For many iPhone users, it’s almost a reflex to double-tap the home button or swipe up to close apps that are not currently in use. There’s a common belief that closing apps can help save battery life and improve performance. But does it really work? Let’s dive into the details and separate fact from fiction.
The Misconception: Closing Apps Saves Battery
It’s easy to see why people think closing apps will conserve battery life. It seems logical—if an app is open, it must be using resources, right? However, this assumption doesn’t align with how iOS manages apps in the background.
When you switch to another app or return to the home screen, iOS doesn’t keep apps actively running. Instead, it puts them into a suspended state. In this state, apps are frozen in memory, using minimal resources like RAM but not consuming significant battery or processing power. This system is designed to allow you to switch back to the app quickly without it needing to reload entirely.
According to TechRadar, closing apps can actually do more harm than good. Every time you force an app to close and reopen it, the iPhone uses extra resources to relaunch it from scratch, which can end up draining more battery than if you had just left it suspended.
What Apple Recommends
Apple’s official guidance is pretty clear: “You should close an app only if it’s unresponsive.” They emphasize that manually closing apps on a regular basis is unnecessary. Apple has invested significant effort into optimizing iOS’s app management system, which is efficient at controlling background tasks without the need for user intervention.
Closing an app should be reserved for instances when it’s malfunctioning or frozen, not for routine battery-saving. In fact, the iPhone is designed to manage background apps in a way that maximizes both performance and battery life without requiring the user to manually close them.
Background App Refresh: The Real Battery Culprit
While it’s true that apps aren’t draining your battery when they’re in a suspended state, some apps can still use power by performing tasks in the background. This is where the Background App Refresh feature comes into play. This feature allows apps to update their content (like syncing data or fetching emails) even when they’re not open.
If you’re looking to conserve battery, disabling Background App Refresh for apps that don’t need to update frequently is a much more effective strategy than closing apps manually. You can find this option under Settings > General > Background App Refresh. You can toggle it off entirely or just for specific apps that you don’t need running in the background.
When Should You Actually Close Apps?
There are a few situations where manually closing apps makes sense:
- App Malfunctions: If an app freezes or becomes unresponsive, force-closing it and reopening can often resolve the issue.
- Location Services: Some apps that use location services may continue to track your location in the background. If you notice your battery draining unusually fast, checking and closing apps that use location services may help.
- High Battery Consumption: If you check Settings > Battery and notice a particular app using an excessive amount of battery, closing it may stop further drainage, especially if it’s misbehaving.
Why iOS Knows Best
iOS is designed to be highly efficient at managing resources. The system decides how much memory each app gets, when apps need to be frozen, and when they should be removed from memory. Interfering with this process by manually closing apps can actually slow down your iPhone’s performance and use more battery in the long run.
By closing apps frequently, you’re effectively forcing the system to reload them from scratch every time you reopen them, which consumes more energy. On the other hand, leaving apps suspended in memory allows them to be quickly resumed without unnecessary energy expenditure.
The Bottom Line
Despite the widespread belief that closing apps on your iPhone will save battery, the reality is quite the opposite. Apps that are suspended in the background aren’t draining your battery, and manually closing them may actually make your phone work harder and use more power.
So, unless an app is misbehaving or consuming an unusual amount of battery, it’s best to trust iOS’s app management system. Instead of swiping away all your open apps, focus on more effective battery-saving techniques like adjusting screen brightness, disabling Background App Refresh, or limiting location services. By letting your iPhone handle the background tasks, you’ll get better performance and battery life in the long run.
- Don’t close apps regularly—iOS manages them efficiently.
- Only close apps when they’re unresponsive or draining too much battery.
- Background App Refresh is a better target for saving battery than manually closing apps.
Your iPhone is smarter than you think when it comes to managing resources. Trust it!