Home Button - Needs to show open apps

[polaraman]

I have yet to find an app that does this reliably. I had an app called Taskswitcher that seemed to work awhile back but i can't get it to work anymore. When i press my home button, i want to see a listing of every app i have open so i can swap back and forth.

Does anyone have this set up? What do you use?

 

[dllrogers55]

I use Nova Launcher and a simple gesture to show all apps open. Many gestures to choose from in Nova settings to accomplish this. Also I feel it's less wear and tear on the home button.

 

[polaraman]

i'm glad you brought that up. I'm using the NEXT launcher at the moment. I never thought about tying it to a gesture. Good idea though. What widget or shortcut do you use to show all apps open?

 

[dpham00]

Long pressing the home button should take you to open apps

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3

 

[floridarick]

I have yet to find an app that does this reliably. I had an app called Taskswitcher that seemed to work awhile back but i can't get it to work anymore. When i press my home button, i want to see a listing of every app i have open so i can swap back and forth.

Does anyone have this set up? What do you use?

Hold down your your home button for 3-4 seconds.......
It is all ready built into the stock software!!

 

[dllrogers55]

I use the two finger swipe down gesture. I use it several times daily and don't want to wear out my home button.

 

[Ivan_034]

I do not understand why you need apps that you already have in stock rom

 

[dpham00]

I use the two finger swipe down gesture. I use it several times daily and don't want to wear out my home button.

You can also use pie control

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3

 

[polaraman]

What's the pie control? I think that may do exactly what i want...

 

[dpham00]

What's the pie control? I think that may do exactly what i want...

It is an app, you can get it from the play store. I have the paid version but there is a free version as well

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3

 

[anon8380037]

I still don't get why the Home button brings up both still open apps and recently opened apps.
And why can I only kill the stock browser by going into Active apps with the home button, or hitting the back button a hundred times.
I don't want to use multi window, I want to leave the browser where it is and come back.
Also most apps are designed to close when you leave them, but you can leave some open while you're entering information and return to them.
It's a mess. I was always going to raise this.
Why can't we leave an app (Window) open and check another app. (apart from a few available in multi window which reduces them by half)

Please help a noobie?

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk Pro

 

[jpr]

I'm a bit confused by the OP's question. If you want to see recent apps the function is already there long pressing the home button. If you want to see active apps you just press the task manager icon from there, although from the OP'S description it sounds like what they really want is recent apps not open apps.

Thanks for the pie control suggestion dpham. I'm trying it out now and looks like it will be handy. Just have to see if it interferes with any of my other apps or affects battery much.

Madd, generally if you do not exit or back out completely from an app it will remain open in the background until other apps or services need the resources. Some apps are very memory intensive so as soon as you start using another app it will close. Others are written by their devs to close whenever they are not the active app being used. The browser not having an exit button bugs me since I don't want to hit the back button endlessly to close it and prefer not to force close apps that are not causing problems. Some other browsers give you the option of having an exit key.

 

[anon8380037]

I'm a bit confused by the OP's question. If you want to see recent apps the function is already there long pressing the home button. If you want to see active apps you just press the task manager icon from there, although from the OP'S description it sounds like what they really want is recent apps not open apps.

Thanks for the pie control suggestion dpham. I'm trying it out now and looks like it will be handy. Just have to see if it interferes with any of my other apps or affects battery much.

Madd, generally if you do not exit or back out completely from an app it will remain open in the background until other apps or services need the resources. Some apps are very memory intensive so as soon as you start using another app it will close. Others are written by their devs to close whenever they are not the active app being used. The browser not having an exit button bugs me since I don't want to hit the back button endlessly to close it and prefer not to force close apps that are not causing problems. Some other browsers give you the option of having an exit key.

OK - I thought an app closes when you exit, but the most used ones are kept in standby ram.
We really should be able to move from entering info on an app to any other app, not just those in the recent apps. A little more windows versatility is needed. I just looked at ram usage @ 1.61 gb, then cleared all recent apps (8-10) and it dropped to 1.43. Maybe that's about right.
I tried Dolphin and Google, but I'm use to the stock browser despite no reflow. They could have updated that after more than 4 years!

 

[dpham00]

OK - I thought an app closes when you exit, but the most used ones are kept in standby ram.
We really should be able to move from entering info on an app to any other app, not just those in the recent apps. A little more windows versatility is needed. I just looked at ram usage @ 1.61 gb, then cleared all recent apps (8-10) and it dropped to 1.43. Maybe that's about right.
I tried Dolphin and Google, but I'm use to the stock browser despite no reflow. They could have updated that after more than 4 years!

I have 2.06gb used now. No need to clear ram, it just will keep the app cached for next time you use it. When it is near full, it would close apps as necessary. Bear in mind that I have a lot of apps running in the background.

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3

 

[anon8380037]

I have 2.06gb used now. No need to clear ram, it just will keep the app cached for next time you use it. When it is near full, it would close apps as necessary. Bear in mind that I have a lot of apps running in the background.

dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3

I have understood ram usage from old threads. Again that's not what I was querying / complaining about Android, but thanks.