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

[badankles]

I'll let the Mod decides to move this or not, or sticky it or not, because this is (to many) still a subjective matter.

I agree with this article and their findings, so I thought I'd share because I have noticed recently people mentioning they are using ATK on their Epic. This recent article from lifehacker explains it quite well:

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

 

[Baggy]

I'll let the Mod decides to move this or not, or sticky it or not, because this is (to many) still a subjective matter.

I agree with this article and their findings, so I thought I'd share because I have noticed recently people mentioning they are using ATK on their Epic. This recent article from lifehacker explains it quite well:

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

I went on google market and in the ratings its the best thing since sliced bread....
came on here and were told that their rubbish and not needed, I chose the latters advice.

 

[iwillfearnoevil]

wonder why sprint and samsung don't know this since they included a task killer with this phone

 

[cruiser771]

from my experience, ill notice the phone will start acting choppy with just a few widgets on my desktop and apps running. these aren't necessarily apps i'm using, they're just running in the background. i use the task killer and everything starts flowing smooth again. this is especially true with emulators. i do have an ignore list on which apps are killed. some apps just are always running and killing them only lasts for so long. unless my phone will run smooth with my widgets, ill keep using the task killer

 

[EpicFan]

That thread is bogus...I work for Best Buy Mobile and we sat two Samsung Epics next to each other, One with Advanced Task Killer the other just stock...a whole day of hourly task killing definitely helped! The phone still had about 50% charge vs. the stock phone that had already died

 

[Kelmar]

wonder why sprint and samsung don't know this since they included a task killer with this phone

Task killers aren't ALL bad, they just can cause problems if not used correctly (and all that the article refers to).

That thread is bogus...I work for Best Buy Mobile and we sat two Samsung Epics next to each other, One with Advanced Task Killer the other just stock...a whole day of hourly task killing definitely helped! The phone still had about 50% charge vs. the stock phone that had already died

I will respectfully disagree (to an extent). On my early android days I had nothing but problems with my phone. After removing ATK and letting android work properly (according to article and the site) I found that my battery life actually DOUBLED and that my phone ran smoother.


Ultimately, it's up to each user to decide if they want to use ATK or not. Personally, I've had it on my phone, but have only used it on RARE occasions.

 

[SirRicky85]

Honestly, I like my set up better with ATK + Memory Booster over Watch Dog + Program Monitor. Simply because when I run ATK + Memory Booster, I have a smooth running phone and the battery life is awesome for me.While running Watch Dog + Program Monitor makes my phone run laggy. I didn't have much time to see if Watch Dog + Program Monitor have on my battery life. Plus it seems like ATK doesn't work well with Froyo. We had Eclair long enough and this problem haven't gone out of hand until Froyo came out (I know that some apps reappear after we kill them, but that still happens in running apps and so on). I think Watch Dog is built around Froyo more than anything else and it's fairly new. I'll give everyone my thought on Watch Dog + Program Monitor on battery life once I fully charge my phone and run it for a while more. Overall I rather have my phone running smooth and not lag over a bit of battery life, since I already see a much improvement on battery life running ATK + Memory Booster.

 

[Stringyquark]

I've been using advanced task cleaner. I never let it run except to see what's running. I have alot of things ignored and use the app widget to do a "kill all but ignored" this has been working fairly well for me, but maybe I'll try watchdog as advocated in the article. Thanks

 

[GrooveRite]

I got my phone this past sunday (9/26) and the first thing I did was install ATK because thats what I had read for the previous 3 weeks that everyone had and worked. My phone was dying by 3pm so Wednesday morning, I decided to uninstall it and it actually lasted me till I got home (7pm) with some battery to spare! I'm going to keep tweaking my phone till I am happy with it, lol!

 

[iwillfearnoevil]

quite a bit of that article talks about how it's good for processes to be running in background to avoid having to restart. both the samsung built-in task killers and ATK, remove them from background. so it would have same effect. they may kill them differently, but if it's gone, it's gone and needs to restart.

 

[badankles]

quite a bit of that article talks about how it's good for processes to be running in background to avoid having to restart. both the samsung built-in task killers and ATK, remove them from background. so it would have same effect. they may kill them differently, but if it's gone, it's gone and needs to restart.

The stock task killer is android 2.1 itself. The Samsung task manager shows a list of recently started apps. You can then choose to manually end them from there. ATK can be configured to automatically kill apps, prevent apps from starting among other things. It's quite powerful and should be fully understood before using. As the article said, it's a good tool but has to be configured appropriately with the OS. With 2.1+ OS, there's not a lot of benefit using ATK.

 

[boo radley]

Here's what I'm unclear about. I understand the premise that open applications aren't really an issue: it's the CPU they're consuming.

But the Samsung Task Manager only shows me a couple of running applications, when I look at "Settings -> Applications -> Running Services" (which I assume really means 'processes'), I see a bunch of processes running, like MediaHub stuff, or SprintTV, but the associated applications aren't showing up as in Samsung's TaskManager

So how do I manage and kill these processes? (Although they seem to respawn, even if I do stop them).

