, and just leave them running in the background for them to behave.
However, for each of the three I've listed, they seem to only work as expected for a limited time (no idea how much time), before they just stop working. For example, I'll add a reminder, take a photo, or take a screenshot, and the actions don't happen, even though IFTTT and Google Photos show that they are running if I flip through the open apps.
I select the IFTTT or Google Photos app the following day from the open apps list, and immediately the actions kick off. Same for my watch - it'll work for half a day or so, then suddenly refuses to connect until I switch to the Android Wear app on the phone, then it immediately connects.
Background App Refresh is enabled on all of these apps.
This question seems to indicate that these apps should work. If they weren't popular apps, I'd blame the apps themselves, but I doubt Google and IFTTT would leave this big a hole in their products.
Is there another setting I need to look at? Is there maybe some CPU or memory limitation that is blocking these apps that will be resolved with a newer more powerful phone?