How to close an app properly?

[dfman]

After using an app, what is the correct way of close/exiting it?

I usually just press the home key or back key on the S4 phone to close the app, not sure if it is really closed, or maybe still running at background.

Thanks

 

[leeshor]

it depends on the app. Most will sufficiently close using the back button but a few have an exit selection in the soft menu for that app. Some music players are fond of staying active. Unless your settings are set to never sync, most mail apps, (among others like that), stay active as well.

 

[94lt1]

Android closes apps as it needs to, so if you back out or hit home.. The app may still be running.. But if the device needs the resources, it will close it down.

You can always go into manage apps, running, and see what apps are running and if you need to, you can close the app by tapping on it and then force stopping it.

 

[Ollie]

I hold down my home button and use Samsung's built in "kill all" button.

 

[mountainbikermark]

Android, by nature, tries to keep RAM full but cpu inactive when the device is idle so when you exit out of an app it may not "close" perse in that it stays in RAM but it's cpu usage drops to none. By killing apps that are using no cpu it can actually have a detrimental effect of using more battery when the cpu becomes active to fill the RAM back up. Task Killers can also add poor performance into the mix by closing things that shouldn't be closed.
Unlike ios, Android does a good job of dumping RAM as needed from idle apps and processes to free up RAM to active ones.
If you're concerned about battery life is why you close things, Wake Lock has a bigger battery drain than idle apps because an app that keeps Wake Lock active keeps the cpu from going into deep sleep. An app called Gsam battery monitor, free on the Play Store, is an excellent one to keep an eye on your cpu usage, Wake Locks, etc.

Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

 

[dfman]

1. If I am watching a video halfway (video has loaded halfway in youtube) in the internet browser, then I press home key or back key on the phone to close the app. Is the browser app still running or consuming data?

2. I press and hold the home key, and a tile list of recent apps pop up. Are those apps still running? Do I need to swipe it left/right to make the app disappear so that it is closed? Or is that list just a list of history of apps I have opened before?

 

[cr6]

No on both. The app is merely sitting in cache, and is not consuming data.
Comment 5 does a great job of explaining this. [emoji106]

S5 tap'n

 

[Ollie]

I kill apps that won't be used for a while. They may sit idle with CPU usage, but their footprint remains in the RAM usage. Android has come a long way with managing RAM. It's just not aggressive enough for me.

 

[dfman]

I hold down my home button and use Samsung's built in "kill all" button.

Kill all button is the three horizontal lines with X icon?

 

[dfman]

I kill apps that won't be used for a while. They may sit idle with CPU usage, but their footprint remains in the RAM usage. Android has come a long way with managing RAM. It's just not aggressive enough for me.

How do you kill apps?

 

[technojohn]

sometimes i used to open the processing panels were i used to have force killing of apps, app info is the location....or else its can be done from ask manager.

 

[Ollie]

Kill all button is the three horizontal lines with X icon?

Yes the icon on the right with 3 lines and an X