Is it necessary to use a Task Manager?

[jaypeecee]

Hi Folks,

I have read many times that task managers are no longer required with recent versions of Android. But, there are at least a couple of things that make me wonder. Firstly, I am in little doubt that my humble HTC Desire S (running Android 2.3.5) now runs appreciably slower than when it only had a few apps on it and it now has approximately 120. Secondly, developers still continue to push out task managers and new ones are appearing all the time.

So, what do others have to say?

Thanks.

JPC

 

[Mayhem]

Here we go again.... :S

There are camps that support both sides of the argument. I recall reading in another thread that Google devs themselves say it's not necessary.

But I still use one as sometimes Chrome and Facebook just don't close themselves.

 

[funkylogik]

theres a lot of good points in this post mate http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?t=753156 you are on quite an old android version though and memory management wasnt as good back then but i still wouldnt recommend a task killer. Devs make them because people think they need them (the devs are smart enough to know theyre selling crap. Same as the "signal booster" and "battery saver" apps). Your phone slowing down due to having more apps on its storage wont be fixed by a task manager. I dont think. thats a different memory :thumbup:

 

[jhawkkw]

Android stores apps in ram to make things quicker when opening up apps that you use frequently. By closing them out using a task manager, you're actually making it take longer. With so many apps stored in ram, if you need to open an app that requires more ram that what is available, it will automatically close apps in order to make room for you. The only time you would ever need to use a task manager is if an app locks up with no sign of getting it to close any other way.

Always remember the saying, "Free ram is wasted ram" when it comes to android.

 

[funkylogik]

Here we go again.... :S

There are camps that support both sides of the argument. I recall reading in another thread that Google devs themselves say it's not necessary.

But I still use one as sometimes Chrome and Facebook just don't close themselves.

I think fb will just open itself tbh and whats wrong with chrome being "open"?:thumbup:

 

[nickdalzell]

Task killers became moot as of higher end devices running Android 4.x. In lower end products after you install tons of apps, they lag and auto-reboot (kernel panic) because there is little RAM to begin with, and too many apps want to use it. After awhile, all Android can do to free enough for those apps is kill your launcher, or worse, panic leading to a reboot. Task killers won't fix that either. You'd either need a better device or learn to root and tweak how much memory can be used by installed apps, or how many apps are allowed to run at once, and I'd only advise the latter if you're more experienced with how Android works. Otherwise it could lead to a brick.

If you're trying to expect fluid, iPhone like performance out of a cheap device with limited spec, or a device over two years old running Android 2.x, dream on. You might as well expect Pentium performance out of a 386DX running Windows 95.

 

[divinebovine]

Android stores apps in ram to make things quicker when opening up apps that you use frequently. By closing them out using a task manager, you're actually making it take longer.

When you put it that way it sounds like a good idea. Close the ones you don't use often, it doesn't matter if they take longer, and let Android store other apps in RAM, the apps that you want to start faster.

There is a long list of stuff I rarely use running right now, and when I get a call I have to swipe 3 or 4 times before it picks up my input...

(2.3.5 here.)

 

[funkylogik]

Android (on ics and above anyway) "learns" which apps you use most and gives them ram priority so you really dont have to close anything. Android does it. Long pressing the home button on the s3 brings up the stock task manager and shows you how much ram is in use but for over a month ive had the button set up to launch the camera instead. Thats how unneeded the task manager is to me :beer:

 

[nickdalzell]

Android devices designed for 4.x also have more than enough RAM to waste so even 200+ apps won't slow them down. now, if you ran a cheap little phone with Jelly Bean and it only had 512MB of RAM, that would be a problem. Android is designed to kill any task as-needed to free up RAM in the event you need to launch a huge program, like the bloated Facebook to GTA: Vice City. unfortunately, with cheaper or more limited hardware, Android might inadvertently kill something important if there isn't enough memory and it's about used up, such as the launcher, Play Store, or something that causes it to kernel panic and reboot by itself. that does not mean Android sucks or that its memory management sucks, just that you're expecting more from lower-end hardware than is possible.

 

[FishenFool]

You guys keep going on about ICS or 4.x and above and how they handle memory, but the OP stated he us on 2.3.5.

