Should You Clear Your Open Apps on Your iPhone?

When it comes to managing our phone's performance and battery life, many of us have developed a habit of clearing open apps. We think that doing so will save battery life, speed up our phones, and clear up memory. However, this habit is actually worse for our iPhones overall.

The first reason why quitting apps is not the best idea is that it drains your battery and slows you down every time you force quit an app. Your phone has to end all the processes associated with that app and then clear it from memory. When you open it again, it has to load everything up from scratch, which slows you down. It may sound counterintuitive, but you're actually better off just leaving it as is when you're done with your phone. Simply going back to the home screen or locking it is that simple. If you make a habit out of clearing open apps, the battery power you waste by quitting and waiting for them to open back up again will be far greater than the battery power it takes to just leave them silently in the background. Your phone will also automatically clear apps from memory if it needs to, so you don't need to do it yourself.

So, what actually happens when an app is left open in the background? It's basically as good as if it was closed entirely because there's very little that an app is allowed to do in the background. If it isn't on screen or if your phone is locked without the need to force quit, it's doing nothing in the background. It doesn't take any battery life, and it doesn't slow down your phone. This is true for most apps, except for a few exceptions we'll discuss later.

To give you an idea of what happens when an app is left open in the background, here are all the things that apps can do:

* Stream audio like music, podcasts, or background videos

* Receive or make phone calls

* Ask for your location

* Send you notifications

* Finish a task that you just started, such as uploading a photo or making a post

These features were first introduced with Pandora, Skype, and TomTom, and over the years, more apps have been added to this list. Now, apps can run live activities, talk to Bluetooth devices, record your screen, run a series shortcut, and manage a network VPN. However, you will always be aware if these things are happening, because you'll see notifications or see the app's icon on the home screen. If an app isn't on screen or doing one of these things, it's not using any battery life or slowing down your phone.

The only exception to this rule is the feature called background app refresh, which updates for new content every few hours. Your phone will let an app in the background update for new content so that it's there as soon as you open it. This feature speeds up your phone because you don't have to wait for a spinner when opening a new app. However, if it really bothers you, you can turn off this feature entirely by going to settings and turning off background app refresh.

Background app refresh is only necessary for certain apps, such as Amazon, Instagram, and Snapchat. For these apps, disabling background app refresh will significantly impact their functionality. However, for most other apps, leaving them enabled will not have a significant impact on your phone's performance or battery life.

So, how can you avoid the habit of clearing open apps? The key is to be aware of what's happening in the background and to only clear open apps when necessary. If you're constantly clearing open apps without a reason, it's likely that you're just getting rid of unnecessary processes that are using up battery life or slowing down your phone.