 

[boomerbubba]

Here's what I'm unclear about. I understand the premise that open applications aren't really an issue: it's the CPU they're consuming.

But the Samsung Task Manager only shows me a couple of running applications, when I look at "Settings -> Applications -> Running Services" (which I assume really means 'processes'), I see a bunch of processes running, like MediaHub stuff, or SprintTV, but the associated applications aren't showing up as in Samsung's TaskManager

So how do I manage and kill these processes? (Although they seem to respawn, even if I do stop them).

In Settings -> Applications -> Running Services, press the service you want to stop. You will get a popup dialog to confirm this action.

Do this again after any reboot.

 

[Frisco]

I'll let the Mod decides to move this or not, or sticky it or not, because this is (to many) still a subjective matter.

I think this subject deserves wider discussion, so I've copied the thread and placed it in the Android Lounge (this copy in the Epic forums remains, of course).

Android Lounge - Android Forums

 

[badankles]

Here's what I'm unclear about. I understand the premise that open applications aren't really an issue: it's the CPU they're consuming.

But the Samsung Task Manager only shows me a couple of running applications, when I look at "Settings -> Applications -> Running Services" (which I assume really means 'processes'), I see a bunch of processes running, like MediaHub stuff, or SprintTV, but the associated applications aren't showing up as in Samsung's TaskManager

So how do I manage and kill these processes? (Although they seem to respawn, even if I do stop them).

Be careful, this is exactly what the article was talking about understanding between apps showing up in task manager and app services running in the background.

 

[boo radley]

Be careful, this is exactly what the article was talking about understanding between apps showing up in task manager and app services running in the background.

Yup. I've since done quite a bit more reading and understand the architecture a *little* more clearly.

SystemPanelLite was an excellent download, since it shows me what's active/inactive, and resources consumed in an easy view. From here I can zap the media hub, and other unwanted things (and they don't seem to restart unless I reboot the phone. I was wrong).

But as you say -- be careful.

 

[silencer271]

I use advanced task killer on my epic's and evo's and have 0 problems. Task killers arent the problem its how people use them.

 

[badankles]

I use advanced task killer on my epic's and evo's and have 0 problems. Task killers arent the problem its how people use them.

agree, people needs to understand what it does and how to configure it appropriately. personally, i find for what it does, it's not essential if you're on android 2.1 or above.

 

[Flaspeneer]

Surprised no one has mentioned this: the majority of people on the Epic forum (where this thread was posted originally) aren't looking to free up memory. What they want is to reduce battery drain by killing unnecessary tasks involving constant searches. This is complicated by completely arbitrary drain caused by things like Media Hub's background DRM policing where the user hasn't bothered with Media Hub once. Most of it is caused by Samsung's untimely and unwelcome entrance into the multimedia marketplace. It's as if Sony's mistakes never happened.

Advice on the lack of necessity for Task Killer should address those concerns, too, and not just memory usage.

 

[Stringyquark]

I have been using watchdog and the stock task manager. I've been killing the DRM bs but other than that been leaving it to do it's thing. Thanks

 

[Andrzey]

The original article is bogus.

It is greatly noticeable when many processes hog system resources and killing them speeds up the overall system performance.

Task killers are needed. In an ideal world where everyone coded to excellent standards then they would not be needed.

I constantly monitor the phone system and see *&^#% start up for no reason. I am not going to use that app and will probably never use it so its a drain on system resources for nothing.

I see other things that I open, never closing themselves this is very bad coding with the excuse of start up will be faster at a later given point. That may be another week away or never, now I have unnecessary system resources been hogged.

The only things that need to be continually running are perpetual processes that will benefit from being in memory.

I do not however use automatic task killers as this is another drain on the system.

 

[novox77]

I think the problem is that people against task killers only point out the worst case scenarios, which in normal use are not that common, so most people won't run into issues using task killers.

THAT SAID: if using a task killer does improve battery life, that is an indication that you have an app(s) that is hogging the radio and/or CPU, and it ought to be identified. Auto-killing helps stop these rogue apps, but fixing/removing the app is the much more efficient solution.

You'll find that if you just fix the root cause, task killers become completely unnecessary. Unfortunately, sometimes it can be very hard to find the culprit. I use System Panel, which shows me every app/process running, the CPU usage for each in real time, as well as sorting apps by CPU usage over time (history).

If you're still not sure if you have an app(s) that is draining your battery excessively, power your screen off for an hour. Then turn it back on and see how much the battery has drained. Don't do this test from 100% charge, since there's usually a quick falloff due to the battery indicator's inaccuracy when topped off. If you are running stock, you should see no more than 3% drain. If you are rooted with crapware removed and a ROM that supports CPU throttling or HAVS, you should see less than 1% drain per hour.

Note that if you have weak cell signal, your battery usage will be much higher, and in this situation, task killing won't help you either.