Do you 'close' your iOS apps?

[Ben]

Well, do you?

I know of a few people who regularly, systematically open the app tray and close all open apps one by one. I never do this unless I need to quit an app for some specific reason and view it as a complete waste of time... I also feel no ill effects. I'm curious to hear other experiences.

[miffed]

Only time I close anything is when I have a problem with an App freezing , and then I think "hmm, perhaps I should close these 1,423 others ?" I think I'd like to see a "close all" option as when I do this it seems to take ages.

[Hands0n]

Ditto Miffed. I never close an app, I never reboot the iPhone (or Android for that matter) unless there is a problem to hand. That happens from time to time, some apps are worse than others. But generally I leave it to the 21st century operating system to take care of such matters for me. This isn't Symbian, after all

[Ben]

Where on Earth are all these religious app closes, hmm? I know you're out there!

[Wilt]

I thought there was no point closing apps on iOS due to the way it handles multitasking?

[Hands0n]

I thought there was no point closing apps on iOS due to the way it handles multitasking?

Yup, and the same applies to Android. Both OS are quite capable of handling the multitasking and backgrounding of apps. But where developers introduce various bugs, most notably around in-app memory management, problems begin to occur. The apps themselves become unstable or unresponsive. They may crash entirely. Rarely will they crash the host OS though - although it has been seen before also.

So, the actual need to close an app is entirely redundant on iOS. Generally