Task Manager/Killer App Is It Worth It?

[BigDaddyFromCincinnati]

Should I get a task manager/killer app?
I have read good and bad about these apps.
My phone works pretty darn good without one.
Please let me know what you think.

Thanks

 

[thetomlin2]

Your going to hear the same things in this thread as what you have read already. If you think your phone is working well, it doesnt sound like you need one. I use Advasnced Task Manager, and like it.

 

[Bswartz95]

Yeah, this is a personal preference based on usage. I use Task Panel and set up an auto-kill list with programs like camera, calculator, calendar, market, albums, etc.. I also set up an ignore list with the HTC programs, Clock, sync, gmail, etc..

 

[BigDaddyFromCincinnati]

Is there really a ton of crap on all the time in the background?
If you kill it does it really improve the phone?
My phone is a little sluggish moving here to there sometimes.
Will I see any difference?
Most of the time it is dead on.

 

[Bswartz95]

The best remedy for a sluggish phone is rebooting it. That's what I've found. I just feel that there's no use in having a bunch of stuff in the background.

 

[glitch32]

I don't use one and my phone is working just fine. I have created a shortcut the the stock app manager in the phone from the settings menu just so that I can see what is running and if I ever needed to kill an app, I could do it from there. You have to change the filter though so that it shows running apps and not all apps you've installed.

 

[L0stS0ul]

I'll post what I've posted in a few other places before about this topic. I recently did a lot of research and actually wrote my own task manager.

I've found is that there are certain apps that really should be killed. The HTC Web Browser is a killer. The way it caches information causes a tremendous amount of strain on the OS. I now use Dolphin which is much nicer on resources then the default especially if you put the cache on the sd card.

I just got done doing a lot of research on the whole task management for the task manager I wrote and I've found some interesting things. First off the phone's built in auto kill (part of the android os) is set to 16MB which is way to low IMO for this phone. It should be closer to 30MB as that's where I start to see noticeable lag on my phone. (I tried to change it but can't without rooting the phone I believe) It also doesn't really autokill right away. It sends notifications to each of the open applications asking them nicely to release some of their used memory. Its up to the app developer to capture this notification and free up some memory. Not a lot of developers do this so the phone then will start killing processes.

I've also learned in these travels that there is a right way and a wrong way to exit an application. I almost always hit the home button to get back to the home screen. This actually is wrong and I'm working to change my habits. The "correct" way is to use the back button. The OS apparently forces some cleanup when you hit the back button that it doesn't if you hit home. I've noticed my phone uses less memory when I use the back button. I wonder if those having serious lag issues are doing what I do and hit the home button as well?

If you use a task manger you may find that using the back button will sometimes actually kill apps all together. It's easy for a developer to trap the back command and kill their own app which in turn frees up memory.

I did post my task manager app for download. It's not in the marketplace and looks like it never will be but it works great for me, is very minimal, and hides processes you really should not kill unlike the other task managers.

http://androidforums.com/android-ap...nterested-trying-new-task-management-app.html

 

[mj_b90]

L0stS0ul, thanks for the info. I'm testing out your app right now and so far it looks like just what I wanted. Thanks again.