Help Running multiple apps

[geezer]

Been a Linux users for decades (only run MS once a year to do the taxes - if TaxAct ever ports to Linux, then I can dump MS totally). Bought my first smart phone recently - L34C - found out it was android after I bought it. Since I am a Linux fan, I decided that I liked Android immediately.

One thing I miss - running multiple apps and switching between apps without shutting down the current app.

Haven't found any way to do that. Is it possible??

Given that Android is Linux, I thought it must be possible, but I haven't found any way to do so as yet.

Read recently where Android and Linus are very close to folding the Android tweaks back into the Linux repository, which gives me even more hope that there must be way to run multiple apps at the same time and switch between them without shutting down the current app.

Been reading about rooting the phone, but haven't found any compelling reason for me to do so yet.

 

[roadkill42]

Been a Linux users for decades (only run MS once a year to do the taxes - if TaxAct ever ports to Linux, then I can dump MS totally). Bought my first smart phone recently - L34C - found out it was android after I bought it. Since I am a Linux fan, I decided that I liked Android immediately.

One thing I miss - running multiple apps and switching between apps without shutting down the current app.

Haven't found any way to do that. Is it possible??

Given that Android is Linux, I thought it must be possible, but I haven't found any way to do so as yet.

Read recently where Android and Linus are very close to folding the Android tweaks back into the Linux repository, which gives me even more hope that there must be way to run multiple apps at the same time and switch between them without shutting down the current app.

Been reading about rooting the phone, but haven't found any compelling reason for me to do so yet.

If u have root u can change ROMs and debloat ur device

 

[daffyducknj]

Being rooted also allow you to make full system backups via custom recovery. It's also a great way to expand on the small amount of internal memory of devices like the F3. I've been on Linux since 1998 myself. I still run MS for some apps that aren't on Linux, mostly specific CAD apps, MultiSIM and a few older games that choke on WiNE.

 

[geezer]

If u have root u can change ROMs and debloat ur device

Not compelling enough to me to root the phone as yet. It may in the future as I get more familiar with the phone, but not yet. I swapped the 4GB microSD for a 32 GB microSD and have more memory than I can use right now.

Being rooted also allow you to make full system backups via custom recovery. It's also a great way to expand on the small amount of internal memory of devices like the F3. I've been on Linux since 1998 myself. I still run MS for some apps that aren't on Linux, mostly specific CAD apps, MultiSIM and a few older games that choke on WiNE.

Again backups may be an issue in the future, but right now I haven't customized the phone enough to warrant that. Games just don't interest me and for music I like really good speakers. Right now the phone is basically a phone for me, but I do like some of the apps like my bank's app that notifies me IMMEDIATELY (always in seconds) when the credit card is used and gas buddy. Both of those I find useful enough to keep the phone. I found that I can connect through my VPN and that I find totally necessary when I connect through a WiFi. The thought of connecting to my bank through the phone WiFi without a VPN scares me enough that I would not do it. Also connecting with my Health Care provider and reading my email - wouldn't do either without a VPN. For me the VPN is essential to use the phone as a computer terminal. Played with the Google maps app which I might find useful in the future, but none of that really warrants a necessary backup. I connect to my desktop through the USB connection and I was frustrated at first because I couldn't create a special folder to store stuff on the microSD. But that problem disappeared when I found that when connected to the computer via USB, the desktop is connected by default as a root device and the file manager on the computer can do all of the folder/file manipulation that I need so far. I store all of the special files on the android on my desktop and both the desktop and laptop are automatically backed up to 3 separate hard disks (just in case one hard disk goes belly up). So I've got 3 totally independent backups of all of my operating hard disks.

 

[robaho]

Been a Linux users for decades (only run MS once a year to do the taxes - if TaxAct ever ports to Linux, then I can dump MS totally). Bought my first smart phone recently - L34C - found out it was android after I bought it. Since I am a Linux fan, I decided that I liked Android immediately.

One thing I miss - running multiple apps and switching between apps without shutting down the current app.

Haven't found any way to do that. Is it possible??

Given that Android is Linux, I thought it must be possible, but I haven't found any way to do so as yet.

Read recently where Android and Linus are very close to folding the Android tweaks back into the Linux repository, which gives me even more hope that there must be way to run multiple apps at the same time and switch between them without shutting down the current app.

Been reading about rooting the phone, but haven't found any compelling reason for me to do so yet.

it runs multiple apos out of the box. read your user manual.

