Task killer final verdict

[iamloco724]

the only reason i use it is so open apps dont waste battery..do people actually have the same battery life or better when not using the task killers

 

[shadowdude777]

the only reason i use it is so open apps dont waste battery..do people actually have the same battery life or better when not using the task killers

If you have an app open and it's wasting battery, that app should be uninstalled. Apps shouldn't do that. There are a few exceptions of course, one of them being if the app is trying to get a GPS fix on you because GPS wastes battery pretty quickly.

 

[Lock-N-Load]

I have read all there is to read on these theories about

"it loads apps and gets them 'ready' to use and that saves power and speed" - which I think is BS as if it loaded them at start, or loaded them when needed, it still loads them! so whether you lost some speed or battery juice at the start of phone powering up or on the back end when you needed the apps, you STILL LOADED THEM. so I think that argument is hooey.

also, you can never ever convince me there is a reason, while I am normally using my phone, to have the Amazon MP3 app loaded up, or the Car Home app running - when I did nothing GPS or music related - because it thinks that maybe, possibly, potentially I might need the app soon so it started it up on standby. bah... killing off those apps shows me, real time, my "Available Memory" jumps back up - and that is a real # and fact. Memory I want for apps I DID start. yeah, yeah I know the system is suppose to kill off these apps if you do not use them and if you need memory, but I say it should not start them in the 1st place.

clearly, there is a flaw in the system/algorithm as sometimes I am shocked at the apps I see running that it started preemptively.. apps I have NEVER run or even opened. heck, you could maybe even make the argument that all this preemptive guessing, starting apps it thinks you might be needed, and killing off apps it started that you never ended up needing is wasted power and processor cycles. let ME start what I want to start.

as I see it, killing off uneeded apps is a good thing and I have read the pros and cons on the theories that a TK somehow hurts the phone and I 100% fall on the side of no harm done.

I HEART ATK!

 

[shadowdude777]

Oh, yeah, you can kill apps you'll never touch that get started up with Android without any consequences. I think most of them just restart themselves after a little bit though, don't they? Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm rooted and so I've completely removed the crap apps like Amazon MP3.

 

[ssantan2]

I guess I missed the "MY" in the title.. oh wait, there isn't one

there was also no "the" in the title too.

 

[Lock-N-Load]

I think most of them just restart themselves after a little bit though, don't they? Correct me if I'm wrong

well no, not like what you might think. when I kill them they still killed.. UNTIL maybe a restart or something that you do that makes the phone think it needs them again and restarts them. but point is, if you kill that lame-o Amazon MP3, it does not just come right back when you peak back into ATK. it will at some point for some reason, but it is not like it just comes right up unless you did whatever IT decided was the right steps to trigger it to get it ready in case you maybe, might, need it

there was also no "the" in the title too.

your right.. but that is because "final verdict" covered it and "the" was not needed.

 

[AZDroid]

I found these to be a good read on task killers and how Android handles apps: Google and Cyanogen comments imply task killer/manager apps are pointless | Google Android Blog

Android Developers Blog: Multitasking the Android Way

 

[publicanimal]

Claiming your Droid is faster and the battery life is better without a Task Killer is nothing more than the placebo effect at work! However it's correct that you definitely don't NEED one. Personally I find that when I have 35MB or less available RAM, my phone noticeably begins to lag. So when this happens, I kill a few extraneous tasks and VIOLA! My performance increases. Stop spreading misinformation about how your phone runs better without a Task Killer, that's absurd.

 

[AndroidsOfTara]

Claiming your Droid is faster and the battery life is better without a Task Killer is nothing more than the placebo effect at work!

There's nothing wrong with having a task killer installed and using it to kill off misbehaving apps or if you want to instantly free up a bunch of memory.

The problem is having a task killer set to autokill apps. In this case, the task manager is always running and killing off apps that Android is just going to start up again anyway. You're wasting memory, CPU time and battery doing this.

As other people have mentioned, if you really want to keep those apps from ever running, the best thing is to root the phone and move or rename the apps in question to prevent them from ever running in the first place.

 

[publicanimal]

I'm inclined to agree with that and that's why I stopped using my Task Killer in that fashion. This accounts for why there might be a difference in battery life (which is negligible if there is a difference, I'm not entirely convinced there is), but doesn't do anything to support the argument that the phone runs smoother and faster without using a Task Killer, which doesn't make any sense. More available RAM cannot equate to slower performance. It's impossible for that to be true.

There's nothing wrong with having a task killer installed and using it to kill off misbehaving apps or if you want to instantly free up a bunch of memory.

