Does Swiping Close Applications?

[ItalianDroid]

It seems that I can't find the correct answer anywhere.

When you open your active applications, does swiping them away close the application or just remove them from the list?

Thanks,
ItalianDroid

 

[xAGx#AC]

From what Ive heard, it only removes them from the list.

Kind of mixed on if I wish they did actually close, though.

 

[joshua.mcf]

It does not close the app. It will only remove it from the list to make it easier to navigate between recently used apps.
The closing of apps for RAM conservation is still handled by Android itself.
This will likely not be a problem.

 

[zkSharks]

Apps in the "multitasking" menu...

...may be currently running.
...may not be currently running.

Swiping an app out of the list...

...may kill some applications.
...may not kill some applications.
...will end background processes if/when appropriate.

Swiping an app away will effectively "kill" most apps. You can test this out using ADB if you have the SDK installed. Swipe everything out of your recents list, then launch the browser. Use ADB to run 'ps' on the device and verify that the com.google.android.browser process is running. Go to the home screen, it's still running. Launch some other apps, and the com.google.android.browser process is still there. Swipe it out of the recents list, however, and the process is gone.

You can create a test app to further verify, and log the onDestroy() call in your Activity. It's not called when you back or home out of the app, or when you launch other apps. It does get called when you swipe the app out of the recents list though.

I do agree that the recent apps list isn't really "multitasking". The apps in the list aren't necessarily even running, the processes could have been killed by the memory manager long before you try to re-open it. However, you can't argue that the only purpose is to jump quickly to other apps when the swiping makes the actual process go away.

[via Reddit]

Also, see the following image as a follow-up on the quote above:

[via XDA-Developers]

From my understanding, the "Recent Apps" interface in ICS combines the best of both worlds. It's in the middle, between "Recent Apps" and "Task Manager."

 

[infernalman7]

It killed the stock browser (had to close it due to a bug which involves display of a foreign script) and Twitter that malfunctioned.