 

[geezer]

it runs multiple apos out of the box. read your user manual.

I know that Android runs multiple apps, but there is a difference between just running multiple apps and being able to switch between apps without closing out the currently active app. I want to be able to switch active apps without closing down the current app, work with a second app and then switch back to the first app where I left off and be able to copy text between apps in that manner.

So far I've read 3 or 4 user manuals and 2 or 3 quick start guides. Not a single one that I have read describes how to SWITCH between running apps without exiting the currently active app.

If android had the facility of multiple desktops like Ubuntu or Kubuntu or practically any other GUI running on top of Linux, then I could easily switch between apps by simply moving from one desktop to another. After all, Android is really nothing more than a GUI on top of Linux just like Ubuntu or Kubuntu or any of the other GUIs running on top of Linux.

The multiple desktop capability is not essential to switching between apps. But some mechanism should be provided by the GUI. Heck even Windows can do that simple thing and it's only got a single desktop.

Not being able to switch between apps without closing out the current app makes doing things un-necessarily difficult.

Now if you can point to an Android user manual that describes how to switch between apps like I want to do then please do so. A page number would also be appreciated, but not essential. Just telling me to read the manual is really no help whatsover.

 

[Crashdamage]

@geezer: What???

Of course you can run multiple apps, switch between them without closing them, do real multitasking. Android has *always* been a multitasking OS. Yes, there's some limitations, mostly due to hardware. Screen size, mobile CPUs and limited RAM have kept any mobile OS from *exactly* recreating the desktop experience. But if you use the Previous button, it,'s easy to see that clearly Android IS multitasking.

For example, I can be working with a file manager, open a browser and surf a bit, check email, tap Previous and tap on the file manager and be right where I was, then tap Previous and email and be right where I was in email. Or have a large batch of photo files uploading to Google Drive while I edit a text file. That IS multiple things running at the same time. I'm not closing out of apps. I'm not exiting one to use another. I'm just switching between them.

Functionally, the Previous button is actually the same as switching between desktops or windows on a PC. Think of it as the same thing as downsizing running apps on a PC, parking them in the toolbar, but in Android instead of a toolbar you're parking running apps in Previous.

And Android is not just another GUI on top of Linux like Gnome or KDE. A launcher is closer to that. Android is a replacement for X, the Linux windowing system, the .apk package system, a virtual machine (ART or Dalvik) and more.

Edit: A quick Google search for 'android multitasking' pulls up endless information. Here's a few links. BTW I'm copying and pasting them in while switching back and forth and between the Google search app, Firefox and Tapatalk. Doing a little multitasking with a Nexus 7.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/112013-how-multitasking-works-on-android-and-ios/2

http://www.fastcompany.com/3038213/...obile-multitasking-takes-a-great-leap-forward

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Did-...ng-works-and-the-changes-in-L-release_id61344

 

[geezer]

@geezer: What???

Of course you can run multiple apps, switch between them without closing them, do real multitasking. Android has *always* been a multitasking OS. Yes, there's some limitations, mostly due to hardware. Screen size, mobile CPUs and limited RAM have kept any mobile OS from *exactly* recreating the desktop experience. But if you use the Previous button, it,'s easy to see that clearly Android IS multitasking.

For example, I can be working with a file manager, open a browser and surf a bit, check email, tap Previous and tap on the file manager and be right where I was, then tap Previous and email and be right where I was in email. Or have a large batch of photo files uploading to Google Drive while I edit a text file. That IS multiple things running at the same time. I'm not closing out of apps. I'm not exiting one to use another. I'm just switching between them.

Functionally, the Previous button is actually the same as switching between desktops or windows on a PC. Think of it as the same thing as downsizing running apps on a PC, parking them in the toolbar, but in Android instead of a toolbar you're parking running apps in Previous.

And Android is not just another GUI on top of Linux like Gnome or KDE. A launcher is closer to that. Android is a replacement for X, the Linux windowing system, the .apk package system, a virtual machine (ART or Dalvik) and more.

