Any third-party Windows Phone 8 app may work in the background with this simple trick

Remember how annoying the lack of multitasking in Windows Phone once was? Yeah, all those early adopters who chose the LG Quantum or HTC Trophy instead of an Android device or an iPhone can surely recall. Thankfully, the Mango update kind of made switching back and forth between applications a bit easier with the app switcher, but it still wasn't as elegant or versatile of a solution as the multitasking in iOS or Android.

Now that Windows Phone 8 is here, has multitasking been improved? You bet! Certain apps that need to work in the background are allowed to do so – that includes VoIP applications or apps that track the user's location, not just the music player, as the case was back in the days. Moreover, an app that is already running will not restart when the user re-opens it from the list of apps or by tapping on its live tile. However, there's a catch.

The behavior we just described is valid only for stock applications, such as the Pictures Hub, the email client, and the likes. When you tap their live tile, they spring back into action right where you left off, instead of starting from scratch. Yet developers of third-party apps can teach their apps to do the same trick, as it has been revealed. They simply need to mark their applications as "GPS apps", and the system will allow them to run in the background. Whether apps that use this workaround will be allowed in the Marketplace is a whole different story, but it is good to know that a way to fool the system is at developers' disposal.