Swiping all apps to "close" them

[Tech198]

its useful, but for some reason every time i look t my parents home, i'm somehow annoyed all the apps she keeps open.. compared to mine where is natural after i use it, i close it.

You get used to that . after you've done it yourself..,. Every other iPhone looks a mess.

It's probably laziness, forgetfulness, or just can't be bothered.... or perhaps even be on a winning streak how many apps you can open.

But having a button to close "all apps" could be a good idea. Particularly if you have allot of regular open apps.

Your finger will get strained otherwise.

 

[bransoj]

But as mentioned unless an app has crashed there is no reason to do it and its actually counter productive to battery life etc. Apple dont want every app being closed so they wont give an option to do it.

 

[MEJHarrison]

It bothers me that they don’t know that they are wasting their time. It bothers me that nobody seems to know the “true purpose” of this feature...

Don't spend time with me then, because I close crap all day long. I don't care about any time wasted. I also know the "true purpose". I have over 30 years of experience as a computer programmer, so I absolutely, completely, totally understand the true purpose.

You know what bothers me? When people keep throwing out this old nonsense about it being slower and harder on your battery and so on without really understanding what they're repeating. Again, from my experiences, those differences are just on paper. And just because it technically takes more power to load the app from scratch (it truly does), doesn't mean I've ever noticed that different in daily use. My battery lasts a whole day, so who cares if it's uses an indistinguishable extra bit of power to reload an app? And who cares if there's some extra milliseconds getting my Mail app loaded? Honestly, there's not enough speed difference for me to really care.

I don't care about the "true purpose" of the feature. I use my phone in a way that works for me. And if that means reading a text, then killing Message, then reading another text two minutes later and killing it again, I'm totally fine with that. I understand the technical reasons for not doing that, but I think the whole thing is a bit overblown. Is what Apple says true? Absolutely! Will following their instructions make a meaningful or noticeable difference just using your phone normally throughout the day? I've never noticed that to be the case.

For what it's worth, I keep games open and kill any other app. And I have no plans to change my habits.

 

[C DM]

I don't care about the "true purpose" of the feature. I use my phone in a way that works for me. And if that means reading a text, then killing Message, then reading another text two minutes later and killing it again, I'm totally fine with that.

Purely out of curiosity, given what you mentioned there, what would be your reasoning to doing it like that?

 

[MEJHarrison]

Purely out of curiosity, given what you mentioned there, what would be your reasoning to doing it like that?

Oddly enough, I like to have the games I'm playing readily available. Anything that isn't a game gets closed so as not to clutter up my recently used list (aka, the "games I like to play" list). There's nothing to it beyond that honestly. Just a personal preference. Additionally, my Messages app, Mail, Safari, and a couple other commonly used apps are on my home screen or dock. So getting back to Mail, for example, is a fairly simple process, whereas getting to that game I had going earlier might mean searching or scrolling to different pages and opening folders.

Like I said, I doubt it makes a lot of sense to others, but it works for me. Until I start seeing real-life negative consequences from using things that way (I've been doing it this way for years without issue so far), I'm fine with my workflow. It's my own personal "OCD" thing, not necessarily advice to others.

 

[MacDaddyPanda]

Oddly enough, I like to have the games I'm playing readily available. Anything that isn't a game gets closed so as not to clutter up my recently used list (aka, the "games I like to play" list). There's nothing to it beyond that honestly. Just a personal preference. Additionally, my Messages app, Mail, Safari, and a couple other commonly used apps are on my home screen or dock. So getting back to Mail, for example, is a fairly simple process, whereas getting to that game I had going earlier might mean searching or scrolling to different pages and opening folders.

Like I said, I doubt it makes a lot of sense to others, but it works for me. Until I start seeing real-life negative consequences from using things that way (I've been doing it this way for years without issue so far), I'm fine with my workflow. It's my own personal "OCD" thing, not necessarily advice to others.

Exactly, THat's the only reason I do it. Keep it less cluttered.

 

[Ledgem]

Yes, I get annoyed too. It seems like a huge waste of time, made worse because most people are doing it with the misconception that it somehow makes their phones faster or saves battery life, both of which are untrue at best, and actively counter to those goals at worst.