The problem is having a task killer set to autokill apps. In this case, the task manager is always running and killing off apps that Android is just going to start up again anyway. You're wasting memory, CPU time and battery doing this.

As other people have mentioned, if you really want to keep those apps from ever running, the best thing is to root the phone and move or rename the apps in question to prevent them from ever running in the first place.

 

[shadowdude777]

I'm inclined to agree with that and that's why I stopped using my Task Killer in that fashion. This accounts for why there might be a difference in battery life (which is negligible if there is a difference, I'm not entirely convinced there is), but doesn't do anything to support the argument that the phone runs smoother and faster without using a Task Killer, which doesn't make any sense. More available RAM cannot equate to slower performance. It's impossible for that to be true.

Yes, but in that vein, the opposite is also untrue. Less available RAM doesn't equate to slower performance. Whether I have 1MB of RAM free on my computer or I have 1GB of RAM free, as long as no programs want to start dumping more information into the RAM, they're content with just barely fitting.

Furthermore, when you kill a service and the phone wants to start it again, it'll use CPU cycles to put it back into memory. CPU use drains battery, so in the end, leaving your tasks alone will save battery and boost performance.

 

[publicanimal]

Really... so your computer doesn't run slower when your RAM use is almost maxed out? Funny, my entire life experience with computers runs contrary to that suggestion.

I'm willing to concede/agree on the battery life issue, but not the performance issue. In general, less available RAM = slower processing time, more available RAM = faster processing time. Hence my Droid runs slower only when I'm down to less than 40 MB of available RAM, but runs smoothly above 40 MB of available RAM. If it ran the same until I had completely depleted my available RAM, this would not be the case.

Yes, but in that vein, the opposite is also untrue. Less available RAM doesn't equate to slower performance. Whether I have 1MB of RAM free on my computer or I have 1GB of RAM free, as long as no programs want to start dumping more information into the RAM, they're content with just barely fitting.

Furthermore, when you kill a service and the phone wants to start it again, it'll use CPU cycles to put it back into memory. CPU use drains battery, so in the end, leaving your tasks alone will save battery and boost performance.

 

[shadowdude777]

Really... so your computer doesn't run slower when your RAM use is almost maxed out? Funny, my entire life experience with computers runs contrary to that suggestion.

I'm willing to concede/agree on the battery life issue, but not the performance issue. In general, less available RAM = slower processing time, more available RAM = faster processing time. Hence my Droid runs slower only when I'm down to less than 40 MB of available RAM, but runs smoothly above 40 MB of available RAM. If it ran the same until I had completely depleted my available RAM, this would not be the case.

RAM is a swap area. There is no processing involved at all with RAM. All it is is a place to put information. If you have an accordion folder that's empty and an accordion folder that's full to bursting, it'll take you the same amount of time to pull a sheet out of both of those folders.

 

[Optimus]

This has been said before but people should ony use task killers to kill an occassional app...not let it manage your memory/resources. Seems like this is where people are the most confused in both the pro and con camps.

 

[grainysand]

The only real way to prolong battery life--apart from the obvious like turning your GPS/sync/data connection/background data off--is to undervolt your phone. The end. Killing tasks doesn't do jack shit except for badly coded apps that truly drain battery (which is to say: not the stock apps that come with Android--browser, Amazon MP3, whatever).

Oh, and the reason you see a performance drop on your PC when RAM use becomes excessive isn't so much the fact that you have little RAM left. It's because excessive RAM use usually indicates a memory leak, which is completely different from merely using up RAM and will of course kill your performance.

 

[King_Bean]

You guys pay much more attention to your phones than I do. I NEVER check my "available memory" and I don't have a task killer and I couldn't be happier with my phone. I'm not knocking task killers but I personally prefer not to have one. If I have a rogue app that refuses to shut down (hasn't happened in four months), then I may download ATK, kill the app, then uninstall ATK.

 

[shadowdude777]

You guys pay much more attention to your phones than I do. I NEVER check my "available memory" and I don't have a task killer and I couldn't be happier with my phone. I'm not knocking task killers but I personally prefer not to have one. If I have a rogue app that refuses to shut down (hasn't happened in four months), then I may download ATK, kill the app, then uninstall ATK.

Exactly. The Linux kernel is designed to take care of this stuff for you. But you know you can use Android's built-in task manager to kill misbehaving apps! Go to settings, hit Applications, one of the things in the menu lets you kill off tasks. I think that's how you do it, I'm at school right now and I can't take out my phone, so sorry.