not really, no. this seems like an early dev/bad documentation issue more than an inherent limitation. I ran into this when I was trying to build my own GPS tracker for running: the OS will force your app out of memory if you run it as a normal app, you have to register the app as a service in order for the OS to leave it running in memory when you're not actively using it. Even then, some OSes will also make you specifically give the app permission to remain running when the phone is locked or another app is on-screen. tldr - what they want to do is doable in a safe way, they just haven't done it.