General Are there any apps you should always close out of?

[tonybarnaby]

I’m still getting used to leaving apps open in the background. I know iOS is very good at freezing things in the background, but are there any situations where you should force close an app instead of leaving it sleeping in the background? My wife is constantly shutting everything on her X, while I’ve been leaving all of my apps running. Battery life seems good, I’m just curious more than anything.

On Android if you open your phone and then power the screen off, the phone doesn’t sleep(doze) right away. Will an iPhone immediately go to “sleep” as soon as you power off the screen, or does the processor work in the background for a short time like on Android? Android has an app called “force doze” that you can use to force your phone to sleep immediately after shutting the screen off.

 

[bbrks]

You don't have to close anything....IOS is managing it for you. On my X, I have probably 40 apps in background all the time and despite that, phone is smooth as butter

 

[BrianBaughn]

Don't forget about apps using Location Services in the background. That makes a difference.

 

[tonybarnaby]

Don't forget about apps using Location Services in the background. That makes a difference.

I keep location off at all times, except when using maps. Thanks for the tip, though.

 

[Septembersrain]

I'd say Facebook if you use it. I have background refresh off on it but if the app stays open, it'll kill my battery stupidly quick.

 

[C DM]

I'd say Facebook if you use it. I have background refresh off on it but if the app stays open, it'll kill my battery stupidly quick.

Yeah, it's a weird app in that sense as it can definitely be like that for some, while it can also be pretty much totally normal like any other app (without raking up background usage for no reason) for others.

 

[Septembersrain]

Yeah, it's a weird app in that sense as it can definitely be like that for some, while it can also be pretty much totally normal like any other app (without raking up background usage for no reason) for others.

You're right. You can never tell if it'll be a battery hog or not. Each time it gets updated, that can change it too.

So that's why I find it better to just not risk it at all.

 

[eicca]

The eBay app caused some battery trouble on my new iPad. Even with Background App Refresh and location services disabled, and even when the app was fully closed, my iPad would lose something like 5% battery overnight until I deleted just that app.

I’ve seen other apps like Messenger and Marco Polo use “background activity” if not fully closed.

 

[TimFL1]

Correct me if I‘m wrong but I think apps can push silent notifications to your device to get background activity. Could be that certain apps use that to refresh in the background. If an app racks up background usage or drains your battery you could try to turn off notifications to see if the drain stops.

 

[itsmilo]

Instagram, Facebook, SNAPCHAT are all awfully optimized

 

[CTHarrryH]

I look at the battery information about what APPS are using battery and it shows which are doing it in background even if you have background update off. Those I close.
I don't use Facebook or other social apps but I'd definitely close them because they are designed to extract information about you

 

[enmanuelrrr]

I recommend you to leave all apps open but check first if you have Background App Refresh on. Otherwise, it should work fine.

 

[Armen]

I’m still getting used to leaving apps open in the background. I know iOS is very good at freezing things in the background, but are there any situations where you should force close an app instead of leaving it sleeping in the background? My wife is constantly shutting everything on her X, while I’ve been leaving all of my apps running. Battery life seems good, I’m just curious more than anything.

On Android if you open your phone and then power the screen off, the phone doesn’t sleep(doze) right away. Will an iPhone immediately go to “sleep” as soon as you power off the screen, or does the processor work in the background for a short time like on Android? Android has an app called “force doze” that you can use to force your phone to sleep immediately after shutting the screen off.

There are a few things you need to understand about iOS

Only a handful of apps (mostly the native apps) have special permission to run in the background. This would include Phone, Mail, Music, and some third part media apps. Some third party apps will continue to run in the background for a few minutes after the app is no longer in focus. i.e. if you see 20 apps in the task switcher it does not mean they are all running.

The "apps" you see in the task switcher are either:
- currently active
- have memory allocated but are not using cpu cycles (frozen state)
- represent more of a bookmark to an app that was once open.

When iOS needs memory it will go to the most idle app, kill it automatically and release the memory it was using. Of course an exception to this rule are system level apps (phone, messages, mail. etc).

Apple put the "close app" feature into iOS to force close an app that is misbehaving (frozen, not responding etc). Intentionally closing all apps is a bad habit because iOS uses unnecessary battery power to re-load all these apps back into memory again when a user needs them whereas it takes less battery power to keep the apps in a frozen state.

Hope this helps?

Edit: Forgot to add background app refresh. People seem to confuse this feature with an app running in the background. That is not how it works.

Background app refresh is a feature that Apple introduced in which iOS would learn when you used specific apps and have those apps automatically update in the background before you opened them. For example if the first thing you did at 8am was check your Facebook app than iOS would learn to update the Facebook app right before you opened it so you wouldn't have to refresh the app to see the latest updates.

 

[tonybarnaby]

There are a few things you need to understand about iOS

Only a handful of apps (mostly the native apps) have special permission to run in the background. This would include Phone, Mail, Music, and some third part media apps. Some third party apps will continue to run in the background for a few minutes after the app is no longer in focus. i.e. if you see 20 apps in the task switcher it does not mean they are all running.

The "apps" you see in the task switcher are either:
- currently active
- have memory allocated but are not using cpu cycles (frozen state)
- represent more of a bookmark to an app that was once open.

When iOS needs memory it will go to the most idle app, kill it automatically and release the memory it was using. Of course an exception to this rule are system level apps (phone, messages, mail. etc).

Apple put the "close app" feature into iOS to force close an app that is misbehaving (frozen, not responding etc). Intentionally closing all apps is a bad habit because iOS uses unnecessary battery power to re-load all these apps back into memory again when a user needs them whereas it takes less battery power to keep the apps in a frozen state.

Hope this helps?

Edit: Forgot to add background app refresh. People seem to confuse this feature with an app running in the background. That is not how it works.

Background app refresh is a feature that Apple introduced in which iOS would learn when you used specific apps and have those apps automatically update in the background before you opened them. For example if the first thing you did at 8am was check your Facebook app than iOS would learn to update the Facebook app right before you opened it so you wouldn't have to refresh the app to see the latest updates.

Thanks. The apps I always tend to close are google photos, Instagram and Reddit. I don’t use Facebook or Snapchat, which are known to be the worst apps.

 

[Armen]

Thanks. The apps I always tend to close are google photos, Instagram and Reddit. I don’t use Facebook or Snapchat, which are known to be the worst apps.

Technically you shouldn't have to close them. I use google photos as well and don't close out of it.

 

[cynics]

I don’t close any apps and I leave background refresh on.

Only 2 apps that even show background activity are my security camera app and my photos app. Neither are using anything significant.

I have 2 apps that used a lot of my battery, phone and safari which is because I was using them a lot today.

Even Facebook has been in my multitasking all day with background app refresh on for it and it’s used 1%.

I used to micro manage apps, keep half the features of the iPhone off etc etc finally one day I got tired of it and turned everything on to find out it made no difference. Only obvious effect to battery life I notice is when I have poor cell reception. So for me it’s not worth my time and even that carries very little value.

 

[gobikerider]

I’m still getting used to leaving apps open in the background. I know iOS is very good at freezing things in the background, but are there any situations where you should force close an app instead of leaving it sleeping in the background? My wife is constantly shutting everything on her X, while I’ve been leaving all of my apps running. Battery life seems good, I’m just curious more than anything.

On Android if you open your phone and then power the screen off, the phone doesn’t sleep(doze) right away. Will an iPhone immediately go to “sleep” as soon as you power off the screen, or does the processor work in the background for a short time like on Android? Android has an app called “force doze” that you can use to force your phone to sleep immediately after shutting the screen off.

None technically, I still will close any map or camera app when not using it.