Help Closing apps

[WishBone]

What's the conventional thought on exiting applications. I'm getting tired with doing the back, back, back to get out of an app once I'm done. Can I just hit the Home tab and not worry about the app continuing to run and use additional battery?

Thanks...

 

[smitty24]

There are numerous posts about not needing to kill background apps on the android os. a rouge app that you know is hogging ram/processor is another issue...do a quick search for task killing in the other areas...

To your point, yes, the 'home' tab seems like an unofficial close button

 

[Doc Savage]

What's the conventional thought on exiting applications. I'm getting tired with doing the back, back, back to get out of an app once I'm done. Can I just hit the Home tab and not worry about the app continuing to run and use additional battery?

Thanks...

In general yes. The only time you should need to close an app is if it's misbehaving. To 'Force close' an app, go into Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > App > Force close. That may be slightly different in the menu - I haven't got my Nexus yet, but that's the menu path for 1.6.

If you notice the battery draining but don't know what's causing it, go to Settings > About Phone > Battery Use.

 

[ScottAllyn]

It also depends a lot on the App and what the app is doing when you hit the home key. If the app is actively doing something when you have it in the foreground, it may very well continue doing it in the background after you hit the Home key.

I sometimes forget about this, as I did just a few hours ago. I was using Trapster on my way home from work today and when I got here, I hit the home key on the phone and tossed it onto the coffee table w/o really thinking about it (iPhone Reflex). I got a call a couple hours later and noticed that the phone was warm when I picked it up... Trapster was still running and tracking my position and my battery, which was at 100% when I got home, was at 45%.

 

[gibson6594]

If you want to close apps, get an iPhone. Multitasking is a key component of this OS.

 

[oniongirl]

If you want to close apps, get an iPhone. Multitasking is a key component of this OS.

that's a stupid thing to say. of course people will want to close their apps when not using them to conserve battery life. jeez. just because it can multi-task doesn't mean you want 10 apps running your battery dry when you're not using them. why did you feel the need to say that? the OP had a perfectly legitimate question, which was helpfully answered by others. ugh. people like you make me angry *retreats back to friendly uk thread*

 

[gentlefury]

go grab Home++ and occasionally kill all apps to clear memory.

 

[gibson6594]

that's a stupid thing to say. of course people will want to close their apps when not using them to conserve battery life. jeez. just because it can multi-task doesn't mean you want 10 apps running your battery dry when you're not using them. why did you feel the need to say that? the OP had a perfectly legitimate question, which was helpfully answered by others. ugh. people like you make me angry *retreats back to friendly uk thread*

Take it easy, my comment was more of a knock on the iphone than the OP's question.

 

[choffy21]

TasKiller Pro comes with a nifty 2x1 widget that when tapped closes all applications. I press it once every 20-30 minutes just to kill meaningless tasks that are still running.

 

[shademar]

I generally just use the home button (or 'pause' on internet radio, and then home). I have advanced task killer installed but not always running, and if I feel like something isn't right, I'll fire it up and use it to kill everything (including itself.) However, if something is actively using GPS (for instance Navigation) it should probably be shut down or the GPS radio shut off or else the process may not let the phone idle because it constantly tries to update...

All and all, the OS seems to be very good about managing running apps.

Edited to note: If you use a task manager, you'll notice a ton of processes running in the background at any given time (19-24 for me), including ones you didn't even start. This is android multitasking management and not something to worry about. The system seems to be very good at killing unneeded processes and shifting system allocation when needed.

 

[MartinS]

You don't want to kill all apps occasionally though. I did that and Twitter and Facebook app stopped picking new feeds up automatically.

If you want to kill apps then I suggest Advanced Task Killer Pro (or similar) and then put apps you don't mind running in the "ignore list"

 

[WishBone]

Thanks for all the replies.

I guess I better get a Task Killer, but hopefully they omit those that are needed by the OS just to have a decent user experience. Seems to me that this should be a stock app with android?

 

[Doc Savage]

Thanks for all the replies.

