Myth: Closing Apps Saves Battery Life(?)

[bugeyed]

I find it interesting that some people admit that they regularly, manually close all their apps & at the same time state that they know that it does nothing to effect performance. They admit that it is just a habit!? I understand the OCD driven motivation to do these things, but I think it speaks more to how many people in our culture operate from superstition, habit & blind obedience to things that they don't understand. I guess this is to be expected when such advanced technology is in the hands of everyone that can afford it. What was it Sir Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". I am technical enough to kinda understand how computer based devices work, but it does take effort to learn & at some level it's just magic. In the end, I guess, we have to feel comfortable with the hi tech devices that we use, so if it makes you feel better to manually close these apps, go for it. At least it gives you the feeling that you are in control, although deep inside we all know that technology is in charge
Cheers,
kev

 

[Guacho]

Except if you read the articles I linked, they claim that it doesn't affect memory either:

Let me wrap this up by giving you a quick summary:

If someone tells you that all the apps in the multitasking bar are running, using up memory or sucking power, they are wrong.
When you hit the home button, an app moves from Active to Background and quickly to the Suspended state where it no longer uses CPU time or drains power.
An app may request an additional 10 minutes of Background running to complete a big task before becoming Suspended.
If memory is becoming scarce, iOS will automatically move Suspended apps into the Not Running state and reclaim their memory.
Five classes of apps – audio, GPS, VOIP, Newsstand and accessory apps – and some built-in apps such as Mail may run indefinitely in the background until they complete their task.

Put simply: you do not have to manage background tasks on iOS. The system handles almost every case for you and well written audio, GPS, VOIP, Newsstand and accessory apps will handle the rest.

The point is that people assume the app switcher bar is like a task manager because we all grew up on Windows devices and that's the closest analogy. The article(s) are saying that it isn't - it's more akin to an app history list. That's why you can pile up like 40 things in there and the device still functions...those apps aren't running.

The best evidence that this are true is what happens when you click on an app from the switcher bar and it doesn't resume what you were doing, but rather starts it all over. It's no different than if you had clicked the icon from your home page.

Please explain what is going on in this video then....

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=/&gl=US#/watch?v=1XMtk9pbaj8

 

[StormJH1]

Please explain what is going on in this video then....

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

I can't view your link, it doesn't show any specific videos. If you have any proof that "closing" apps in the switcher bar improves performance, I'd love to see it. Again, if you really look at what happens when you try to reopen a "suspended" app from the bar, I think it's more consistent with the theory that the apps are closing down on their own. It may not happen for 5-10 minutes or so, but the device is not running 40 things at one time - it just isn't true.

I just ran into another new iPhone user who relayed the same view (that emptying the switcher bar improves battery life). I think it's worthwhile to talk about because it'd be a remarkable if the clear majority of iPhone users were under a misconception about extra work they had to do to help a problem with their phone (and were getting fed that advice by Apple reps).

 

[SaberSerene]

Fraser Speirs - Blog - Misconceptions About iOS*Multitasking

Fact Or Myth: Killing Apps In The iOS Multitasking Bar Boosts Performance -- AppAdvice

Stop me if everyone in this well-educated community already knew this, but I guarantee you that most people using iOS right now do not! When I switched to iOS from BlackBerry, I was thrilled to see how easy iOS5 made it to show the "task manager" and then close apps by getting them to "shake" and hitting the little "-" sign.

Except the articles linked above describe how that's a complete misconception, and that you're actually doing nothing to help your CPU usage or battery life. The articles describe the 5 different states that apps go into, and when you open up the task bar, what you're really looking at is more akin to an "App History" than a true task manager. This makes sense, too, because many apps that I enter back into (particularly if it's after more than a few minutes) behave as if I completely closed them down before.

Anyway, even if this revelation was redundant, I thought I'd repost here because I had gotten this advice from virtually all of my Apple-using friends, and it turns out it's just plain wrong!

Let's get something straight here. If you don't kill some apps the os will do it sloppy. Check out your settings app and about. scroll to diagnostic. When you see Low memory this means you had too many apps wasting your ram. apps crash from low memory. iOS hasn't been the same since 4.0 / x
At that time iOS did do it's job. Apple jumped the gun with 5.0.

Disregard people who say "killing apps doesn't matter". It does matter. iOS is horrible with memory. Manage your apps and you'll be fine. Now for battery life. Apps like Motionx gps that require your location are active when exiting to your home screen. radio apps like TuneIn Radio abide by the same concept. streaming audio in the background and or enabling location for local radio. Games such as Infinity Blade suck up a lot of ram and yes will drain battery. You should limit your apps in the tray. up to 5 or 6.

 

[jclif]

The best evidence that this are true is what happens when you click on an app from the switcher bar and it doesn't resume what you were doing, but rather starts it all over. It's no different than if you had clicked the icon from your home page.

Thats not the case with me, when I open an app like words with friends or Facebook from the switcher bar, it ALWAYS takes me back from where I left off. Even when I use Pandora, it doesn't stop running when I hit the home button, I have to physically shut it down from the switcher bar. Am I saying that EVERY app acts this way? No. but there are defintely apps out there that need to be shut down manually. I do it all the time and I can go a full 12 hours with my battery still having 65% at the end of the day and yes I use my phone alot.

 

[doublebullout]

If you have an iPhone 4, 4S or iPad 2, it makes no difference. If you have an earlier iPhone or iPad 1, it definitely can.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Arelunde]

Let's get something straight here. If you don't kill some apps the os will do it sloppy. Check out your settings app and about. scroll to diagnostic. When you see Low memory this means you had too many apps wasting your ram. apps crash from low memory. iOS hasn't been the same since 4.0 / x
At that time iOS did do it's job. Apple jumped the gun with 5.0.

Disregard people who say "killing apps doesn't matter". It does matter. iOS is horrible with memory. Manage your apps and you'll be fine. Now for battery life. Apps like Motionx gps that require your location are active when exiting to your home screen. radio apps like TuneIn Radio abide by the same concept. streaming audio in the background and or enabling location for local radio. Games such as Infinity Blade suck up a lot of ram and yes will drain battery. You should limit your apps in the tray. up to 5 or 6.

I really agree with this ... On both my iPad2 and iPhone4, both running stock iOS5.0.1, I've had problems with low memory leading to crashes! I keep the task bar clean a couple times a day and definitely for anything that updates in the background or uses GPS. I've also taken to closing out the tabs in Safari for the same reason (they can download in the background).

The OP may be right about closing apps not having an effect on battery life (both my iDevices have outstandingly good battery life, even on busy days). But the stability factor is a definite reason to keepthings "clean."

 

[acascante]

I've heard a lot of people saying that closing the apps isn't necessary or doesn't affect battery life, however I have found that if I leave apps such as maps or camera running in the background that the battery life dimishes significantly. Why would this be?

 

[kch50428]

I've heard a lot of people saying that closing the apps isn't necessary or doesn't affect battery life, however I have found that if I leave apps such as maps or camera running in the background that the battery life dimishes significantly. Why would this be?

Maps will use the GPS receiver... as will the camera if you have geotagging enabled. Using the GPS receiver eats battery.