Instead of clearing open apps every time, try taking a few minutes each day to review what's running in the background. You can use tools like Activity Monitor on macOS or Task Manager on Windows to see which apps are consuming the most resources. This will help you identify any unnecessary processes and clear them out only when necessary.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enshould you clear your open apps on your iPhone no despite the Habit you might build and reinforce over the years quitting your apps because you think it'll save battery life speed up your phone clear up memory is actually worse for your iPhone overall you should only ever force quit an app if it crashes or stops responding here are three reasons why number one quitting apps drains your battery and slows you down every time you force quit an app your phone has to end all the processes associated with that app and it has to clear it from memory and then when you open it again it has to load everything up from scratch which slows you down it may sound counterintuitive but you're actually better off just leaving it as it is when you're done with your phone just go back to the home screen or lock it it's that simple if you make a habit out of it the battery power you waste by quitting your apps and waiting for them to open back up again will be far greater than the battery power it takes to just leave them silently in the background and your phone will Clear apps from memory if it needs to you don't need to do it yourself number two so what actually happens when an app is left open in the background it's basically as good as if it was closed entirely because there's very little that an app is allowed to do in the background if it isn't on screen or if your phone is locked without the need to force quit it in fact here's a complete list of everything apps are allowed to do in the background they can stream audio like music podcast or background videos they can receive or make phone calls ask for your location send you notifications or finish a task that you just started like uploading a photo or making a post in fact this is so long ago that the examples they used during the introduction were Pandora Skype and TomTom and over the years they've added a few more features now apps can run live activities talk to Bluetooth devices record your screen run a series shortcut and manage a network VPN but again you will always be aware if these things are happening if an app isn't on screen or doing one of these things it's doing nothing in the background it doesn't take any battery life it doesn't slow your phone down number three I will concede there is one exception to that rule and that is a feature called background app refresh every few hours your phone will let an app in the background update for new content so that it's there as soon as you open it but again this is a feature that doesn't take that much battery power and it speeds up your phone because as soon as you open a new app you don't have to wait for a spinner you'll instantly see the new content you're looking for but if it really bothers you there is a single switch you can use to turn it off entirely that is in settings General background app refresh background app refresh again and then you can just turn it to Wi-Fi only if you're concerned about battery life or just turn it off entirely but again I encourage you to to leave it on because your phone is really smart about how best to preserve your battery life I would only disable it for the worst possible offenders Amazon Instagram Snapchat and like leave it on for the rest now I know it can be hard to undo years and years of muscle memory if you just do it automatically without thinking about it but I encourage you to try and retrain yourself just go to the home screen and hit the button if you learned something from this video remember to like And subscribe I'm D Griffin Jones with C of Macshould you clear your open apps on your iPhone no despite the Habit you might build and reinforce over the years quitting your apps because you think it'll save battery life speed up your phone clear up memory is actually worse for your iPhone overall you should only ever force quit an app if it crashes or stops responding here are three reasons why number one quitting apps drains your battery and slows you down every time you force quit an app your phone has to end all the processes associated with that app and it has to clear it from memory and then when you open it again it has to load everything up from scratch which slows you down it may sound counterintuitive but you're actually better off just leaving it as it is when you're done with your phone just go back to the home screen or lock it it's that simple if you make a habit out of it the battery power you waste by quitting your apps and waiting for them to open back up again will be far greater than the battery power it takes to just leave them silently in the background and your phone will Clear apps from memory if it needs to you don't need to do it yourself number two so what actually happens when an app is left open in the background it's basically as good as if it was closed entirely because there's very little that an app is allowed to do in the background if it isn't on screen or if your phone is locked without the need to force quit it in fact here's a complete list of everything apps are allowed to do in the background they can stream audio like music podcast or background videos they can receive or make phone calls ask for your location send you notifications or finish a task that you just started like uploading a photo or making a post in fact this is so long ago that the examples they used during the introduction were Pandora Skype and TomTom and over the years they've added a few more features now apps can run live activities talk to Bluetooth devices record your screen run a series shortcut and manage a network VPN but again you will always be aware if these things are happening if an app isn't on screen or doing one of these things it's doing nothing in the background it doesn't take any battery life it doesn't slow your phone down number three I will concede there is one exception to that rule and that is a feature called background app refresh every few hours your phone will let an app in the background update for new content so that it's there as soon as you open it but again this is a feature that doesn't take that much battery power and it speeds up your phone because as soon as you open a new app you don't have to wait for a spinner you'll instantly see the new content you're looking for but if it really bothers you there is a single switch you can use to turn it off entirely that is in settings General background app refresh background app refresh again and then you can just turn it to Wi-Fi only if you're concerned about battery life or just turn it off entirely but again I encourage you to to leave it on because your phone is really smart about how best to preserve your battery life I would only disable it for the worst possible offenders Amazon Instagram Snapchat and like leave it on for the rest now I know it can be hard to undo years and years of muscle memory if you just do it automatically without thinking about it but I encourage you to try and retrain yourself just go to the home screen and hit the button if you learned something from this video remember to like And subscribe I'm D Griffin Jones with C of Mac\n"