Does Closing Apps Save Battery? Busting the "Swipe Them All Away" Myth

You know the habit: your phone's battery is getting low, so you open the list of recent apps and flick every single one away. It feels like tidying up a messy desk. But does it actually help? The short answer is no, and in many cases it does the opposite.

Myth vs. Fact

The myth: Apps left open in the background drain your battery, so closing them all saves power.

The fact: Apps in your recent-apps list are almost always asleep, not running. Closing them usually costs you more battery, not less. Apple's software chief, Craig Federighi, reportedly answered "no and no" when asked by a customer whether people should quit apps to save battery. Android's head at the time, Hiroshi Lockheimer, said closing apps could even very slightly worsen battery life. Both companies say the only time to close an app is when it has stopped responding.

What your phone is actually doing with those apps

The list of recent apps is not a list of programs that are running. Think of it as a stack of bookmarks. When you leave an app, your phone freezes it in place, much like pausing a movie. A paused movie uses almost no power, and it picks up exactly where you left off the moment you return.

Those frozen apps do take up some of the phone's short-term memory (called RAM, the working space it uses for whatever you're doing right now). But unused memory doesn't save you anything, and the phone is built to handle this on its own. When it needs room for something new, it quietly clears out the oldest frozen apps without any help from you.

Why closing apps can backfire

Starting an app from scratch takes real effort. The phone has to load the app, fetch its data, and redraw the screen, which uses a burst of power. Resuming a frozen app takes far less. So if you swipe away Facebook or your email and then open it again twenty minutes later, you've spent more energy than if you had left it alone. It is a bit like turning your car engine off and on at every stop sign: it feels thrifty, but it burns more fuel.

Why the myth took hold

The habit comes from computers. On an older PC, every open program really did eat memory and slow things down, and closing them really did help. Early phones were also slower and had little memory, so the advice made sense for a while. Phones have changed, but the advice stuck around. It also feels good: a clean screen looks like a job done well.

When closing an app is the right move

There are a few real exceptions:

• The app is frozen or acting strangely. Closing it and reopening gives it a fresh start.
• One app is clearly draining your battery. Check your battery settings (on iPhone, Settings, then Battery; on Android, Settings, then Battery) to see which app is using the most power. If a single app stands out, close it, and consider updating or deleting it.
• An app is misbehaving after an update. Closing it can clear the glitch.

What actually saves battery

If you want your battery to last longer, these things make a real difference:

1. Turn the screen brightness down, or turn on auto-brightness. The screen is the biggest power user on your phone.
2. Switch on Low Power Mode (iPhone) or Battery Saver (Android) when you're running low.
3. Limit location access. In your privacy settings, set apps to use your location only "while using the app" or not at all.
4. Turn off Background App Refresh (iPhone) or restrict background activity (Android) for apps that don't need to update when you aren't using them.
5. Install system and app updates. They often include battery fixes.

The bottom line

You can stop the daily swipe-away ritual. Your phone manages its apps better than we can by hand. Save the closing for the rare app that freezes or hogs power, and put your effort into the settings above instead.

Sources: TechRadar, "Does closing apps on your iPhone save battery life?"; Techlicious, "Closing apps to save battery is bad for your phone or tablet."