 

[funkylogik]

You guys keep going on about ICS or 4.x and above and how they handle memory, but the OP stated he us on 2.3.5.

This is true mate but my only experience of gingerbread was on a mega low end device so i cant really comment on it. I think 2.3 was the start of android being truly able to look after itself though. Hope that helpz :thumbup:

 

[nickdalzell]

2.3 in and of itself isn't a bad system. but lately i am seeing the only devices running it sold on pre-paid setups from Net10 and Straight Talk, and let's face it, these 'new' phones are about as solid as a Chinese tablet, and couple that with insufficient RAM for 2.3 as well, heck, if i were limited to 256MB-512MB RAM, i'd be using 1.x or 2.1 Eclair because that's a bit low even for Gingerbread. these devices have partitions almost intentionally setup to make less room for installed apps, presumably to prevent some odd dozen apps from draining the already limited memory in these devices. when folks start rooting, using sd-ext and overclocking to overcome that limitation, you start getting lag, OOM panics, and various other issues. these days i wouldn't buy a device sold as new with 2.x more due to the hardware rather than the software.

However, in my view, Android got a ton more fluid as of 4.1.

 

[divinebovine]

This is true mate but my only experience of gingerbread was on a mega low end device so i cant really comment on it. I think 2.3 was the start of android being truly able to look after itself though. Hope that helpz :thumbup:

...so how about mega low end devices running 2.3?

• 600MHz Single-Core Processor
• 512MB RAM (not sure I believe this) (ok, I guess so; /proc/meminfo says MemTotal: 414444 kB, don't know where that other 100MB is but this is more than I thought)
• Storage: 220MB /data, and so on

ZTE Venture Full Specifications And Price Details - Gadgetian

I've got an ext3 partition on my SD and all my apps (including dalvik cache, libraries, etc) on it via link2sd.

 

[funkylogik]

Lol my last experience of GB was on a Zte Blade (officially on Eclair) 600mh, 250gb ram, like 2mb rom Actualy my xperia was on GB out the box but it had ICS waiting for it. So the only real experience of living with 2.3 was on a tiny lil

 

[nickdalzell]

with my lower end products i just edited the values that Android's priority-based task manager used and just made it more aggressive. any low-end product i used regardless of it being Eclair or ICS, would lag like heck and possibly randomly reboot if the memory got as high as 85% used. if it didn't reboot it lagged as the launcher almost always had to restart as Android would kill it to make room for the app i was using in the foreground. i was never sure why the launcher i used was set at a priority of level 6, the lowest priority in Android.

 

[damewolf13]

In my experience it really hasn't made much difference either way.
I have tried using them, and not using them, and it seems that Android pretty much just does it's own thing either way. If an app needs to open, it will, and if it needs to be shut down to allow something else to open, it will. I really don't think that a task manager is needed, and in reality just uses up memory that could be freed for better use. But I know that there are a lot of folks that seem to think they are helpful.

 

[Medion]

I'll simply link to my previous post on the subject;
http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/753156-free-ram-wasted-ram-not.html#post6066691

In addition, Android's task/memory management hasn't fundamentally changed since Android 2.0. The key difference between your device and a more modern device is total available RAM. A device with 512MB of RAM will generally keep less absolute memory free than a device with 2GB of RAM.

As far as task managers go, it depends if you want a task manager or a task killer, which are two totally different things. I advise against straight task killers because they tend to do more harm than good. Task managers, or task schedulers, are nice in that they can automate things such as disabling GPS when certain apps are closed/minimized, or enabling/disabling wifi based on location. These, when paired with a solid battery management application can work wonders on your battery life.

 

[nickdalzell]

there are far more changes from 2.x to 4.1.x than memory management. Project Butter, for one, has totally changed how fluid and responsive Android is compared to its earlier incarnations.

 

[Medion]

there are far more changes from 2.x to 4.1.x than memory management. Project Butter, for one, has totally changed how fluid and responsive Android is compared to its earlier incarnations.