People who use the application switcher and want to keep it clear are probably the few who can justify the behavior. It still seems a lot more wasteful than simply setting up programs you frequently use on your first screen, and using that first screen as your "app switcher" screen. But habits die hard...

 

[s15119]

Apple tries to discourage closing of apps because it's uses more battery and resources to re-open them and kills the purpose of iOS making things "easy" and handling memory management for you. It's their way of trying to get you to see it their way.

Any evidence to support this? Or just something you made up. I've heard people say this before, but I can find no evidence that 1. Apple discourages closing app or 2. it uses more battery and resources?

 

[Ledgem]

I don't know that anyone has done a measurable study, but this article includes some of the quotes that may make up those views that you've heard.

I don't believe Apple says anything official on their website or documentation, but from the article:

Last year, Apple fan Caleb sent an email to CEO Tim Cook asking, "Do you quit your iOS multitasking apps frequently and is this necessary for battery life?"

Craig Federighi, the head of software development at Apple, replied: "No and No. "

As to the explanation of using more battery and resources:

The very process of quitting an app will use up a measurable amount of battery life. There are times when the device may need those resources and it will quit the app on your behalf, which will drain the battery in the same fashion. However, modern smartphones have an abundance of memory and you would be surprised how often an app can just stay suspended forever. This is doubly true for any app that you are frequently launching and using, these apps in all likelihood will never need to be closed and the repetitive exiting and relaunching can have a very noticeable toll on your battery life.

It reminds me of a similar argument that played out on the Mac some years ago. People talked about wanting to have little to no RAM in use, and "RAM cleaners" were programs that claimed to do just that. Yet this seemed a waste; RAM is powered by the computer whether it's full or not, and it's going to waste if nothing is loaded to it. iPhones and SSD-bearing computers make the process less noticeable, but the device still needs to load a program to the RAM whenever it's going to run. That process takes time and power.

The misconception is that every program seen in the app switcher is a program that is running in the background, similar to a computer. Some of those apps may be active, but otherwise they are "suspended" - in the RAM (which would be powered just the same even if they weren't loaded), but not using the processor or screen. That they're already in the RAM means they can quickly be brought out of a suspended state without needing to load them back into (or out of) the RAM.[/URL]

 

[ivanwi11iams]

Hmm, interesting. So, it is best to merely leave the apps running, and only close them if there is an issue with it.
Force of habit from Android, and I do it from time to time, without really thinking about it. Sad, I know...

 

[MEJHarrison]

Hmm, interesting. So, it is best to merely leave the apps running, and only close them if there is an issue with it.
Force of habit from Android, and I do it from time to time, without really thinking about it. Sad, I know...

That is the prevailing thoughts on the subject. And they're not actually left running (with some exceptions like GPS apps and music apps). As I recall, they can run in the background for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, they're shut down, but still sitting in memory waiting to start back up. Until something else comes along and needs that memory. That's your worst case scenario for power consumption and load times. It will still appear in the task switcher, but will need to be completely reloaded from the flash drive into RAM. It's completely safe to never close anything ever (GSP, music, etc. aside) unless there's a good reason.

But if an app has been in your task switcher unused for days or weeks, there's almost certainly no harm in clearing it out either. Unless you rarely use your phone, it's likely no longer sitting in the RAM just waiting to come back to life.

 

[4492865]

That is the prevailing thoughts on the subject. And they're not actually left running (with some exceptions like GPS apps and music apps). As I recall, they can run in the background for about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, they're shut down, but still sitting in memory waiting to start back up. Until something else comes along and needs that memory. That's your worst case scenario for power consumption and load times. It will still appear in the task switcher, but will need to be completely reloaded from the flash drive into RAM. It's completely safe to never close anything ever (GSP, music, etc. aside) unless there's a good reason.

But if an app has been in your task switcher unused for days or weeks, there's almost certainly no harm in clearing it out either. Unless you rarely use your phone, it's likely no longer sitting in the RAM just waiting to come back to life.

There are a few exceptions - most notably apps that use background app refresh do get woken up frequently for a brief time to upsate themselves, e.g. fetch some new data, and apps that cheat, for example the Facebook messenger seems to do this which still consumes power even though it should be suspended.

