Moto X: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

[Golfdriver97]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

With respect, yes it does.

Since we're in the Moto X forums, that is. All Android 4+ devices with a dedicated app switch button will kill the app and restart its background process.

And on my Moto X, when I open up Play Music and play a song, swipe away the app in the recents app screen, the music is still playing. Therefore, not completely killed.

 

[JoeNM84]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

Google Android devs have repeatedly shown this to be a confirmation bias. Task killers only benefit is where you have an app that is malfunctioning and taking too much resources, by which you should uninstall that app. Global kills are a shotgun approach to a sniper problem.

Do you have a source other than yourself? I mean like an article or FAQ somewhere that Google or a ROM developer said it's a bad idea to swipe away your recent apps? Not saying I don't believe you, but I'd be interested in reading what they have said about it.

 

[Paisley]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

Google Android devs have repeatedly shown this to be a confirmation bias. Task killers only benefit is where you have an app that is malfunctioning and taking too much resources, by which you should uninstall that app. Global kills are a shotgun approach to a sniper problem.

Task killer kills other things than just closing your recent apps, no? Pretty sure it's not just a 'close recent apps' app.

 

[Paisley]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

I just downloaded an app killer, app killer pro. It only deleted my start up things that hang out in the background, like 12 of them, it did not delete my recept apps. Maybe we are talking about different things? But then again, i opened it again and the things it said it killed they're asking me do i want to kill them. lol. so i am confused.

 

[snoking]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

One of the problems with task killers is endless loops. You kill it and the task starts automagically again, kill, start,, kill start........ Chris

Sent from my A200 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Paisley]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

One of the problems with task killers is endless loops. You kill it and the task starts automagically again, kill, start,, kill start........ Chris

Sent from my A200 using AC Forums mobile app

ah, yeah, makes sense. That i def. don't need, just somthing to kill the apps i've opened and just didn't close because i'd moved on to something else.

 

[Paisley]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

Actually, yes it does. On Android 4+, "clearing" an app from what you call the recents screen, isn't the recents screen - it's the switch app screen and yes it does definitely kill the app.

And wouldn’t a person who used an app often know whether they wanted to close it or not? What are they saving us from? Lol. It's just like closing excel when you're done and then re-opening it. Yeah, it takes time to open it, but I know that, I closed it. And excel on a computer takes a fair amount of seconds to open, 2-6 maybe. But to open an app from Android takes fractions of a second after you’ve closed it vs. leaving it open. I just don’t want them on my open apps.

 

[ShoelerDroid]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

And on my Moto X, when I open up Play Music and play a song, swipe away the app in the recents app screen, the music is still playing. Therefore, not completely killed.

I just did the same exact thing on mine (Developers Edition, 4.4) and it killed Play Music completely. It did the same on my Nexus 4 running 4.4 and back when it was on 4.3 too.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

Good question is why would Google put it in the quick start guide?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[ShoelerDroid]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

Do you have a source other than yourself? I mean like an article or FAQ somewhere that Google or a ROM developer said it's a bad idea to swipe away your recent apps? Not saying I don't believe you, but I'd be interested in reading what they have said about it.

Here's a LifeHacker article on it:

Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn't Use Them

Not sure if this guy is a good source but he speaks to the issue:

HTG Explains: Why You Shouldn’t Use a Task Killer On Android

DroidLife (with referenced from CM devs):

http://www.droid-life.com/2011/06/02/revisiting-android-task-killers-and-why-you-dont-need-one/

 

[ShoelerDroid]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

Good question is why would Google put it in the quick start guide?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using AC Forums mobile app

Here's a very good article I found on what happens inside when you swipe an app away:

What Exactly Happens When You Swipe An Android App From the Recent Apps List?

So - to summarize, it kills the foreground app task, its background task, and allows it to re-launch if it decides it wants to. This allows things like Gmail to keep getting mail. It is analogous to a "kill" vs a "kill -9" on Linux. One's a polite request, the other's a force stop. And on Android the force stop has the added benefit of not allowing the app to re-launch unless explicitly (you tap it) requested.

 

[ShoelerDroid]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

And wouldn’t a person who used an app often know whether they wanted to close it or not? What are they saving us from? Lol. It's just like closing excel when you're done and then re-opening it. Yeah, it takes time to open it, but I know that, I closed it. And excel on a computer takes a fair amount of seconds to open, 2-6 maybe. But to open an app from Android takes fractions of a second after you’ve closed it vs. leaving it open. I just don’t want them on my open apps.

But you don't know what's best for your computer is the thing - hence the confirmation bias. The built-in task killer in Android knows when there's memory pressure, and you want your RAM to actually be 100% FULL - not mostly empty! Then you've cached data (no need to hit flash) and the app (no need to startup with CPU) and it's just using RAM space which takes a minuscule amount amount of battery if any.

 

[Paisley]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

But you don't know what's best for your computer is the thing - hence the confirmation bias. The built-in task killer in Android knows when there's memory pressure, and you want your RAM to actually be 100% FULL - not mostly empty! Then you've cached data (no need to hit flash) and the app (no need to startup with CPU) and it's just using RAM space which takes a minuscule amount amount of battery if any.

no, not a task killer. Just like when i open a to-do list on my phone, G-tasks lets, say, or if I open a Team Lava game. Then I go to make a phone call. That recent app I just opened, instead of swiping it closed I left it open. I could have closed it, (swiped it away) but i just moved on. So then i end up with like 15 recent apps.

