Getting Apps Not to Open

[insidenyc]

Sometimes my phone gets clunky and at the suggestion of this forum, I got a task killer. Works great. And to the extent, it is killing tasks that I opened, it makes sense. How the heck do I program the phone not to open apps unless I tell it to? Like Amazon MP3 store.

 

[doogald]

The two requisite links that explain why you so not need a task killer that automatically kills tasks, and why you need not worry about apps that are inactive on the phone:

FAQ: Why You Shouldn’t Be Using a Task Killer with Android
Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn't Use Them

Apps like Advanced Task Killer, the most popular task killer in the Market, act on the incorrect assumption that freeing up memory on an Android device is a good thing. When launched, it presents you with a list of "running" apps and the option to kill as many as you want. You can also hit the Menu button to access a more detailed "Services" view, that lists exactly which parts of each application are "running", how much memory they take up, and how much free memory is available on your phone. This set-up implies that the goal of killing these apps is to free up memory. Nowhere on the list does it mention the number of CPU cycles each app is consuming, only the memory you'll free by killing it. As we've learned, full memory is not a bad thing—we want to watch out for the CPU, the resource that actually slows down your phone and drains your battery life.

Thus, killing all but the essential apps (or telling Android to kill apps more aggressively with the "autokill" feature) is generally unnecessary. Furthermore, it's actually possible that this will worsen your phone's performance and battery life. Whether you're manually killing apps all the time or telling the task killer to aggressively remove apps from your memory, you're actually using CPU cycles when you otherwise wouldn't—killing apps that aren't doing anything in the first place.

In fact, some of the processes related to those apps will actually start right back up, further draining your CPU. If they don't, killing those processes can cause other sorts of problems—alarms don't go off, you don't receive text messages, or other related apps may force close without warning. All in all, you're usually better off letting your phone work as intended—especially if you're more of a casual user. In these instances, a task killer causes more problems than it solves.

The use or not use of automatic task killers has been a controversial subject in the past. However, it's definitely your phone, so use one if you wish to, but I do encourage you to read those two links so that you are at least seeing an objective argument why it may not be necessary.

I do have an app called System Panel Lite on my phone, so I can keep an eye on running tasks if my battery seems to be draining faster than usual, and especially if the phone feels warm/hot. The last time that I used it to kill a running task? I don't even remember - it was many, many months ago.

 

[insidenyc]

Thanks for the links Doogald. And I understand thet memory and CPU are not the same thing.

But... sometimes it does help. For example. Sometimes when I use the phone keypad to look up a number, it just does not. That is, I dial in M(6) - A(2) - R(7) - T(8) - H(4) - A(2) and "Martha" does not come up. I kill the tasks and try again and it works.

Anyway, I like it much better than my old windows phone and hope to get a Thunderbolt soon.

 

[thetomlin2]

Get rid of the Task Killer ... if you want something to use to get rid of a few running apps manually get a Task Manager. I have ES Task Manager and have used it 3 times in the month I have had my phone because apps were stuck.

 

[doogald]

It's a big step, but rooting your phone will definitely help. For one thing, you can remove the pre-installed bloatware that you do not use (such as Amazon MP3 Store, Peep, Footprints, Visual Voicemail, Teeter, Stocks, etc.)