Fore closing an app also stops background app refresh, so an argument can be made that force closing does save battery because it also stops background app refresh, assuming it's not disable by the user already.

 

[fisherking]

i work with someone who triple-clicks files in the mac finder to open them; i pointed out that she only needed to double-click, but she's content; what she does works, and she's sticking with it.

you can keep closing apps in the app switcher, or you could add up all that time, and read a book, take a walk, learn a language... or just use your phone will less effort. still, lol... whatever makes one happy...

 

[MEJHarrison]

you can keep closing apps in the app switcher, or you could add up all that time...

No offense, but no you can’t. No one ever in the history of the world has ever found themselves with an extra 20 minutes on a Saturday night due to not closing apps all week or any other “time saving” technique. People love to say “it all adds up”, but when we’re talking about something that’s just a second here and a second there, it just doesn’t work that way.

 

[Tech198]

No offense, but no you can’t. No one ever in the history of the world has ever found themselves with an extra 20 minutes on a Saturday night due to not closing apps all week or any other “time saving” technique. People love to say “it all adds up”, but when we’re talking about something that’s just a second here and a second there, it just doesn’t work that way.

ok,, what do you wanna do,, get back to work. or spend a few minutes closing apps?

Not really a big deal on a small number ( i dunno how many you can have in app switcher), but if its more than 10, i'm not interested in leaving them all open, for no other reason...than them just siting there.

I work on the bases,, if they there on purpose, their there because i will use them again... otherwise why are they open? Battery counter intuitive or not.... That's just me. I prefer a clean phone even when it comes to the app switcher.

I don't tell others their phone looks a mess, but i definitely can't stop thinking it.

 

[mrex]

I wish there was a button to close all... at the moment there are just too many ”screenshots” on the list (42) to scroll when im only needing couple of them to switch back and forth. Much easier to scroll the list when there are only few... and i hate that it shows old screenshots.

Some apps i want to close permanently because i dont want to get notificiations from those apps...

 

[Kram Sacul]

In the future when there's enough ram Apple should just do away with the task switcher and have all apps opened at the same time. Of course there would still be the same misguided people wanting to close their apps for whatever dumb reason.

 

[mrex]

In the future when there's enough ram Apple should just do away with the task switcher and have all apps opened at the same time. Of course there would still be the same misguided people wanting to close their apps for whatever dumb reason.

Maybe it is dumb for people who are dumb enough not to undestand that there are times you rather want an app to be closed than open.

 

[fisherking]

No offense, but no you can’t. No one ever in the history of the world has ever found themselves with an extra 20 minutes on a Saturday night due to not closing apps all week or any other “time saving” technique. People love to say “it all adds up”, but when we’re talking about something that’s just a second here and a second there, it just doesn’t work that way.

it's a thing one does because it makes them 'feel' like they're doing something; it's not necessary, but neither are a lot of things. so do what makes you happy, i understand that.

 

[Ledgem]

In the future when there's enough ram Apple should just do away with the task switcher and have all apps opened at the same time. Of course there would still be the same misguided people wanting to close their apps for whatever dumb reason.

The amount of RAM isn't particularly important. Applications in the "task switcher" go into and out of their suspended state when they need. It's not about RAM, but about battery life.

The bigger problem is that some people are heavily relying on the task switcher for moving between their applications, similar to command-tab on the computer (or alt-tab on Windows). Because the Task Switcher keeps every application that had run previously, it can become cluttered. I don't use the task switcher to do more than changing between my 2-4 most-recently used applications exactly for that reason, because it can become difficult to find what you're looking for. I don't find the iPad to be much better, even though you can see more at a time. Funny enough, I am meticulous about quitting programs on my computer that don't need to be running, and part of it is about keeping that command-tab (or exposé) uncluttered to make it faster to change between programs when multitasking. I just don't multitask on my iOS devices as much, and even when I do, I generally have my home screen set up to act as a superior method to get to the application.

Apple has made some improvements for iOS on iPad by, for example, including the last three programs you've run within the dock to further reinforce using the home screen as your method of switching between applications. But habits are hard to break. The app switcher could be optimized further, for those who come to rely on it for moving between programs and who force-quit programs to try and keep it "clean." It's not the workflow Apple has in mind, though.