should apps exit when you press the Back button?

[gametes]

the majority of apps that i use exit cleanly when i use the Back button to quit the app, i.e. they leave no running services. some system apps continue to run forever, like google maps, but that is understandable as they are system apps. but i have found two apps that leave running services even after you quit that are NOT system apps: camera360 and mantano reader. they are not/should not be doing any processing in the background, yet the processes remain.

i contacted the 2 developers about this, and one of them claimed this is normal android behaviour, and its supposed to continue running even after quitting, and you have to force-stop it if you want it to truly quit. this seems strange to me. what are the actual android guidelines here? is it ok to leave things running when the user has specifically chosen to quit by pressing the Back button rather than the Home button?

 

[KageBeast]

the majority of apps that i use exit cleanly when i use the Back button to quit the app, i.e. they leave no running services. some system apps continue to run forever, like google maps, but that is understandable as they are system apps. but i have found two apps that leave running services even after you quit that are NOT system apps: camera360 and mantano reader. they are not/should not be doing any processing in the background, yet the processes remain.

i contacted the 2 developers about this, and one of them claimed this is normal android behaviour, and its supposed to continue running even after quitting, and you have to force-stop it if you want it to truly quit. this seems strange to me. what are the actual android guidelines here? is it ok to leave things running when the user has specifically chosen to quit by pressing the Back button rather than the Home button?

I'm no expert on this but I just know some apps only run their services when they are open and so usually when you close them all processes should stop unless it's an app that has features that cause it to constantly run in the background. Nothing bad happens if you choose to stop a service that's running even after closing the app although the service will probably just start back up again.

 

[nicka3200]

It's normal android behaviour for apps to continue to run in the background. It's so that if you return to a recently used app it loads immediately. The system manages RAM and closes apps when it needs more capacity.

 

[Crashdamage]

As was said, this is normal behavior. Also, sometimes apps listed as running actually are doing nothing, they're only cached in memory.

Whatever you do, DO NOT use any task killer or memory optimizer. They actually waste power and may disrupt critical system processes and degrade performance. Android is excellent at handling processes and memory with no help from 3rd-party apps or user assistance. Just let Android do it's job, relax and enjoy your phone.

See:
http://lifehacker.com/5650894/andro...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
...for a full explanation.


Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0

 

[jefboyardee]

DO NOT use any task killer or memory optimizer

Crashdamage did that once and look what happened to his truck!

 

[Crashdamage]

That actually was my truck. It hurt a LOT...

Linux user #266351. Android since v1.0

 

[Petrah]

This is a long read, but probably the best explanation you're going to find (it's written by an app developer). It's very well written and has a ton of great information.

http://androidforums.com/android-applications/335110-why-you-dont-need-task-killer.html#post2681361

 

[jefboyardee]

That actually was my truck. It hurt a LOT...

Sorry, didn

 

[Crashdamage]

Sorry, didn