How to Close Apps on iPhone 11? Several Ways
How to close apps on iPhone 11? Apple users are used to opening their phone’s App Switcher and swiping to close all the apps there. This should be stopped.
In addition to not improving battery life as many people claim, it also actively works against how your iPhone is designed. This article will explain why your iPhone should not be closed constantly.
The Basics of Closing Apps on iPhone
I’d like to quickly define what swiping to close apps is just to make sure we are all on the same page. The App Switcher shows recent apps that can be switched between on the iPhone, which can be closed by opening it.
There are different ways to open the App Switcher on different iPhone models. You can open Face ID on iPhones by sliding up from the bottom of the screen and pausing near the center. Instead of double-clicking the home button, double-clicking the Home button will open the App Switcher.
From there, swipe left or right to look through your apps, then swipe up on an app’s preview to close it and remove it from the list.
Why You Shouldn’t Constantly Close iPhone Apps
iPhone apps need to be open all the time to be functional, and closing them all the time is counterproductive. IOS, the operating system that runs your iPhone, is designed to handle this.
Background-running apps are not allowed
This is a common misconception that every app in the App Switcher is currently running in the background and consuming your iPhone’s resources. Apple’s support page for switching iPhone apps states:
Whenever you switch between apps, some apps run for a brief period of time before being suspended. In a suspended state, an application isn’t actively used, open, or taking up system resources.
Since most of the apps that appear in the App Switcher do not represent active processes, they do not appear in the App Switcher. In the switcher, they are less about the list of all processes running and more about convenience (enabling you to switch back to apps you were using before).
As opposed to Task Manager on Windows and Activity Monitor on a Mac, App Switcher is a standalone application. You don’t have to close applications manually to stop them from running.
Your iPhone Manages RAM on Its Own
The following point follows from the previous one. Apple does a great job of managing the resources on your device, and closing apps all the time forces it to work harder.
Your iPhone has a limited amount of RAM, which is used to store the processes that are running. When apps aren’t needed in RAM, they are regularly removed so that space for other apps is always available.
Apps that you haven’t used for a while are automatically closed in the background; when you open them again, they start up again. This can be observed by opening the switcher and scrolling from left to right to find an application hidden deep within the list. If you tap it, it will likely not pick up where you left off, since it was suspended to make room for apps you are currently using.
If you open apps that you haven’t used in the last few days, iOS will freeze them, then unfreeze them when you open them again. You might not even notice that the app was frozen when you open it again because it happens so quickly.
As a result of closing apps constantly, iOS is unable to manage processes for you, and frozen apps won’t be immediately accessible.
Closing Apps Forces Them to Reload
Whenever you force close apps all the time, you make any app you use frequently less convenient.
As a simple example, let’s say you’re texting your friend in Messages and closing the app after every reply. You must select the conversation with your friend again each time a new message arrives in Messages. It would be faster if you just left Messages open so you could access them immediately after unlocking your phone.
Over the course of a day, this doesn’t seem like much of a difference, but it adds up over time. In addition to wasting time, this will also negatively impact battery life. When you force your phone to close apps and then reopen them all the time, it has to do more work than if you left them open.
Imagine having to turn off your phone every time you put it back in your pocket, and then have to turn it back on when you need it. You’re doing the same thing on a smaller scale with swiping to close apps, which is inefficient and wasteful.
The App Switcher is less useful after closing an app
When you swipe all your apps closed constantly, the App Switcher becomes less useful. The switcher’s purpose is to make it easy to access apps that you were just using. The only way to launch apps is through your Home screen or Spotlight search when it’s always blank.
You waste your time by doing this, especially when your primary Home screen or Dock does not have those apps.
Apple Says It’s Unnecessary
If you’re not convinced by all that was said above, perhaps confirmation from Apple will change your mind.
Close All is not present on the app switcher, implicitly indicating how Apple intends for this feature to work. It would be easier to do this with a button if the company recommended closing all your apps regularly.
You should close an app only if it is unresponsive, according to Apple’s support page on closing apps. Apple would make this clear if it helped your iPhone by closing apps all the time.
Moreover, 9to5Mac shared an email sent to Tim Cook in 2016, asking whether it would be a good idea to close iOS apps frequently and whether it would improve battery life. In response, Apple’s Senior VP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, responded, “No and no”.
The person responsible for iOS design has a very good understanding of how it works.