For many iPhone users, swiping up to close recently used apps has become second nature, assuming it improves performance and battery life. But that’s actually not the case and I’ll explain why in this video.
As a mobile developer this is true in theory but in reality there are still a number of apps not optimized that will drain your battery way more if not fully closed.
@@Erik_Nordlund Indeed, I had to do this specifically with the Google Home app. If I moved that to the background and had one of my cameras open my iPad would be drained in an hour with no remorse.
@@JoshuaMcFarland dang, sadly I’m not surprised! My dad was trying to migrate his Google WiFi setup to that app last night, and it wasn’t the best experience… haha
You are completely disregarding apps that are using background app refresh or location services and are actively updating while being suspended, which does in fact hurt battery life
He’s also being very disingenuous when he makes it seem like apps take way longer to open. He keeps acting like it’ll take 10 seconds to reopen mail if I close it
You can turn off completely background app refresh. It wont make a difference in performance but you'll see significantly better results in battery life
I'm sure there are many like me that will say closing the apps is more of a minimalistic relief rather than actually improving performance. Who's with me?
Yes, I use my opened apps as my to-do list. The apps that i leave open is because there's something important i need to do with it before the day is over Having things that clutter my brain in my field of view drives me insane
Here is why I never close them: • Apple makes intuitive things and is not intuitive to be closing them all the time. • If closing them were recommended, a "close all" would be available.
If you go and read the page about iOS on Apple's website, it clearly mentions that it is recommended to not close your apps at all unless it's malfunctioning or something.
@@hunterjay8331 Jailbroken phone users prob have a bigger need to close out all the apps, as RAM management may work differently or require more app closing. You can do all kinds of RAM intensive things.
I think in practice, since many apps aren’t properly optimized for this and leaving everything open just clutters the switcher, it would be best to always leave open a small handful of apps you use every day and not worry about closing the rest.
Which is why pinning some apps and close all button would have made a lot of sense. I agree that it would be too cumbersome and apple will probably not go down this road.
This is bull… I’m a former Apple employee working in Apple Retail, and as a workshop host & trainer, we were trained in our sessions to teach customers to do just that. Crucially, in real-world experience, many times running into performance issues lagging the workflow of a certain app or general workflows in iOS in general, after having closed all the apps, it begins functioning normally. This goes the same for shutting down your phone at very LEAST once a week.
THIS is so true. Apple devices and apps use a lot of caching to RAM. even when the App is in a suspended state. AND a ton of apps don't do well coming out of a suspended state when you have other stuff open.
I won’t lie. I’ve always know this since the iPhone 6. Thing is it is just wildly satisfying to “declutter” your space. A very satisfying endeavor. I’ve not been closing apps but still the thought hunts me up to this minute.
This makes sense. However, I sometimes find all the open background apps too cluttered if I'm switching between apps with a purpose. Sometimes I'll close the extras out so they don't slow me down from getting back to the app I actually need. :)
I can remember Steve Jobs saying at the time when Apple first introduced the app switcher with iOS I forget now. Steve said, if you need to close apps or have a task manager, when a company designs an OS, you have failed, the user shouldn't have to think about closing the apps. And I totally agree.
It's all about ram usage. Background apps use ram. If you plan on going back an forth between apps, then yeah, keep them open in the background. But if you don't plan on going back to the app any time soon, close it because it will just use ram. Also, the swipe up menu isn't just for closing apps that aren't responding. I think the primary reason for it is to easily multitask between multiple open apps. But if you don't plan on using said open apps, then I think it makes the most sense to close them and free up that ram space.
@@fuckinzell technically it's "onPause" when you exit the app. It's waiting and listening for when you return then it "onResumed". If you swipe up force closed it it's destroyed
Backgrounding consumes memory, when u reach the max allotted memory iPhone automatically starts closing apps running in the background. Sometimes ones u don’t want to b closed. So whilst closing apps may not boost performance it does help with maintaining backgrounding on the specific apps u need
yeah and apple needs to work on their app optimisation and add some sort of ai that doesn't close or update an app just because I went to another app. I can't count how many times I've gone to read a message or somethingand youtube closed.
