Other Guy says not to do this

[ApfelKuchen]

I take the name App Switcher pretty literally - I use it for switching between apps I'm actively using/multi-tasking - let's say if I need to copy/paste between apps. When I'm mono-tasking I use the Home screen.

Since App Switcher arranges apps based on most recently used to least recently used, I don't find much in the way of clutter - I'm not swiping left/right very far before I find the desired app.

The only time I'll close-out apps from App Switcher is if either a particular app is misbehaving, or the entire system is misbehaving. Since misbehavior is infrequent (even though my aging iPhone X is running iOS 15.1.1), taking the time on, say, a daily basis to routinely close apps (in hopes of preventing future misbehavior) seems more trouble than it's worth.

 

[ericwn]

Why would the app switcher be “clogged”? Most people invoked the app switcher to go to the last one or two apps that they used, not scrolling to the 10th app they last used. Nobody even remembered that, they would just open the app normally from the Home Screen.

And no, the point was this has nothing to do with iOS working more “smoothly.” And no, the concept of “shutting down” is outdated.

Exactly.

 

[ian87w]

Bouncing this around in my head there has to be some sort of heuristics code that manages when to close things and does optimization of app state. That takes processing power. With that in mind there is a point where it would be good to close apps so that the system doesn’t waste time optimizing them. I can only assume apple tombstones them first but I wonder now…

The question is, does it matter for a user's normal perspective?
Closing apps might be a good idea when iPhones only have 1GB of RAM and you want to run a large game. But we are in 2021 now. Even if I were an advance user, I wouldn't want to waste my time micromanaging apps in RAM on my phone. I would expect my $1000 phone to be able to do it on its own.

 

[macintoshmac]

No it’s not.
Every app you launch stays forever stacked in the app switcher —- FOREVER. Years can pass and every app you’ve ever launched that’s still installed will clutter the app switcher no matter how many times the phone is rebooted.
Eventually- you’ll launch every app you’ve got some time or another, maybe months apart - and they’ll all clutter up the app switcher FOREVER unless you clear them out.
So — eventually — if you let iOS do its thing on its own, the app switcher will inevitably stack every app installed in its house of cards, making it almost worthless to use as an app switcher.

The primary reason the powers that be recommend not force quitting apps is to save battery life since they’ll launch from cache, not off the SSD, but if the phone is plugged in, who cares?

Are you suggesting that if I have 300 apps on the iPhone and open all of them, I will have all of them in the app switcher?

That is not correct, to the best of my understanding.

 

[Shirasaki]

"force quitting" apps that are not games does little I think. You never know if the lingering process got killed as well, or it is just a frontend that got killed. Or, all processes will be put in a suspended state and never got "killed" unless you force restart your iPhone. Maybe in the future, only removing battery could truly kill frozen process (cause no power = true shutdown). Who knows.
It's not like in macOS or Windows where you call out task manager or sth similar to kill a process that acts up.

 

[throAU]

I swipe apps away from time to time to make finding the actual apps I want to be running easier.

Nothing to do with battery life, just clutter.

 

[zakarhino]

It's absolutely the case that some apps consume a lot of background battery life and can be remedied by force closing them with a swipe. I have proof of not just third party apps doing this but also rogue JS scripts on Safari sites which completely nuke my battery.

Even if we're going with the argument that this is unnecessary from a battery POV I agree with others in the thread that I don't like my app switcher clogged up with apps I don't need to quick switch to. On my Mac I disable all icons from staying in the dock unless they're open for this exact reason.

 

[Velli]

Bouncing this around in my head there has to be some sort of heuristics code that manages when to close things and does optimization of app state. That takes processing power. With that in mind there is a point where it would be good to close apps so that the system doesn’t waste time optimizing them. I can only assume apple tombstones them first but I wonder now…

This is exactly the point of this discussion - it doesn’t work the way some people would logically think it does. Using a little CPU to manage the apps is a very GOOD investment, compared to using a lot of CPU to cold-start the apps all the time. Heck, even the act itself of force quitting the apps probably uses more CPU than the background management…

I see the argument about clutter, however that is a very illogical way of using the app switcher, which - obviously - requires a lot of micro management that would be unnecessary if you instead micro manage a few homescreens to hold your most used apps. Once you are above 10-15 apps, lopking for the app in app switcher is completely nonsensical as compared to opening it from the home screen. I suspect this is again caused by a misunderstanding, that it is somehow more cpu efficient to “switch” apps than to “open” them. Which would be false, it is different ways to initiate exactly the same task.

In other words, if you are using your phone in a way that makes the video false, you are inefficient and should change your behaviour - which in turn makes the video correct ?

 

[Velli]

I swipe apps away from time to time to make finding the actual apps I want to be running easier.

Nothing to do with battery life, just clutter.

I am genuinely curious about this behaviour, since it seems many are doing it: Why don’t you just keep those most used apps on the first or second homescreen? It seems to me wildly inefficient to use app switcher for that.

 

[throAU]

I am genuinely curious about this behaviour, since it seems many are doing it: Why don’t you just keep those most used apps on the first or second homescreen? It seems to me wildly inefficient to use app switcher for that.

I generally use the App Library or search (99% of the time, swipe down and type like 1-3 letters), but I just don't like the clutter when I occasionally go into app switcher view.