Edit: A quick Google search for 'android multitasking' pulls up endless information. Here's a few links. BTW I'm copying and pasting them in while switching back and forth and between the Google search app, Firefox and Tapatalk. Doing a little multitasking with a Nexus 7.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/112013-how-multitasking-works-on-android-and-ios/2

http://www.fastcompany.com/3038213/...obile-multitasking-takes-a-great-leap-forward

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Did-...ng-works-and-the-changes-in-L-release_id61344

Actually the previous button is not really anything like switching apps. Typical scenario: I'm in Chrome (the browser) and I've been following a chain of links to a desired web site. Say I've got at least 6 links in the chain, usually it can be a lot more. I've found the web site with the information I want. Now I can copy a sentence and I want to switch to Jota+ to copy into a document. Your way I have to hit the previous button all the way back down the chain of links, open Jota+ copy the sentence into the document. Now I want to return to the same web site. I have to hit the previous button to exit Jota+, or close the document or open the menu and "exit", then press the Chrome icon, then follow the "same" chain of links (hopefully I remember the chain and can thus follow it exactly) to the web site, copy another sentence on another page of the web site and then repeat the above for each and every piece of text I want to copy.

With TRUE app switching, I would simply find the desired web site, copy the desired text, use one action (at the most 2), e.g., touching the icon to switch tasks, to "switch to Jota+, paste the desired text and then switch back to Chrome, using the same mechanism at the exact state that it was in when I "switched". Chrome would still be displaying the web site I wanted. No need to follow the link chain.

So using the "previous" button may appear superficially to be task switching, it is far from it.

Which also brings me another aspect of the previous button that I find irritating with Chrome. Maybe Chrome has an "exit" button, but I have not been able to find it. The only way I have found to exit Chrome is to press the previous button repeated until it exits. That can be a LOT of presses of the previous button.

I'n not saying that Android is not multi-tasking. Actually I'n saying that I know that it is since it is really Linux under the covers and Linux is built to be multi-tasking. What I want is the ability to do a one or 2 action switch between apps. I guess I misled people by using "multi-tasking" in my thread title.

I do not consider using the "previous" button to be task switching. If you can point out a way that I have not found to shotcut all of the presses of the previous button that I described above, please describe it.

 

[Crashdamage]

I just:

Opened Firefox.
Followed 6-7 links.
Copied some text.
Opened Keep, created a note, pasted the text.
Tapped Previous, Tapatalk, wrote the first part of this.
Tapped Previous, Firefox.
I was right back where I copied the text.

That's just what you described as 'TRUE app switching'. BTW I can do it by tapping app icons instead using Previous and tapping an app, I just find Previous handier.

Previous, or tapping icons, isn't superficially task switching, it IS task switching!

Read the first link of the 3 I added, it's called 'Android - multitasking like a boss.'

Chrome doesn't have an exit button because it doesn't need one. If it bothers you, tap Previous and just swipe it away.

 

[AnciusD]

Try long pressing the Home key? Should bring up list of recent apps.

 

[robaho]

Actually the previous button is not really anything like switching apps. Typical scenario: I'm in Chrome (the browser) and I've been following a chain of links to a desired web site. Say I've got at least 6 links in the chain, usually it can be a lot more. I've found the web site with the information I want. Now I can copy a sentence and I want to switch to Jota+ to copy into a document. Your way I have to hit the previous button all the way back down the chain of links, open Jota+ copy the sentence into the document. Now I want to return to the same web site. I have to hit the previous button to exit Jota+, or close the document or open the menu and "exit", then press the Chrome icon, then follow the "same" chain of links (hopefully I remember the chain and can thus follow it exactly) to the web site, copy another sentence on another page of the web site and then repeat the above for each and every piece of text I want to copy.

With TRUE app switching, I would simply find the desired web site, copy the desired text, use one action (at the most 2), e.g., touching the icon to switch tasks, to "switch to Jota+, paste the desired text and then switch back to Chrome, using the same mechanism at the exact state that it was in when I "switched". Chrome would still be displaying the web site I wanted. No need to follow the link chain.

So using the "previous" button may appear superficially to be task switching, it is far from it.

Which also brings me another aspect of the previous button that I find irritating with Chrome. Maybe Chrome has an "exit" button, but I have not been able to find it. The only way I have found to exit Chrome is to press the previous button repeated until it exits. That can be a LOT of presses of the previous button.

I'n not saying that Android is not multi-tasking. Actually I'n saying that I know that it is since it is really Linux under the covers and Linux is built to be multi-tasking. What I want is the ability to do a one or 2 action switch between apps. I guess I misled people by using "multi-tasking" in my thread title.

I do not consider using the "previous" button to be task switching. If you can point out a way that I have not found to shotcut all of the presses of the previous button that I described above, please describe it.

you need to read a basic android manual. I multitask all the time and never use the previous button. read about "share" that will do most of what you need.