I guess I better get a Task Killer, but hopefully they omit those that are needed by the OS just to have a decent user experience. Seems to me that this should be a stock app with android?

Honestly if you 'Force close' applications after using them (which is what the Task Killers do,) your phone will run slower as every time you load them again, it has to reload them back into memory. Applications that schedule wake-ups, such as checking E-Mail every 15 minutes will lose the scheduled wake-up if you force close it.

Android applications are made up of Activities (the UI you see) and some, e.g. Facebook, E-Mail have Services (background tasks) too.

Activities *can only* run when they are in the foreground, when you press home, Android won't let them. Services can continue to run, but at a low priority. Unless the Service has wake locks (keeps the CPU/screen awake) - check the permissions when you install, locking the screen will stop them too. An example of a wake lock is when the browser is downloading a file, if you lock the screen, the CPU will stay awake until the download is complete.

I've never found a need for a task killer, and as said, unless an application is misbehaving, you shouldn't ever need to force close them. Just press home.

 

[oniongirl]

I've never found a need for a task killer, and as said, unless an application is misbehaving, you shouldn't ever need to force close them. Just press home.

Is pressing home the same as repeatedly pressing back until the home screen is reached?

 

[Doc Savage]

Is pressing home the same as repeatedly pressing back until the home screen is reached?

Depending on the application no. Some applications will always reset themselves when you press their icon from the launcher. The best way to 'return' to an application is to long-press Home.

Say you open Messaging, and start writing a message, then press home, the next time you press Messaging, you'll return to where you left off (editing the message.)*

If you 'back' all the way to home, then next time you press Messaging, you'll start as if you've just loaded Messaging (which is still where you left off.) At this point, the Messaging application is still in memory so it can load quicker.

The only things that can keep going are services, but again, if Android needs the memory, it will stop them. They should handle this gracefully, saving their state, and Android will reload them when resources are available.

It's hard to demonstrate this on the N1 (I did try to overload it with the browser and a 3D game, but it just smiled and laughed) - it has a lot of RAM.

* If Android needs the memory being used by the messaging application for another application, it will stop it and free the memory, and then if you reload it, it'll be as if you've pressed 'back' all the way out. This is why you'll notice stuff like 'Saved as draft' when you press home, it's good practise, just incase Android needs the memory.

Sorry that turned into a bit of an essay. This is the developer docs that explain it all (it is intended for developers,) but it shows the lifecycle of Activities, Services and so on.

 

[oniongirl]

Sorry that turned into a bit of an essay. This is the developer docs that explain it all (it is intended for developers,) but it shows the lifecycle of Activities, Services and so on.

Essay > a simple 'yes' or 'no', thanks for taking the time to write that out. Will have a look at the developer docs, am pretty familiar with all things codey. Who knows, maybe Google will hire me. Or I might write an app for the market

So the jist is if I'm trying out a game that I'm likely to play maybe once a day, use the back button repeatedly to kill it, else just just the home button for quicker loading for regularly used things. I think...

 

[ikon]

Just a note for others, Don't kill "Clock" or your alarm clock won't go off in the morning. I learned that the hard way even though the faq in taskiller says the alarm is hidden away so you can't accidentally close it.

 

[Doc Savage]

Essay > a simple 'yes' or 'no', thanks for taking the time to write that out. Will have a look at the developer docs, am pretty familiar with all things codey. Who knows, maybe Google will hire me. Or I might write an app for the market

Hehe that'd be nice, if you're interesting developing for Android, get onto IRC - #android-dev, nice folks and really helpful and patient.

So the jist is if I'm trying out a game that I'm likely to play maybe once a day, use the back button repeatedly to kill it, else just just the home button for quicker loading for regularly used things. I think...

Exactly, if it's a small game, it could still be in memory a few days later, but that just means it'll load quicker the next time. If it's a huge game, Android will free the memory when it needs it. It won't be occupying CPU even though it's still in memory (unless it has a service that's misbehaving.)

Edit: A better way to phrase it would be, if you're done with the application (finished the game for the day,) use back, if you want to continue later (lookup something in the browser while writing an e-mail,) use home.