Advanced Task Killer Froyo: A Must Install

[PhaseDMA]

One of the very first apps I install when I flash a new rom. It allows me to get rid of all the random apps that decided for no apparent reason to start running in the background, which of course saves lots of battery life.

I put the widget on my home screen, and every time I'm about to stop using my phone for the moment I just hit the widget and kill all the applications. The process is nearly seamless.

Unless a program decides to freeze up this keeps both my battery life up, and the OS running smooth.

 

[Adauth]

I though app killers were not needed, at least that seems to be the general opinion around here.

 

[sonofaresiii]

yeahhh it's mostly going to be WASTING battery life, not to mention if you've rooted your phone I believe you can choose which apps run on startup, so you don't have to worry about all those "random apps."

I assure you, apps don't decide to run for no reason. They always have a reason, and if it's a BAD reason, you can fix it. If you're killing all your apps when you are done using your phone for the moment, you're just spending more battery life booting them back up. They don't take up battery life when they're in the background, no reason to kill them.


But more on-topic, I do use task killer in case something starts freezing or whatnot. A quick, easy way to just kill something without having to screw around in the settings to force close it.

 

[Dan-droid]

You know, I've given up on the whole Task Killer argument. Anyone who understands Android knows it does more harm than good, but if people want to use it anyway, go for it.

 

[sonofaresiii]

Yeah I get what you're saying, but i only got my droid x a few days ago, and if people hadn't told me that task killer was bad, i'd still be using it to kill all my apps constantly. So I guess i'm kind of paying it forward? If people don't want to believe me, that's fine, more power to them. I'm not going to argue about it, just put the information out there whenever someone is mistaken. Take it or leave it, I'm not gonna fight about it.

 

[memudd]

l have this from Sprint officially Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when more memory is needed.
It also kills a task when its done doing what it needs to do
Also kills a task when you haven't returned to it in a long time
Most services while possibly running in back ground use very little memory when not actively doing something
Killing a process when it isn't ready only causes it to have to reload itself and start from.scratch when its needed again
Because a task is likely running in the back ground for a reason killing it will only cause it to respawn as soon as the
Activity that was using it looks for it again and it will start it over again

Most apps will exit themselves if you get out of it by hitting back until it closes. Rather than hitting the home
But even with going to home Android is hard coded and will eventual kill it once its been in the background a while

 

[gcobb]

I though app killers were not needed, at least that seems to be the general opinion around here.

I did a lot of testing. I found that when you have to continually close apps and they reopen that you're probably using more battery than you believe. I rarely ever check running apps and almost never kill them. My battery performance seems to have gotten better.

 

[losteboye]

I'm glad I read this whole thread, I had been planning to get one of these apps, but now that I know they're worse for my phone then leaving the apps in the background, I'll just let them run!

 

[janpetras]

Dude, I'd say get ATK and don't run it, only use it when an app misbehaves or you really want it closed.

For example I use it after using GMaps because that app stays open for too long and uses too much battery.

I also use it for some apps which need restarting but don't have such a feature.
Get it but use it only as needed.

 

[gcobb]

I don't need a killer or use one. I'm willing to bet you use more battery stopping and starting apps than if you left them running.