So there seems to be a lot of discussion lately about the closing of background apps on Android. Now, I expect a decent amount of disapproval from this, but I happen to be one of those people BECAUSE I've experienced that it drains my battery more to have them running.

Since I genuinely trust y'all quite a lot compared to how much one should trust the internet in general, I'd like some more proper and reliable info (or as reliable as it can get) on this. If I'm indeed wrong I want you to convince me.

The apps are freezed when in background, and the only thing they take is RAM, but unused ram is wasted ram. When you close them, the next time you open them, they will load completely, thus waisting your battery

@-vim- I think it's a natural followup question to wonder if there's a way to prove that they are indeed inactive? Considering the modern society of today I think it's fair enough to question whether or not (or just to what extent) telemetry is happening. :/

I'm just fucking finicky about having a shit ton of apps running. I mean, if I'm not using it, away it goes, I don't care if it takes longer to load later, but at least whenever I have to take and make a call or something fast, my phone isn't busy freeing resources.

So...I think it's more a matter of preference?

I'm that kind of guy too. Usually, if you close an app pressing the back button it'll stop running, unless the devs deliberately said "fuck no we want your background CPU cycles"

Some apps are working and draining battery in the background. I think its their Activity which is frozen but not the work they do... at least it looks that way to me and I've used Android for a long time.

My tablet is old and extremely slow. I suspect that one part of it is full memory.
I have to manually close apps otherwise it gets slower and slower, possibly grinding to a "complete" halt if some app randomly decides to need more ram or a background task starts.
The best config I made is that I can kill apps pressing back long wich saved me multiple times. It can get so bad that switching to the homescreen or to another app can literally take multiple minutes. If no other app is open, starting a new one is reasonable fast. Slowness definetly scales with opened apps on this device.

Though, I am not ruling out hardware or software defects. Still looking for an 10inch amoled horizontal tablet replacement 😔

@Nithanim That's what I've experienced too, on all the different smartphones I've had, as well as my tablet. :/ And I understand how it drains more in comparison when the apps are relaunched, but if I don't use them that often I end up losing more battery by having them running in the background, which is what I don't understand with people's arguments against killing the processes. I mean, if it's an app you use a lot, several times a day, it makes more sense, and I do leave those apps alone.

Btw, what config is that? Is it something that's in the settings or do you mean you set up a thing on your own? :o

@Navigatr Exactly! If i close something I am probably not going to need it any time soon so I will take the extra cost of startup. But in theory it sould not make any difference because if memory gets too low, the OS should remove apps automatically which does not seem to work for me.
I am no expert, background tasks can run in separate processes or the same and the latter are probably adding to the cause which we get rid of by closing manually.

I am on CM13 and I have a button in the developers options that reads "kill app back button" right at the bottom: "Kill the foreground app by long-pressing the back-button". Not sure for stock or other versions. I still have hardware keys, though, which might have better reaction if everything hangs.
But it saved me a lot since it frees resource pretty much instantly when things go downhill as soon as the command goes through. The best thing is that it is always ready to press and no UI. The open apps menu would have to open first...

@Nithanim Ah, well, I'm not only running just stock Android, but I also don't have any hardware keys, so I guess that's out. :P Both my devices are Nexus ones. A lot of the time it hides the navigation keys so you have to swipe up to access them, which won't do shit if the thing's all frozen.

Either way, I'm not confident enough around Android and stuff yet to dare try stuff like CM and what not. Maybe one day though. :)