Other Guy says not to do this

[Velli]

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.

Huh. That’s pretty fascinating to me. That seems like a lot of micro management to keep that act efficient. To each their own, but to me that seems efficient only for a couple of apps. I have muscle memory for most apps on my home screen. That’s 28 apps that I can quickly switch to by swiping up and one tap. It would seem to me that swiping between more than a handful of apps becomes tedious rather than efficient.

Is this a large screen thing, where if you have a Max phone the home screen becomes unwieldly? (I use a Mini)

 

[macintoshmac]

Huh. That’s pretty fascinating to me. That seems like a lot of micro management to keep that act efficient. To each their own, but to me that seems efficient only for a couple of apps. I have muscle memory for most apps on my home screen. That’s 28 apps that I can quickly switch to by swiping up and one tap. It would seem to me that swiping between more than a handful of apps becomes tedious rather than efficient.

Is this a large screen thing, where if you have a Max phone the home screen becomes unwieldly? (I use a Mini)

I have about 40 apps total, native included.

I use just one home screen with 14 apps and 2 folders. 1 folder contains my banking apps, the other contains 4 other related apps.

To each their own, but this is not micro-management for me. This is effortless for me. Sometimes I want to see data in another app when I am using an app - for example when I am typing in Notes I may want to see a phone number or I may want to see something else from another app or a document - that is made easy with app switcher.

I despise juggling yo-yoing between home screen and apps. Swiping left and right to access app of relevance is easier for me.

 

[Silverariel]

That’s not true at all. The app switcher functions exactly as described in that video. Your most recently used apps will be at the front of the app switcher. You shouldn’t be use the app switcher as an app launcher. It works great as an app switch. I’ve never closed out my apps (unless needed for a frozen app) and I’ve had iPhones for over 10 years now.

Like, I’m not going to get into an argument with you about it or anything. The facts are the facts. And if you constantly close out your apps you are draining your battery faster than if you didn’t and it’s not necessary in any way shape or form. If it’s an OCD thing or whatever, then that’s the users prerogative. But many people may not know that so it’s just a good PSA.

I agree. Every time you reopen an app it gets pushed to the front of the app switcher. There is absolutely no need for app management in the app switcher.

 

[Velli]

I have about 40 apps total, native included.

I use just one home screen with 14 apps and 2 folders. 1 folder contains my banking apps, the other contains 4 other related apps.

To each their own, but this is not micro-management for me. This is effortless for me. Sometimes I want to see data in another app when I am using an app - for example when I am typing in Notes I may want to see a phone number or I may want to see something else from another app or a document - that is made easy with app switcher.

I despise juggling yo-yoing between home screen and apps. Swiping left and right to access app of relevance is easier for me.

I al not saying you should do it differently, I am genuinely curious as I never considered this behaviour as an option. If you want to, say, look up a phone number, how do you know if you need to scroll twice or 5 times to reach your contacts?

 

[macintoshmac]

I al not saying you should do it differently, I am genuinely curious as I never considered this behaviour as an option. If you want to, say, look up a phone number, how do you know if you need to scroll twice or 5 times to reach your contacts?

No, in that case you don’t scroll, you enter the app switcher.

My point is, the less crowded the app switcher is, the more information it can show per app since it isn’t crowded with app cards.

And I never said I wanted to look up a phone number, I said I wanted to see a phone number.

I do that often with Truecaller in Safari and the Phone app. I miss a call, and I open Safari and visit Truecaller, use the app switcher to see the phone number and type it in and proceed.

Sometimes, I see data from notes app as I am entering it in Safari. Sometimes, I am in the calculator app and I see data from other apps. That's just how my use case for this device and feature is.

 

[SaguaroSeven]

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?

What is the problem that "every app you launch stays forever in the app switcher"? Do you suspect a modern iPhone can't handle a list with that much data and that many screenshots? I don't see apps 10 or more down in the app switcher as a problem that needs solution. Also: if you delete an app it won't be in the app switcher anymore.

The total # apps in app switcher cannot exceed the # of apps installed on you iPhone. The space taken up by each app itself (plus its data) FAR exceeds storage space required in the app switcher.

The app switcher isn't "useless" because you can't reasonably scroll through all the apps you've ever opened. Its purpose is to let you quickly switch between recent apps under the theory that, if it wasn't recently open, you're less likely to need it soon.

A big reason to not force quit apps is the same as on a Mac or PC, your kicking the app out of memory and it may not save it's state in an optimal way. The risk of loosing some data is >0, even if the data may not be relevant. This is the very reason that force-quitting a mal-behaving app (frozen, running wildly, etc) is because of this force-quit behavior. iOS apps are generally robust enough force-quit without much issue. And yes, when you re-open the app it will have to load its state from scratch. That consumes more processor cycles/battery and probably RAM than leaving it in the app switcher for sure.

And no, the App Switcher is not a cache. It's a list. iOS saves that "state" of application to storage ("the SSD" as you call it) automatically. The app might prompt iOS to do it, or iOS will do it before it kicks the app out of RAM to use the RAM for something else. Depending on you iPhone model and the apps you run, you will only have a few applications fully loaded in RAM. App Switcher doesn't tell you anything about whether an app is in RAM. (Aside from the last few apps are more likely to be in RAM)

So when you clear apps out of the app switcher, (unless an app is causing trouble) you're really just managing your own happiness a long list of apps, not improving the running of your iPhone. To each his/her own.


PS: apologies for dragging up distant post... my page didn't update and didn't see the multiple new pages in this thread!

 

[SaguaroSeven]

I al not saying you should do it differently, I am genuinely curious as I never considered this behaviour as an option. If you want to, say, look up a phone number, how do you know if you need to scroll twice or 5 times to reach your contacts?

Why not just pull down and type "Con" into search bar? Or even type the name of the contact you seek. Often Search is your friend.

This presumes, like me, you don't afford a Home Screen spot to the Contacts app..

 

[Velli]

Why not just pull down and type "Con" into search bar? Or even type the name of the contact you seek. Often Search is your friend.

This presumes, like me, you don't afford a Home Screen spot to the Contacts app..

This is exactly what I would do. I still can’t get my head around how to use the app switcher for these tasks…