stopping running apps

[jmfrankie]

I have 3 ways that i know of to "kill" or "stop" apps that are running in the background. However, i am not sure what they actually do or if they actually work. Can someone explain what happens when you:

1) When i open third party app like advance task killer, i have apps listed that i never opened. Then i select to kill those apps and refresh and a few more show up. If i wait awhile, then there are even more apps that show up that i again did not use. Why are apps showing up that i don't open? Are they actually running? Does this actually kill the apps?

2) using Android 4.0, they have included a feature to hold the home button and it displays a list of recent used apps. You can slide each screen of recent activity to remove it, but is that stopping the app from continuing to run in the background?

3) i can also go to the settings to"manage apps" and view the tab with all running apps. I can then select each app individually and select to stop the app. Is this the true way to stop running apps? Is it the only way? Can you choose to stop them all?

 

[lunatic59]

Hello and welcome to Android Forums!

Read through this thread. Why You Don't Need a Task Killer. It should be able to answer all your questions.


You shouldn't be killing any apps.

 

[jmfrankie]

That does not really answer my questions.

I understand some apps using other app to accomplish tasks, but if i am doing nothing on my phone, why does facebook launch? why does words with friends launch?

Also, if these apps are not "running" and they are just cached for quicker re-opening, why does my phone get really hot sometimes even if im not doing anything? and why does my battery go down quicker being idle sometime rather than others?

 

[ExtremeNerd]

That does not really answer my questions.

I understand some apps using other app to accomplish tasks, but if i am doing nothing on my phone, why does facebook launch? why does words with friends launch?

Also, if these apps are not "running" and they are just cached for quicker re-opening, why does my phone get really hot sometimes even if im not doing anything? and why does my battery go down quicker being idle sometime rather than others?

Read the thread he linked. It explains how android works. TL: DR - On modern android phones, open RAM is wasted RAM. You should let your phone store data for a better experience.

All phones are different. You may have a crappy phone with awful software and poor battery management. Or, you could have a smaller battery than other phones.

Just let your phone do it's thing.

 

[lunatic59]

That does not really answer my questions.

Sorry, it's a long thread. The answers are there, but let me try and summarize for you.

I understand some apps using other app to accomplish tasks, but if i am doing nothing on my phone, why does facebook launch? why does words with friends launch?

There are a lot of common services across apps. Being able to send an email, for example, is common to many apps. If each app had to include every service for every function it performs, apps would be huge and inefficient. So, when Picassa wants to upload an image, attach a location to it and email a notification, it might use services from the email app, Google maps and the camera, none of which you've actually opened. Still, they will display as "running" since they have been used recently.

Android uses a predictive cache to load memory with recently used and most used apps in an attempt to make their launching even quicker. If you've played words with friends frequently, it will attempt to have that ready for you the next time want to play. Android is based on linux where the memory paradigm is "unused memory is wasted memory" so it tries to load it up.

Also, if these apps are not "running" and they are just cached for quicker re-opening, why does my phone get really hot sometimes even if im not doing anything? and why does my battery go down quicker being idle sometime rather than others?

The heat comes from processor cycles and battery discharge. You should probably install an app like Watchdog Lite to monitor which app is not shutting down like it should.

Another thing that can happen is if you leave wifi, mobile data (3G/4G/LTE) and GPS antennas on all the time. If your signals are weak or intermittent, the phone can use a lot of power trying to maintain the connections. In that case you have to evaluate your environment variables and adjust your settings accordingly. For me, i get best power use if i leave wifi on at home or work and leave GPS off. When I am in the car, i turn wifi off and GPS on.

I hope that was able to answer some of your questions.

 

[jefboyardee]

You could use something like Fast Reboot, which kills background apps and shows what it killed. It doesn’t really accomplish anything worthwhile, but it can give one the feeling of being in control.