In i phones you go to settings > general > background app refresh and turn it off (Saves data and battery)

How do you do this in other models of phone, particularly HTC and Samsung?

See http://www.howtogeek.com/202297/how-...es-in-android/

background app refresh, not background app updates

goto the usage data screen in settings.

open the menu on that screen.

tick the restrict background data box. Note this only works on mobile data mode not wifi, on wifi you cant prevent after android 4.x. in 2.x (gingerbread) it works for wifi and mobile data.

Android apps usually have it as an option in their settings. For example the BBC news app has several settings regarding app refreshing (for updating news stories, push notifications etc) and notifications.