Is there a way to make "closed" apps actually close by default?

[AC Question]

I'm new to the android phones but I hate having apps running in the background in tabs. When I close an app I want it to close, not just hide. Is there a way to make them close by default instead of just hiding the tab and displaying the home screen.

 

[Almeuit]

You can close them from your recent apps. It is normal for Android to keep things in RAM -- I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Rukbat]

An app in the recent apps list isn't necessarily running, it's not even necessarily in RAM. It's just an app you recently had running.

An app sitting in RAM, but not running, is the same as random data sitting in RAM - it doesn't use any resources. (Something has to be in every single RAM address - there's no such thing as "nothing" in RAM or RAM address space.)

Android has a very good memory manger - let it do its thing, and you'll usually find that's the best battery use, unless you have apps opening and running themselves that shouldn't be. (The email app should run when an email comes in, the text app should run when a text comes in, the alarm app should run if you have an alarm set and it's time for it to go off, etc.) If you want to stop apps from running by themselves (NOT phone, messaging, email, alarms, etc.), use Greenify.

 

[Crashdamage]

Don't worry about it. As has been said, most stuff listed is not actually running.

Rukbat gave a good quick explanation. For more information on how Android handles multitasking, processes, RAM, etc automatically for you read this post by one of the authors of Android:

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html?m=1

Android since v1.0. Linux since 2001.