Advanced Task killer - dangerous?

[Saha91]

So just got the Galaxy S, and I got to say I'm impressed. What I'm curious about is, will killing all the tasks running in the background hurt my phone? I've done it a couple of time, just killed all the apps running in one click, is that dangerous to do?

 

[Hangdog42]

Is it dangerous? No. Android is a version of Linux and, unlike Windows, all of the system level stuff is locked safely where userland programs like task killers can't get to them. If you've rooted your phone you might be able to get to the system, but even with a rooted phone, ATK is not going to be running with root permissions.

Now a better question is why would you want to kill all your apps? The ONLY reason for killing an app is if it is misbehaving. If it isn't, Android will manage it just fine and you shouldn't worry about it.

 

[Saha91]

Figured it out

 

[meyerweb]

It won't hurt your phone. It may well hurt your phone experience. Many, if not most, of those background processes are necessary for your phone to work as designed. Kill them at your own risk. This is not Windows, or BB, where every bit of used memory is unavailable to you. Android manages memory very well, and will kill unused apps itself when it needs to reuse memory. The difference is that Android won't kill apps or processes that are needed. A task killer has no way of knowing whether a process is needed or not.

 

[xucaen]

I have a new Evo 4G, and I keep reading that those running tasks are what eat up the battery power and that ATK will actually save battery life. Is anyone here using it for that purpose and if so, what do you think?

 

[jjbagood]

I have a new Evo 4G, and I keep reading that those running tasks are what eat up the battery power and that ATK will actually save battery life. Is anyone here using it for that purpose and if so, what do you think?

Yes. I believe its necessary. There are some apps that just Eat battery. For example recently, the new FB app runs in the background and I was surprised how much battery it used since I installed it. A quick click of ATK and it was fixed. So yes, its nice and simple to use ATK for certain apps.

 

[thedrizl]

I have a new Evo 4G, and I keep reading that those running tasks are what eat up the battery power and that ATK will actually save battery life. Is anyone here using it for that purpose and if so, what do you think?

if you're worried about battery life, try Juice Defender. There are paid and free versions so you can try before you buy. It doubled the battery life on my Ally.

Also, instead of a task killer, give SystemPanel a try. It gives you a lot more info than most of the task killers, and doesn't take up nearly as much space.

 

[Kid Twist]

If an app is constantly eating battery, uninstall it -- it's a poorly designed app. I've found that ATK does nothing to improve battery life because all the tasks it kills just start up again from the beginning of their cycle.

 

[meyerweb]

I have ATK installed on my Evo. I do NOT have it set to automatically kill apps. It's a handy way to manually see what apps have been restarted. But using it to kill badly behaved apps is like using a band-aid to treat a stroke. Or maybe it's more like using open heart surgery to fix indigestion. If you've got a bad app, remove it. In the case of the Facebook app, uninstalling the update fixed the problem more thoroughly than would ATK.

A better approach to saving battery is to look at what apps are using cpu and battery (System Panel and SpareParts are free apps that will help), and then check the settings on those apps. For example, set Gtalk to not automatically log in. Set apps that do background syncing, but that you don't use, to not sync automtaically (e.g., stocks, facebook, news).

There's are multiple threads here and on other Android forums with more detailed suggestions on battery life.