This applies to my Discourse Android app experience – Nexus 6P on 7.1.1. I cannot say if the iOS version exhibits the same behavior.
Maybe this is a bug or maybe I’m being a nitpicking twit. Anyway…
Let’s say you’re reading a topic but now you have to do something else. So, you either hit the Android ‘Home’ button (circle) or the Android ‘Recents’ button (square) so you can move on to whatever other app you need to access.
Now, how will I get back to the Discourse topic I was reading?
If I hit the Recents button, I can scroll to the Discourse window and I’m back to exactly where I left the topic I was reading.
If I hit the Discourse app icon (by habit or convenience), I’m taken to the Discourse app ‘home screen’ (list of available forums), not to the topic I was reading. Now I have to try to recall what topic I was reading and also where I was in the topic.
I also noticed that once Discourse is opened via the app icon, any topic windows previously stored in the Recents list will be removed.