The Android operating system is becoming increasingly demanding on smartphone resources such as random access memory (RAM) and onboard storage (ROM). Therefore, for a long time, the usual method of dealing with poor performance on Android devices was to close all open applications.

The essence of this approach is quite simple: closing apps frees up phone resources and allows other apps to run faster. However, this approach is out of date, and on relatively recent devices it is almost never necessary to close apps manually. In fact, closing apps on your Android device can slow it down in some cases, not the other way around.

One of the features of the Android operating system is to reduce the resources consumed by background processes and applications when they are minimized and not in use. It is noteworthy that this is far from a new feature: it first appeared in Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which turns 7 years old in October.

Common myths about closing apps on Android

There are a number of generally accepted opinions about the benefits of closing apps, not only on Android smartphones, but also on iOS devices, but they are mostly myths. For example, closing apps is widely believed to help save battery power. In fact, Google has taken serious steps to optimize battery usage and closing background apps rarely improves battery life.

Also, forcing some apps to close won’t make others (that you’re actively using at the moment) run faster or better. In fact, the frequent closing of applications forces the smartphone to work more.

Another myth is that background apps often access the network, wasting mobile data. Actually, only some apps can use the traffic even when they are minimized. And users can, if necessary, disable the background use of mobile traffic in the settings. It should be understood that notifications from these apps will not arrive until the user reopens the corresponding app.

Android handles resource management on its own

In October 2015, Google added a feature called Doze to Android 6.0 Marshmallow released at the time. It is designed to put internal applications and services to sleep when they are not in use. This all happens automatically, so users don’t have to close apps manually. According to the official documentation, Doze saves battery power by limiting applications’ access to the network and CPU-intensive services.

Unsurprisingly, the early version of Doze on Android 6.0 was overly aggressive, often interfering with important features and services like alarms. Regarding “pure” Android devices, the situation has improved significantly over the years, in other cases, the intensity of Doze depends on the device manufacturer and the specific Android case.

Manufacturers like Samsung, OnePlus, Huawei, and Xiaomi are setting their skins to be the most (and overly) aggressive towards background processes, according to the Don’t Kill My App community project. regardless of how actively the Android version on your smartphone flushes idle processes from memory.

Android is like a car on a freezing day

When you close an app with the intention of freeing up RAM, that same app will require more resources the next time you open it. This means that the next release will be slower, negatively affecting the user experience.

The Android developer webpage on launching apps explains this phenomenon in three terms: “cold boot”, “warm boot”, and “warm boot”. A cold start is a state in which a previously closed application is started from scratch. As Google points out, a cold boot requires more time and resources because there are more processes to deal with.

A warm boot means that the app is already in the phone’s memory, i.e. you can access it from the multitasking menu, and the Android device has to go through much fewer processes compared to a cold boot. Finally, hot launch means that the user simply brings the most recently used app to the foreground. The last option spends a minimum of resources and time.

An easier way to understand this is to compare the situation to a car on a freezing day. Starting a car in sub-zero temperatures is not always easy. However, if you’ve been driving for a while and just stopped for a quick coffee, starting the engine won’t be a problem. Finally, if you stop while driving by releasing the clutch too quickly, starting the engine will be as easy as possible.

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Source: IXBT

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