@@nonsudunk He means that Apple Explained sounds like he knows his stuff, when in fact he oftenly only reads Apples Marketing Mumbo Jumbo out loud. And before you ask, I am using Apple products regularly.
@@nonsudunk that the answer is In fact just not right. It's what apples says. Real world experience of users and App Developers state different experiences. Is iOS better optimized? Yes. But it sometimes shuts apps down I want to run for the benefit of apps I don't want. Because as soon as that RAM is full, the system seems to have problems to decide which app to kill. And you can notice that many apps are running in the background. And that is what I don't like about this video. There are real world cases in which it is beneficial to kill apps manually. And I'd love to hear that in such a video.
Actuallyyyyy it can help your phone’s performance. While the iPhone is designed to suspend apps, your phone only has so much RAM, and suspending multiple RAM-intensive applications (streaming apps mostly) can mean that RAM won’t be as available for apps that you’re currently using. Many times, yeah you won’t need to close out apps. Especially a notes or contacts app. But closing out RU-vid, Netflix, Spotify, and Maps running in the background can speed up your phone and make things work more smoothly. I’m not saying it always does, but it can. Apple wants to be the superior phone and they will tell you this isn’t the case, but that’s just simply not true. They can’t get around how computers work. They’re not above RAM limitations. It’s not something you need to obsessively worry about, but the next time you’re finding lag on your phone, close out these apps and see if it makes a difference because it really might!
When RAM runs out the operating system closes apps automatically. This is true for both iOS and Android. So there’s actually no benefit in closing all apps. Because not all of them remain suspended.
@@TiagoAzevedo When it runs out, sure. But when the apps are sharing RAM, some can run slower to keep all of them running. Just not at full efficiency. This is why closing intensive applications can make things run more smoothly at times. Can also increase your chances of keeping your place in an app. For instance, going back to an application and it still having the message you were typing or the photo you had loaded up to post.
Drives me nuts when I see people doing this. Apple should just show a one time alert: "Force closing too many apps may shorten battery life and slow down your iPhone. Please try to only close apps that are not behaving correctly."
It's mind-blowing that all these years later that we can't close all apps at once as we can with Android. Sometimes we end up with quite a few open apps that we will not ever use again.
That is because every single aspect of an iphone is designed with short term replacement in mind. They WANT you to run your battery to 75% overall capacity in 2 years so that you get a new iphone. It's planned obsolescence and it is embodied in every single design aspect and marketing aspect of iphones. Apple WANTS you to break the glass, get your phone water damaged, run your battery down AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, so they can sell you a new phone.
@@TheNade That's actually closer to what many Android phone manufacturers want (such as Samsung), although it's typically on the software side instead of the hardware side (not giving more than one major update, inserting ads for newer phones, etc.) because unlike Apple, they don't get much money from the phone once it has been sold. Apple on the other hand wants you to keep using iPhones so that they can keep getting money from Apple Music, the App Store, in-app purchases, Apple TV, Apple News, etc.
Thank you! As an obsessive OCD-like app-closer, because I would believe it was pointless to leave apps open that I was no longer using, I will never close out an app unnecessarily ever again if it's messing up my iPhone and iPad. No more! Glad I saw this video.
Even if I switch to Apple, I still would close them. It gets to clustered for me after a while when switching them. Especially from the looks of the example phone in the video. This cluster of apps drives me crazy.
When I switched to Samsung I instantly made my app switcher like the one in ios so my muscle memory could continue closing apps when I'm done. I will continue doing it forever
@@potatomaster8291 a few office apps like office, files and powerpoint are enough to overwhelm the standard ipads and make them lag, you dont need a lot to fill their little amount of ram
I'm not even an Apple employee, developer or whatever and I'm grateful as well. It's so annoying when people do this or are yelling at Apple for not adding an "close all apps" button.
I was hoping you'd at least mention that background app refresh uses up a small amount of data and battery life (probably so minuscule you wouldn't even notice it), but you can turn on/off which apps have background refresh on in the settings app
I just like to keep my phone clean. I switch between apps very frequently sometimes and having 50 apps cluttering the 5 I'm actually using is annoying. Dual screen mode would DEFINITELY help with this habit for me, not having to de-clutter to compare things like prices between store apps or whatever.
While I am sure a lot of this is true it is also true that those background apps can interfere with other apps. I have often found that if safari is having trouble or some app with high memory usage is having trouble closing apps will actually free up the memory to actually allow the apps to run smoothly. Also closing the app doesn't necessarily delete the state. properly written apps will dump the memory into the storage clearing up valuable memory while allowing you to reinitialize the app fairly quickly since it has a snapshot of the ram state for that application.
I want to open the app on the homepage, but if I don’t close the app, it will start from the last stop position. Re-opening the App is a faster way to homepage, since iPhone does Not have the same convenient "return button" as Android.
You are just using more power and wasting more time just to go to the home page instead of tapping whichever button on that app that lets you go to the home page.
@@abhirammadhu2973 In fact, it is not so simple. Some is due to the design of the iPhone, some due to the design of the app. There are many methods of returns and closing due to app design. The sensitivity of sliding to return and closing is also different in different apps. I sometimes need to slide up to the very top. It is also maybe in different sub categories and sections, which requires another click. For me, closing the app can grantee that it will be on home page when I reopen it next time.
Makes no sense. If you said “don’t close apps you frequently use” I’d agree. Inferring apps infrequently viewed are using no power in the background is simply incorrect. With current iPhone battery life, it’s become a bit of a moot point from a power perspective. From a computing standpoint, keeping unused apps open is pointless and introduces another potential conflict. Leave those apps you use often running. Close the others. It isn’t a pointless Luddite habit. It’s good software and system management. By the way… Apple didn’t “hide” the option. There’s no home button anymore, so it’s the “new” way it’s done.
Since 2 weeks i am using a borrowed iPhone to teste various speculation this channel made. I tested iphone with all the app running and also tested all app closed. Repeated the test twice, once in 4g, once in wifi. And since last 2 days using this phone in airplane mode to test standby. And I found closing all app extends the battery by 30 min in 4g mode. 1 hour in wifi mode. In airplane mode, closing all app and using screen time for total 15 min extended standby time by 6 hours then running all the apps.
This video is wrong and totally subjective. The apps are most likely meant to be closed. The functional benefit of closing apps yourself is that you can multitask without having a ton of bloat when switching between apps. Don't hoard apps, close them if you don't need them so they aren't in the way. Imagine you're trying to type out something from Notes on RU-vid and you have Instagram and Snapchat in between the two apps and you can't just quickly swipe between the two apps, it's extremely annoying. On top of that, a lot of apps actually do reduce performance and consume your battery, especially apps that use location services.
When multitasking. I like the apps I am using to be in the task switcher. Not every app I’ve ever used before. So I clear them often to open apps that I use together and allow myself to hop back and forth to get work done faster without sorting through the last 30 something apps. There’s only the 5 I will use right then and there.
You mean, the feature to retain apps in the background is not for you if you’re multitasking? I don’t get what you mean. I’m multitasking and the apps were not closed when I switched between them.
@@ChenLiYong I just want to say that if you have an iPhone with less RAM to accommodate all your apps then it would start refreshing even if you want to use them. Keeping all apps open would lead to usage of all your RAM and thus all heavy apps would restart. (iPhone 12 pros are exceptions because of 6GB of RAM)
No, when you are multitasking you open the apps which need to be used so they are accommodated into ram and apps opened before are removed from ram if it is full so your logic is wrong
@@unmaypawar try opening camera and a heavy photo editing app and when you’re editing, in the middle of the process, open the camera app again keeping all the other apps open in the background. You’ll understand what I mean. 👍
@@devarshdave then try multitasking using lighter apps. This doesn’t mean the multitasking doesn’t work. It works but under certain condition, and from what I tried, the condition are pretty relaxing. When I do try to multitask, none of the apps are closing so far. And you can cheat some of the multitasking by doing screenshots if necessary, so you’re switching between less heavy apps if what you need is just information. This is situational. But multitasking indeed works.
Didn‘t know that‘s such a big thing for people here closing their apps in the App Switcher. I never do this. I have 200 apps or so open from the beginning since I bought an iPhone. I can confirm that there is no performance impact because of the exactly described behavior. There is nothing to worry. I only use the App Switcher for closing a specific app and have all my necessary apps organized on the Home screen.
the reason I remove apps from recently used is that I want the them to be the ones I'm switching back and forth between, and not contain apps that I used 3 days ago. and not because I used to believe that it saves resources.
I do understand that that is the theory behind iOS, but there have been times when an app I’m using doesn’t work quite right until I close out the other apps. The app I’m using sometimes won’t respond or is slow to respond but after closing other apps it works fine.
One of my pet peeves: people that swipe apps closed RELIGIOUSLY. Literally every time they pick up and check their phone, they have to swipe all apps closed before they turn off the screen. EVERY TIME. It has no benefit and wastes time closing the apps and also having to reopen them again the next time they pick up their phone.
and then the hibernated apps will periodically wake up to exchange messages with their servers, run updates, poll for data, leak battery etc. My advise - close those unused apps anyway! A closed app will do not harm as long as it's messaging service is disabled too.
The real life experience kind of says the opposite. When closing the 50 open apps on my mothers phone it suddenly goes from running slow to being like a new phone. I don’t think the app/memory management is as good as made out
This!!! . It’s a false narrative that closing apps in background doesn’t do any good, I am just disappointed in a techie guy like that spreading misinformation to the public
Agreed! When I’m playing a game and many apps are open in the background, if I switch to iMessage or something to answer a text, I go back to the game and it resets as if I fully closed it. If I only have the game open and a few apps in the background, my game doesn’t reset if I toggle between it and another app.
I don't do it often, normally when apps are playing up or if I just want a fresh start, the reality is the 'more power' its uses probably wouldn't be noticed by most users unless they are having battery issues already.
Apple is very limiting to avoid flicking through 100 tabs You have to use the main tabs or apps you use daily like apple music RU-vid tiktok With Samsung you can have over 1000 tabs open close the whole thing if you don't wanna be flicking through 100 tabs best stock to a limited amount preferably 4 because it's easier to yeet 4 in one go apparently
Sounds good in theory, but how is it in practice? Can you run a test on some iPhones to see if what you say in theory is true in practice? (I am talking about battery consumption differences)
I’m a mobile developer and it still partially falls on the app developer to optimize their app. There are still a number of apps that will kill the battery if moved to the background and not fully closed.
Well, even then, the OS will realise that you simply haven't used the app in a while and shut it down in the background. The OS is designed to remove application management from the user, and will handle it all. This includes shutting down apps when not used.
@@arrowtlg2646 that’s just to declutter the screen. I can’t stand seeing all the apps accumulate in that menu, even if they don’t affect anything. I just like it cleaner without unnecessary extras
and when apps crash in background? if you don't close the apps and one of them crashes, your battery will drop very quickly. I recommend u guys to close the apps, there is no harm in doing that, only benefits!
I never do that and I’ve been always confused why people are completely closing every app each time. I usually realize after like a month that I have millions of apps “open” 😂
leaving apps open does in fact ruin battery life, the half second longer it takes to load the app shouldn't be the reason you lose half an hour of battery life that could be used later.
@@TiagoAzevedo game apps require lots of ram and will take it if available. If you have many paused apps open I think they still take some ram up and add up.
He did say that but he also has a ton of money and gets free phones so I doubt that he has to worry about whether or not force closing apps actually saves battery or not
I'm a software engineer but never considered this. It makes sense that the apps would maintain state while on standby. Therefore, if you close and return to the application, the state would have to mount and then be set again based on your selections, actions, etc.
It’s not only about battery, when I close iPhone tabs I mainly do that in order to speed up my mobile phone because at that point my memory is completely taken by secondary stand by applications while my current window has to retrieve information stored within the second storage device thus making it a lot slower to load it up.
this is video is embarrassingly wrong, it takes common sense to realise a phone being powered down saves a lot more battery then a phone being on sleep mode, as it is still performing background activities. plus apps that use background refresh, location services and other forms of connection services will continiously be on and updating, even when not open, meaning that too many of these apps open will slow down the phone and hurt battery life. im not even a tech nerd, this video is such a waste of time.
Right, lol! And not even apps, there could be websites you opened in browser that can make a browser eat up a lot of battery , I have seen this for a few websites on my ipad, where I saw the battery statistics and was shocked to see it's sometimes no the apps themselves but the websites in browsers that are consuming lots of battery even when not in active use, this video is wrong on multiple levels. I mean technically it's not completely wrong, but it doesn't mention the whole truth.
Is also just faster than having to swipe through a million open apps all the time. I do accidentally end up closing Spotify while I’m listening to it which is annoying so maybe I’ll try to stop 😅
@@moclan5661 you need to listen more carefully 👂 he said that if you close an app, it will take longer for it to reopen. That is different from the snappiness of the whole phone. Clear now?
Battery life does get affected with open apps, if you choose battery saver the first thing it does is to restrict background activity. Ultimately battery life savings takes precedence for me
This is so true! I've noticed that this is a feature. The battery life and the performance speed is more likely better when the phone is standby on and the apps.
Think of multitasking. When you’re doing something with multiple apps, you won’t want to get other apps. For example- while mailing a document, you won’t want to get distracted by your social media, but you still need two or more apps to work. In this case, just remove the apps. Edit- Anyway, I’ll keep closing all the apps before going to bed. It gives us another level of satisfaction, just like refreshing in Windows.
The only time I close all apps is when I get off my iPhone for the night. I thought everyone kind of knew having a few apps in the background wouldn't be extremely detrimental to battery life, but acting as if leaving every single app open is always a better alternative makes no sense either. I tend to keep 3 to 5 apps open in the back ground at a time because I like having what I'm likely to switch between readily available. Keeping apps I don't intend to open for the rest of the day or that are constantly refreshing in the background trying to use location services however seems more problematic and waiting an extra 5 seconds when trying to open mail, that I would have preferred using on my laptop anyway if I weren't in a remote location expecting an important email.
I played COC on mom's phone a year ago when i left for other country & now when I returned , it is still in her recent tabs 😂. Oh God , she knows tech very well 😂
@@OG_Gyekye it's from my own experience, I have a note 20 regular with 8 gigs of RAM and even though it's good too many tabs could hurt the performance
It's not about battery, it's about work memory. Especially on older devices, you would very quickly see a decrease in overall performance, if you left a dozen apps open.
i‘ve stopped doing this about 1,5 years ago and it definitely saved my phone from being too shitty now. I always panick when people start swiping my apps up and tell em that it fucks up the battery
With the amount of ram they put in these things. Closing apps is a must, think of how many apps can stay open on a 16GB ram model? I close 'em, peace of mind. My iPad Pro has a ssd anyway so booting an app is no issue
Well, it was a useful piece of information, but you shouldn't bashing those guys who closing apps so hard, because some of them (me included) just can't stand the mess of thousand of apps opened. It is a horrible experience, when so much apps are open, and you try to get the needing one with swiping all over the place. Also, some maps-apps are really consuming so much energy and traffic even on stand-by. So, you're right, but in parts. And bashing others too hard.
When you send message for example, it is easyer to close app than to go all the way with your finger and swipe to go back. That is the reason many people close apps.
i usually only leave the 2-3 apps i use the most. So that i can switch between them quickly by swiping right or left on the bottom bit. Except if im currently uploading data, i will close other apps for simplicity
I do hear you. But I close them because location services don't need to be running at all times. It's a way of keeping reclaiming some control over my privacy I reckon