I don't want a task killer, i want something so i can have a clear recent apps screen instead of swiping away 15 apps by hand.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

no, not a task killer. Just like when i open a to-do list on my phone, G-tasks lets, say, or if I open a Team Lava game. Then I go to make a phone call. That recent app I just opened, instead of swiping it closed I left it open. I could have closed it, (swiped it away) but i just moved on. So then i end up with like 15 recent apps.

I don't want a task killer, i want something so i can have a clear recent apps screen instead of swiping away 15 apps by hand.

But why? Why are you concerned with that? It's not killing your battery leaving those there. I NEVER swipe apps away.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[JoeNM84]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

Good reads. Even though they still don't exactly know everything that happens when you swipe away an app from recent apps. It closes it, but doesn't force stop it like a task killer would. So 2 different things correct? I mean if I have to sift through 12 different apps I've used recently then I might as well just look up the app in my app drawer. So I keep it to the ones I'm currently using, when I'm done with them or not doing anything I clear it out by hand so when I do start using my phone I don't have old recent apps sitting there in my way of going back and forth between apps for my current task. I still see no harm in swiping away all my recent apps, and what the harm of having a button that does it for me would do since it is not force stopping all those apps like a task killer.
And I personally don't use a task killer app. I force stop bad apps myself and uninstall anything that has problems often that require a force stop.

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But why? Why are you concerned with that? It's not killing your battery leaving those there. I NEVER swipe apps away.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Guess that means there is no purpose to recent apps, should just use the app drawer to find your apps since eventually most of them will be in your recent apps anyways.

 

[Paisley]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

But why? Why are you concerned with that? It's not killing your battery leaving those there. I NEVER swipe apps away.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Because I actually *use* my recent apps screen, and when there’s 20 windows open it’s inconvenient to me. Apps thing is supposed to be for multi tasking. Lol. Not very good, but it’s sorta the best I can do for now. It’s faster to regrab it from that screen than to go through my apps button and to scroll through my apps and go back to the app I want to open if i say, answer a phone call, or look up something while the person is on the phone, or go back to a game, or whatever. Then when i'm done i go to recent apps to grab the thing i want to go back to instead of scrolling through 6 pages of apps.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

Good reads. Even though they still don't exactly know everything that happens when you swipe away an app from recent apps. It closes it, but doesn't force stop it like a task killer would. So 2 different things correct? I mean if I have to sift through 12 different apps I've used recently then I might as well just look up the app in my app drawer. So I keep it to the ones I'm currently using, when I'm done with them or not doing anything I clear it out by hand so when I do start using my phone I don't have old recent apps sitting there in my way of going back and forth between apps for my current task. I still see no harm in swiping away all my recent apps, and what the harm of having a button that does it for me would do since it is not force stopping all those apps like a task killer.
And I personally don't use a task killer app. I force stop bad apps myself and uninstall anything that has problems often that require a force stop.

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Guess that means there is no purpose to recent apps, should just use the app drawer to find your apps since eventually most of them will be in your recent apps anyways.

In your example I'm confused as to how older apps get in the way. Wouldn't the most recently used apps always be the bottom of the list, which would make them easiest to access? So say you need to use two apps. You own them. They are now your two most recent apps. How is anything in the way?

If it's just "that's what I like to do" then cool. But it's not a necessity so I'm not sure I'd ever expect a button for this from Google.


And yes, most of the time I go to my app drawer just because I know where the app is already. It doesn't make recent apps useless. I still use it, just not as much as the drawer.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

Because I actually *use* my recent apps screen, and when there?s 20 windows open it?s inconvenient to me. Apps thing is supposed to be for multi tasking. Lol. Not very good, but it?s sorta the best I can do for now. It?s faster to regrab it from that screen than to go through my apps button and to scroll through my apps and go back to the app I want to open if i say, answer a phone call, or look up something while the person is on the phone, or go back to a game, or whatever. Then when i'm done i go to recent apps to grab the thing i want to go back to instead of scrolling through 6 pages of apps.

If there's twenty windows open that means you use twenty apps. I get that they get in the way sometimes, but it sounds like it's doing exactly what it's designed to do. Not trying to argue really.

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[Paisley]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

If there's twenty windows open that means you use twenty apps. I get that they get in the way sometimes, but it sounds like it's doing exactly what it's designed to do. Not trying to argue really.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

For me it's like having 20 programs open at the bottom of your screen. or 20 tabs open on my firefox, even if i only opened one tab for one thing and won't be using it again, that's like 1/2 of my 20. When i just have 2 or 3 recent apps in my "recent apps" it's easier.

 

[JoeNM84]

Re: Any way to close all open/active apps at once? Maybe a 1 button toggle or something? ..

Wouldn't the most recently used apps always be the bottom of the list, which would make them easiest to access? So say you need to use two apps. You own them. They are now your two most recent apps. How is anything in the way?

True. I actually wish the most recent was at the top because that is where my eyes naturally look first and probably why it does on occasion make me have to look through them. Besides that though, I don't swipe apps away just to keep memory clear or save battery or something like that. Habit and don't like seeing apps I'm not using there, maybe a little OCD. My point is that this isn't detrimental to your phone or the apps since swiping them away/closed isn't the same as force stopping them, if it was then Google would probably warn us about it when doing so. A simple app you could download to enable the swipe all away button would be nice, so nobody HAS to use it, but has to seek it out.