Stop swiping apps away on your iPhone to save battery life
Force-closing apps does not actually save power on your iPhone.
The short version
- Doing this constantly makes your device work harder and can drain your battery faster.
- Apple, the company that makes the iPhone, says you should only close apps if they freeze.
- Leave your apps alone to help your battery last longer.
Why it matters to you. For your business or daily life, keeping your apps open will mean your phone stays charged longer throughout the day.
Stop swiping up to clear your apps. Many iPhone users believe that force-closing every app will save battery life, but it actually does the opposite. Kaycee, the How-To Editor at Tom's Guide, explains that this common habit is based on a misunderstanding of how the software works.
When you swipe an app away, you remove it from the memory entirely. The next time you tap it, your iPhone has to perform a "cold launch." This means the phone must load everything from scratch, which takes more power than simply resuming a paused app.
Apple, the company that makes the iPhone, designed the system to suspend apps automatically so they do not use the processor while you are not using them. The phone will close these apps on its own if it needs more memory. You should only force-close an app if it has stopped responding or is frozen.
If you find yourself tethered to a charger by the afternoon, your habit of clearing apps might be the reason why. Your phone is smarter than you think, so let it do the heavy lifting.
Photo: Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons
