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What happens if I stop all background apps?

Every time when you see your smartphone’s battery draining, you unlock your phone and check for the background apps or run a cleaner app. Well, have you ever stopped and thought whether this tricks actually work or not?

Closing background apps have nothing to do saving battery. Thinking that it has the slightest effect on the same is a myth. If you are one of the millionth people who close the apps completely just after using them, then you must know that it does more harm than good.

It affects the smartphone’s battery performance negatively.

This must come as a shock to you as for years for feeding this lying, suddenly if we will tell you that this affects your battery in a negative manner, you wouldn’t believe. Therefore, we will talk on some facts to clear the ground.

Interested? Read on! Check out the myth buster!

The question of the hour: Does Closing Background Apps Really Save Battery?

Well, it certainly doesn’t. You must have been believing this myth due to the confusion if the app is open in the background, we think it is running. Apps open in the background makes it easy to relaunch the app, then opening the app from the start. The background apps are not hogging as much as resources as they are assumed to be.

Important resources are accessed by the apps when they are running in the foreground, mostly location tracking, playing audio or downloading or uploading a file. It is the same for whether you have Android or iOS.

If we talk about facts, closing a background app drains more battery. When you quit an app for good, you consume a percentage of resources and battery for clearing RAM and closing the app. Furthermore, whenever you will open the app, you will use certain device resources, which will increase battery usage.

Hiroshi Lockheimer, Vice President of Engineering for Android once mentioned, “[closing apps in the background] could very slightly worsen unless you and algorithm are ONE [you kill something, the system wants it back etc.].”

Update your device!

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

Android updates often include battery improvements, bug fixes, and performance upgrades. All of these make for a more efficient device, which can improve the way your handset handles background apps. This is why you should continually update your device to the latest Android version.

How to check for Android updates:

Open the Settings app.
Go into System.
Tap on System update.
This page will let you know if there’s an update available. You can also Check for updates.
If there’s an update available, follow on-screen instructions to install the update.

Similarly, app updates can also bring improvements, so always ensure you’re running the latest version of all your applications.

How to check for app updates:

Open the Google Play Store.
Tap on your profile picture in the top-right corner.
Select Manage apps & device.
Go into Updates available.
Hit Update all [if available].

Take advantage of Adaptive Battery, if you can

Many phones are still running on Android 10, even though Android 11 has been out for a while, and the latest devices now sport Android 12. Luckily, that’s good news for everyone. Android 10 introduced excellent power management features that limit background apps and extend your phone’s battery life.

One of them is called Adaptive Battery, which uses machine learning to figure out which apps you’ll use in the next few hours, and which ones you won’t use until later, if at all, that day. Based on your usage patterns, it places each app into one of the five App Standby Buckets: “Active,” “Working set,” “Frequent,” “Rare,” and “Never.” Each of these buckets has its limitations regarding how much resources the apps it contains can use.

Related: How to extend your Android phone’s battery life

Simply put, an app placed in the “Never” bucket is hardly ever used, which is why the system will limit its access to resources like the CPU. This means it will use less battery. On the other hand, apps in buckets like “Active” are the ones you use the most and will get full access to the system’s resources, so you can expect to get all your notifications on time.

The process is automatic and dynamic, which means the system learns your usage pattern over time and moves the apps from one bucket to the other accordingly.

How to turn on Adaptive Battery:

Open the Settings app.
Select Battery.
Go into Adaptive preferences.
Toggle Adaptive Battery on.

Check what’s draining your phone

Robert Triggs / Android Authority

Battery

Since battery life is so important, it’s well monitored by your Android OS. To look at the background apps guzzling power, go to Settings > Battery > Battery Usage. You’ll get a list of what’s draining your battery, and by how much. Depending on your device and software, the apps will be split into either system or non-system apps or by hardware and software to make things even more accessible.

The more you use certain apps, the higher on the list they’ll sit. Look out for any apps you don’t recognize, or ones you don’t use often but still use a significant amount of battery. Any app using over a few percent is worth looking into — saving 5% here or 4% there will add up. Anything that’s a Google app or service is probably not something to worry about and is just a natural part of Android and Google’s Services.

How to check which apps are using the most battery on Android:

Open the Settings app.
Go into Battery.
Select Battery usage.

RAM

Using Developer options, you can also check out which apps dominate your phone’s limited memory, also known as RAM. It may be that an app is not using a lot of battery, but when you’re only working with 2GB of RAM and an app you’re not using is taking up a few hundred MB, leaving you short on available memory.

How to check RAM usage:

Open the Settings app.
Go into System.
Tap on About phone.
Scroll down to the Build number and tap on it seven times to enable Developer options.
You’ll be asked to enter your PIN. Go ahead.
You’re now a “Developer.”
Go back to the main Settings menu.
Go into System.
Select Developer options.
Hit Running services.

Here you can view which processes are running, your used and available RAM, and which apps are using it. Again, some of these services are essential to keep your phone running. It would be best if you were primarily looking for demanding apps you’ve downloaded.

Related: How much RAM does your phone need?

Stop the app, kill it, or uninstall your background apps

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

Once you’ve found your culprit, you have to know what to do next. Luckily, you have a few options to choose from if you don’t want to remove the app entirely.

Close a background app using Developer options:

Open the Settings app.
Go into System.
Tap on About phone.
Scroll down to the Build number and tap on it seven times to enable Developer options.
You’ll be asked to enter your PIN. Go ahead.
You’re now a “Developer.”
Go back to the main Settings menu.
Go into System.
Select Developer options.
Hit Running services.
Tap on the app you want to stop.
Hit Stop.
Select OK.

How to force stop or uninstall an app:

Open the Settings app.
Select Apps.
Go into See all apps.
Find the app you want to force stop and tap on it.
Select Force Stop.
Alternatively, you can hit Uninstall to get rid of it.

Limit problematic background apps

If you want to keep using an app that appears to have high demand, you might be able to limit what it can do.

Some Samsung and Huawei phones include OS options to manage background apps. In Battery Settings, Huawei offers an App launch option, which allows you to identify specific apps, restrict launches, and target power-saving measures. Samsung also offers a power-saving option to help manage apps.

If you don’t have access to a proprietary built-in option, there are good apps that help. The perennial favorite is Greenify, which offers fine controls over apps and places them in hibernation. If you have a rooted phone, you’ll have even more control, but it works well with standard devices too.

One problem with apps like this is that you have to introduce another app to monitor your device. In our popular post titled 13 tricks and hacks to speed up Android, our own Adam Sinicki noted that while background apps can kill the battery, background app killers can also slow you down.

Booting an app from nothing takes longer and uses more battery than switching to one that is paused. If you open an app that requires more memory, Android will automatically kill the least important ones to free up space. Task killers can actually end up slowing your device down.Adam Sinicki

FAQs

We can’t give you a definitive list of apps that drain your phone the most, but we can say that social media apps are common culprits. These might include Facebook, Messenger, Snapchat, and others. Of course, music and video streaming apps like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify are other common culprits.

Apps running in the background is an important feature in the Android ecosystem. This allows the phone to work backstage while you’re doing other things. You can keep a page loading while you check Facebook, for example. As such, this allows for better multitasking.

It all depends on which apps are important to you. If you rely on Facebook for work, for example, stopping it from running in the background isn’t a viable option. Additionally, stopping system apps from running in the background can affect performance and functionality.

Should you turn off all background apps?

It is a common belief that you should close apps running in background to improve performance and save battery life. Unfortunately, this is a myth that is not true in almost all situations.

What will happen if I stop background apps?

Another myth is that if you stop apps from running in the background, then apps in the foreground run faster. Unfortunately, this is not true, as Android manages your RAM intelligently while keeping multiple apps in the memory. It doesn't let those apps affect the performance of your phone.

Is it OK to turn off background app?

Background App Refresh is useful for many reasons. It keeps all your apps up-to-date, and it's constantly looking for new updates. However, this feature consumes battery power and uses cellular data from your device. That's why it's often best to turn it off for certain apps or altogether.

Is it good to have apps running in the background?

Having too many apps open won't damage your phone in any way, but it will definitely result in slower performance, and you'll probably notice your battery draining faster. Try to get in the habit of closing your apps right after you use them, or to close your apps at the end of the day before you go to sleep.