What is the best task killer app?

[evilkittypro]

What is the best task killer on the Android market? Also do they really save battery life?

 

[Kicksilver]

Actually, the opposite.

Stay away from task killers, they do more harm than good.

Android manages the apps flawlessly. Just enjoy your device and let it take care of itself.

 

[airfaron23]

If you're rooted, you can run scripts on your phone to better manage it.

 

[sofiablak]

I use Task Kill which you get with Go Launcher EX ... i guess its simple & one of the best !

 

[valorian]

Task killers will hurt battery life, not increase battery life.

 

[lunatic59]

For Android versions 2.2 or later, not only isn't a task killer necessary, it is recommended that they not be used at all.

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

 

[aysiu]

If you want to save battery life, use Juice Defender (it is not a task killer).

 

[chrlswltrs]

All of them do more harm than good!

 

[Kicksilver]

All of them do more harm than good!

Hope you're not talking about JD.

 

[lunatic59]

Hope you're not talking about JD.

I'm Pretty sure Charlie is talking about task killers. Juice Defender is more of a service suspender.

 

[tcat007]

JD drained my battery MUCH faster. No task killer is best task killer; no battery gadget that runs 24/7 is good.... I use Power Tudor for 5 minutes to see what's using juice and either uninstall or force close anything acting up.

 

[Unforgiven]

Android itself is the best task killer. It is designed to run at or near memory capacity. I have been using my GNex for a little over a month now, and when I check to see what is running, it is only stuff I use. When I first got the phone, it would load up stuff like the music app, MyVZW, etc. I didn't kill the apps even though I never loaded or used them.

Android learns what you use, and preloads those apps into memory so your phone is more responsive. I don't know the technical details, but this is my non technical understanding of it.

Android pays attention to the apps it has to close in order to open the apps you want to use. So for me, the more times Android had to close myVZW in order for me to open Facebook, it has now decided that when it needs to fill up memory, it will load Facebook before myVZW.

Using a task killer prevents Android from learning this and probably makes it worse. Here is what I presume (just my educated guess) happens when you "kill" a task. Say I had been using a task killer to constantly kill the myVZW app. Android suddenly has free memory that it wants to fill up, so it goes to find what you use most and holy smokes, look at how many times myVZW has been loaded, so it loads it back up.

If this is remotely how it works, then task killers would be doing the exact opposite of what the user wants, making the apps they don't want loaded the first.

Anyway, if I am way off base, let me know, don't flame me.

 

[aysiu]

JD drained my battery MUCH faster. No task killer is best task killer; no battery gadget that runs 24/7 is good.... I use Power Tudor for 5 minutes to see what's using juice and either uninstall or force close anything acting up.

JD is not a task killer. There are some nuances, but the basic gist of JD is that it turns mobile data off when the screen is off and then turns it back on when the screen is on.

This works well if you're the kind of person who will use your phone off and on for about an hour or so and then not use it again for another five hours.

But if you're constantly turning the screen on and off every five minutes all throughout the day, then JD could potentially drain your battery faster because it's probably more processor intensive to constantly turn data on and off than to just leave it on all the time.

 

[pockings]

What is the best task killer on the Android market? Also do they really save battery life?

The best task killer is the one you didn't install You don't need one

 

[Kicksilver]

JD drained my battery MUCH faster.

It wasn't JD for sure.

I have it on 24/7, and it rarely even shows up in the Battery Use menu, and when it does, it's only chewing 2% of my battery, at most.

 

[chrlswltrs]

Post removed by MOD

Some things in that app could be useful, except for the part where it says "task manager", that alone makes it a bad app and a bad influence for people that don't know any better about how android works.

 

[toonhead75]

While it is true that app killers usually do more harm than good from a memory and battery standpoint, where I think they are useful (or even required) is in preventing apps that track usage/locations/etc when not being used and those that auto-start and use data when you don't have an unlimited data plan.
Now, before people talk about removing those apps, the ones I am mostly referring to are the pre-installed bloatware apps like news and weather that opens and tries to access the internet every time I open the clock or the gps feature that I still haven't figured out what causes it to open without being called by me (happened before I installed any extra apps).

 

[lunatic59]

While it is true that app killers usually do more harm than good from a memory and battery standpoint, where I think they are useful (or even required) is in preventing apps that track usage/locations/etc when not being used and those that auto-start and use data when you don't have an unlimited data plan.
Now, before people talk about removing those apps, the ones I am mostly referring to are the pre-installed bloatware apps like news and weather that opens and tries to access the internet every time I open the clock or the gps feature that I still haven't figured out what causes it to open without being called by me (happened before I installed any extra apps).

"killing" those apps will be an exercise in futility. In most cases the carrier based apps have shared services that will be called from other apps and give the appearance of them running. If you remove those apps you would most likely disable those features on your phone entirely. If you are concerned about apps that use location services, then you can turn them off in either the apps settings or general settings.

 

[Geese1]

I have had a number of times when using my Incredible that an internet page won't open (xScope - click on a link which normally opens a new tab, but won't), which I solve by using Advance Task Manager to stop the program. Then once I go back in, it seems to work fine.

Maybe task managers as a whole aren't useful, but in this particular instance it solves my problem so I keep it around.

 

[arnoldward929]

Good thread and discussion on it got really helpful info thanks a lot.

 

[kingmt]

I am new to android. I ZTE Merit that drains the battery like crazy. It has a bunch of stuff that I don't use & these things run all the time & want to update all the time. They also are using data. Is a task killer still a bad idea? Is there something else I should use? Would it just be best to flash & reload the ROM?

I really don't know anything about this system so I would be learning from the internet & practicing on my phone.

 

[chrlswltrs]

I am new to android. I ZTE Merit that drains the battery like crazy. It has a bunch of stuff that I don't use & these things run all the time & want to update all the time. They also are using data. Is a task killer still a bad idea? Is there something else I should use? Would it just be best to flash & reload the ROM?

I really don't know anything about this system so I would be learning from the internet & practicing on my phone.

Yes it is bad and always will be. If you are running a custom ROM you can just delete the apps you don't want using Titanium Backup. Just be cautious if deleting system apps. It is best to talk to people using the same ROM as you to see what is safe to remove

 

[popit168]

Actually, the opposite.

Stay away from task killers, they do more harm than good.

Android manages the apps flawlessly. Just enjoy your device and let it take care of itself.

This is a good idea.

 

[spitlizard]

What is the best task killer on the Android market? Also do they really save battery life?

NO NO and..ohh wait....NOOO...
Android deals with apps behaving badly well enough.

You don't need one

 

[fargus]

i have just started using my samsung s3 and am quite confused about task killers but i know one thing when i had it on the phone i spent more time killing apps then using the phone for anything else and all that seem to happen they are all back straight away so going to leave the phone todo its own thing from now on