It's not logical. I don't have to be logical all the time

 

[Velli]

I generally use the App Library or search (99% of the time, swipe down and type like 1-3 letters), but I just don't like the clutter when I occasionally go into app switcher view.

It's not logical. I don't have to be logical all the time

As long as you’re not using it as an argumemt against an informative, factual post about how the system actually works most effociently, I don’t have a problem with that.

 

[walchan99]

I swipe apps away from time to time to make finding the actual apps I want to be running easier.

Nothing to do with battery life, just clutter.

Yeah, me too. That's the small issue of useability, which those geekier than me don't bother with. Also, while phone memory may be enormous, my own memory has been a bit whittled with age, so if I go out looking for an app, and the app switcher proffers another en route, I can (and often do) get sidetracked.

 

[wilberforce]

The main reason I close apps on my phone, is so I can quickly swipe between a few remaining apps without opening the app switcher (by swiping horizontally on the bar at the bottom). I frequently do this, quickly switching between google maps, a navigation app, and a traffic incident map, for example.

 

[ninecows]

This site sometimes makes my keyboard respond very slowly. It can take 30 second to type 5 words. Anyone know why?

Adds?

 

[Smigit]

Why would the app switcher be “clogged”? Most people invoked the app switcher to go to the last one or two apps that they used, not scrolling to the 10th app they last used. Nobody even remembered that, they would just open the app normally from the Home Screen.

and if it’s not on the first screen or two I find spotlight super quick and convenient.

 

[coffee06]

I just like my phone like I like my desk…uncluttered. But I don’t mind a little cpu usage when opening up something I closed earlier. I think my phone can handle this OCD part of my life with negligible impact.

 

[cyanite]

"force quitting" apps that are not games does little I think. You never know if the lingering process got killed as well, or it is just a frontend that got killed. Or, all processes will be put in a suspended state and never got "killed" unless you force restart your iPhone. Maybe in the future, only removing battery could truly kill frozen process (cause no power = true shutdown). Who knows.

Who knows? App developers. And also users who do proper experiments. I’ve tried that several times, and apps always relaunch after being swiped away in the switcher. I only really do that if they are misbehaving, though.

 

[EddieKeyton1]

I always use app switcher and close my apps after I use them. I have no problems with opening things and nothing feels sluggish. And I’m OCD lol

 

[macintoshmac]

I’ve read from others here how bad their device battery was affected in the past especially without ad blocker. One more reason to use Tapatalk for me besides the content just looks so much nicer.

Isn't Tapatalk also ad-supported, with the VIP subscription removing said ads? I stopped using it long ago, so not in the know. Would you kindly post a screenshot to show what you mean when you say content just looks so much nicer?

 

[macintoshmac]

I am genuinely curious about this behaviour, since it seems many are doing it: Why don’t you just keep those most used apps on the first or second homescreen? It seems to me wildly inefficient to use app switcher for that.

Because we can swipe the home bar left and right to switch apps while being in the apps, and that’s wildly faster and more meaningful if the apps in the switcher are the ones we want and not every single app on our devices.

 

[Shirasaki]

Who knows? App developers. And also users who do proper experiments. I’ve tried that several times, and apps always relaunch after being swiped away in the switcher. I only really do that if they are misbehaving, though.

Both on Windows and on macOS, app developers could introduce a frontend application and a backend process for some background tasks, sometimes multiple of those. I doubt iOS would allow background process like that exist unless it is approved by Apple but those processes cannot be terminated by user from iOS interface. App switcher is not the same as "task manager" or "activity monitor" on Windows and macOS respectively.

 

[mw360]

I never close apps, or tabs for that matter. 136 tabs ‘open’ right now, probably 100 apps ‘cluttering’ the far left of my app switcher where I never ever look. And I’m on iPhone7. People make me chuckle when they think their 5 tabs are making things sluggish.

 

[Ruggy]

I'm pretty sure that for some apps at least if you don't close them they get round the standby that Apple tries to put them in and call home every few minutes.
Why do they create apps in the first place? Yes, clearly if it's doing some sort of function like editing photos or a game but what about all the weather apps, the app for your newspaper, recipe apps: all the things that you can just as easily do from a web page on the browser. Having an app for things like that doesn't give you a better user experience it just gives them way more control over what they can do on your phone.
What about messaging apps and social media: Zoom, Whatsapp, Telegram Skype that sort of thing. Do they sit quietly on standby doing nothing if you leave them open or are they checking in every few minutes and using battery life to do it?
I don't know and I will research this further. but I'm not convinced by this argument.
Sure that may well be the theory but what's the point of tracking cookies then if just forgetting about the app stops them from tracking?
My instinct is if leave everything open I'm sure I can see a big difference in battery life especially the messaging apps but maybe I'm kidding myself and I will try it and see.

Oh, and I forgot about notifications too.

 

[ericwn]

Isn't Tapatalk also ad-supported, with the VIP subscription removing said ads? I stopped using it long ago, so not in the know. Would you kindly post a screenshot to show what you mean when you say content just looks so much nicer?

I’m using the - probably older but still supported- Pro version of their app. It has a dark mode and no ads and a very minimalist interface compared to a web browser.

Screenshot from 12PM attached.

 

[akash.nu]

I’m using the - probably older but still supported- Pro version of their app. It has a dark mode and no ads and a very minimalist interface compared to a web browser.

Screenshot from 12PM attached.

Yeah I’m using that one as well. Much better interface to read forums.