Does Anyone Else Turn Off Apps Reqularly? Am I Missing Something?

[anon(677651)]

I close all app frequently when I feel the phone is laggy
on galaxy s3

 

[Aquila]

Unless an app is out of control you shouldn't have to manually do anything to it, and it's more efficient for Android to handle those actions dynamically in the background.

 

[Puzzlegal]

I go to the "recent apps" list regularly to return to an app, and to switch between apps. I find it quite handy. When I am there, I tend to swipe away anything I know I don't plan to use for a while. This keeps the list shorter for me to look at, and in at least one case, it avoids problems. I like to play "Settlers of Catan" on the phone, but that app is a little buggy, and sometimes if it is running in the background, the phone's sound doesn't work. (I can give a gorey description of the problem if anyone cares, but the most critical issue is that alarms don't make noise.) If I swipe it out of the list, the sound instantly starts to work again.

I was very happy to discover this -- before I realized that this app was causing problems, I re-booted the phone when the sound stopped working. Now I have a much quicker, simpler fix.

 

[tmann202]

The recent tasks list can be confusing. Here is some info I learned on it a while back...not sure if this is entirely still accurate with the latest versions on Android, but based on my own experience, this is correct:

1. The recent apps list is just that, "recently used" apps. Just because an app appears in the list, it DOES NOT mean that it's actively running or doing any processes in the background, it simply means that the app has been used recently. Any app that appears in the list *may* be completely shut down and not running at all...or maybe it is. In other words, it is not a list of actively running apps.

2. Having said that, however, swiping apps away from within the recently used apps list will close them *IF* they are still running, and is essentially the same process as hitting the "back arrow" key to exit out of a running app (i.e. a "graceful" exit, as opposed to a "force stop"). If an app is designed to sync regularly or start itself to run background processes, then it will continue to do that even if you've removed it from the recently used apps list and forced it to exit...so even if you swipe an app away, it is possible that it will still be "running" in the background if you check it's status in app manager.

Hope that makes sense.

To the OP, it really isn't something you should worry about too much or allow yourself to become obsessed with. Android does a pretty job of task management on it's own. I personally don't use the "recent apps" feature very often, and rarely even open it...nor do I ever go into the application settings to shut things down manually. I do try to reboot my phone every few days just to keep it "fresh", but honestly I'm not even sure that's 100% necessary unless things start to run sluggish. My phone has fantastic battery life too.

OP here again. I was going to say that I wasn't sure that bolded part was true since I was listening to the radio with the TuneIn app today and when I got to work I swiped it away from the recent app list it kept playing in my headphones. However, I see it does the same thing if you use the back arrow. Once you unplug the headphones it does stop, and does not start up again unless it is open and you press play, but it would be nice if it stopped when swiping from the list or using back arrow so you don't accidentally keep using data if you don't have your headphones are connected but you don't have them on at the moment. Don't see any settings in the app to change that.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

OP here again. I was going to say that I wasn't sure that bolded part was true since I was listening to the radio with the TuneIn app today and when I got to work I swiped it away from the recent app list it kept playing in my headphones. However, I see it does the same thing if you use the back arrow. Once you unplug the headphones it does stop, and does not start up again unless it is open and you press play, but it would be nice if it stopped when swiping from the list or using back arrow so you don't accidentally keep using data if you don't have your headphones are connected but you don't have them on at the moment. Don't see any settings in the app to change that.

I'm not familiar with that app, but check to see if there is an option when using the menu key to "quit" or "exit". Sometimes apps are designed that way (don't fully exit when using the back arrow key) because folks want it to run in the background while they multitask. Obviously music players are a prime example of this.