I understand that, but that has nothing to do with my comment. I should have quoted, but I was responding to:

you are on quite an old android version though and memory management wasnt as good back then

 

[divinebovine]

with my lower end products i just edited the values that Android's priority-based task manager used and just made it more aggressive. any low-end product i used regardless of it being Eclair or ICS, would lag like heck and possibly randomly reboot if the memory got as high as 85% used. if it didn't reboot it lagged as the launcher almost always had to restart as Android would kill it to make room for the app i was using in the foreground. i was never sure why the launcher i used was set at a priority of level 6, the lowest priority in Android.

Can you link to where you learned about how to do that stuff? I can figure it out based on this post and a previous one you made but I wouldn't mind seeing it all laid out nicely.

Task managers, or task schedulers, are nice in that they can automate things such as disabling GPS when certain apps are closed/minimized, or enabling/disabling wifi based on location.

Keeping in mind the megaLowEndness and ancient Android versions involved in devices like mine and the OP's, can you recommend a task manager/scheduler to do those things? I wouldn't mind having GPS turn on when I open a GPS app and off when it's closed. As it stands I keep the stock power widget on my home screen and try to remember to turn GPS on before opening such apps.

These, when paired with a solid battery management application can work wonders on your battery life.

This is directly at odds with what appears to be the same AF kool-aid about task killers and memory management (Android's memory and power management is infallible so you should never try to improve it), but it is consistent with my experience on my megaLowEnd device running gingerbread. My battery life is atrocious with just the stock battery saver app and heavy manual control (including keeping mobile data disabled). I added DU Battery Saver and found significant improvement. I added Battery Stats Pro just for tracking but found my battery life improved to a nearly tolerable state, so now I just don't mess with it.

Everyone can tell me I should remove this stuff until they're blue in the face but I'd rather have battery life than the approval of others.

So, if I haven't scared you off...can you recommend "a solid battery management application"?

 

[Medion]

DB - I apologize, but I stopped trying them back in 2010. I use power Toggles, and I have them set on my home screen. If I want something off, I turn it off manually.

This is directly at odds with what appears to be the same AF kool-aid about task killers and memory management (Android's memory and power management is infallible so you should never try to improve it)

It depends. The big-three in this regard are wifi, bluetooth, and gps. In terms of wifi and bluetooth, they've always drained a SMALL amount of battery when on and not connected. Turning them off would enhance battery life marginally. However, with Google now using wifi for location detection and reporting, ANY background app that suddenly wants to know your location will drain your battery. If you see Google Services start spiking in battery usage, this is a prime candidate.

GPS is similar, in that it uses no battery when on but not in use. However, more and more apps are using location. Even when I turned off location in Facebook, the damn thing calls up the GPS whenever I load the app, and keeps it running when indoors. Turn off GPS, and problem solved.

The idea behind a task scheduler (if you can find a good one) is to prevent certain apps from abusing these three features that are supposed to have minimal effect on the battery when idle. But I don't like simplicity because it can't always know what you want, so I use toggles. Here's the app I'm referring to (very lightweight, no bloat).

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.painless.pc&hl=en

 

[nickdalzell]

It was complicated and i figured it out myself. it involved paid apps such as ROM Toolbox Pro and tons of patience. also the edits and adjustments depended greatly on the device. one hack doesn't fit all

 

[funkylogik]

Greenify is pretty well respected but its root only. For shutting off system functions when you arent using them, doesnt Juice Defender do that? havent used it but ive read people say it turns data off when the screen is off.
Does GPS actually drain your battery when enabled but not in use mate? I always keep it enabled and it uses nothing unless an app needs it. Aparently bluetooth is the same but im still in the habit of switchin it off lol
EDIT oops i didnt notice this page lol i was replying to DB

 

[Slug]

What's often overlooked is the user's ability to configure their device to their own ends. Don't want Twitter etc updating every five minutes? Then tell it to use a longer interval. Have no use for <insert app here>? Then stop it updating/syncing and it won't do anything. It may still be installed, but if it's not doing anything it won't "waste" resources as it will be closed by Android's own garbage collection routines in time.

That said, some of the biggest advances over time in the OS have been in resource management. Those of you who used devices running Cupcake (Android 1.5) or even lower will remember how much of an improvement GB (2.3.x) brought, let alone ICS and beyond (4.x).

 

[funkylogik]

Luckily my first android ran eclair out the box lol. Maybe off topic but does anyone whose spent time with an iphone know if users use/ever need 3rd party task managers?