Advanced Task Killers...

[BackSeatSuicide]

I was wondering why advanced task killers are bad. It seems like they would be good for keeping apps you don't want running in the background, from running. Therefore saving battery life. So why do people say task killers are bad to use?

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[Sniper_5]

Do a search on task killers on the site. I know there is a thread about the pro's and con's of task killers. For a quick sum up. Android is based on linux which is an operating system. Like a computer it manages the memory and running tasks on its own quite well. The only real use for them is to force close apps that aren't working properly. Even then, android can do this on its own. They are memory hogs as well.

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[harrellj]

Because the way the OS works, once you kill that app, the OS relaunches it, you kill it, it gets relaunched, etc. The OS has a built-in task killer to kill the random/rare app that has gone nuts. If running an autokiller is an improvement, its likely a badly written app.

Read the sticky in this forum too.

Yeah, yeah.. I'm on my phone. So?

 

[BackSeatSuicide]

Hmmm, that makes sense, but do you see where I'm coming from, it seems like a good idea to have certain apps on an auto-end list to keep them from using memory bandwidth, CPU resources, & battery life. But I guess if there memory hogs themselves then that would defeat the whole purpose, but...if you are using a custom ROM, that gets rid of the bloatware and makes your system run a lot faster, then you would be able to spare the cpu/memory bandwidth and then you would be able to put some apps on an auto-end list, thus saving even more system resources, but now that I think of it, the fact that the ATK app is memory hungry, and if you calculate the memory you save from auto-ending certain apps, all that would do is make up for the memory that the ATK app is using, so it would just balance itself out making it pointless and you would be better off just not using a ATK app at all, lol

Well I'm glad we had this talk hahaha, we should do it again sometime. Goodtimes lol

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[harrellj]

The thing is, when you kill an app automatically, that app will be relaunched anyways, so no resources spared. On top of that, the OS will be using resources to launch the app and the app killer will use resources to do the killing. This is a net loss of resources.

Yeah, yeah.. I'm on my phone. So?

 

[kptphalkon]

Yes, regardless of blurless, or a rom that runs as light as possible, android will continue to load up (it is considered pre-caching or ram caching in the desktop world, which is why windows vista and 7 are such ram hogs since they work on the same principle) processes that are likely to be accessed, either by the system or by you. So long story short, task killers will use more cpu and battery than without one.

Anyone who says that a task killer is helping their phone run faster or save battery, if they have froyo (not sure about 2.1), are giving themselves a placebo effect.

Granted, i still have ATK for the rare instances that an app is having problems and i need to manually close it. I just dont run it in the background and have never set it up to autokill anything.

 

[zenman77]

I used to believe all of that but honestly, I get better battery life when I use ATK...... One big battery killer is Words with friends.....

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[kptphalkon]

Well I dont use apps that sync or run constantly, i have no need for them.

And besides that any app that is not active does not use any cpu power at all...i mean check your battery use and you'll see what I mean.

 

[Mcbrocker]

I went a day without using ATK and my battery lasted maybe 12 hours then a day with it battery lasted 18 hours about the same amount of use. So with my use it works well. I don't autokill I only use it when i'm not going to be on for a bit.

 

[Droid DOES!!]

If you use your back key instead of home key to exit apps, you don't need ATK. I haven't ran one in months and get about 15 hours of heavy usage and 20+ with moderate usage.

DroidForums Junkie!!

 

[Xf53vfs3]

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/128213-atk-saves-battery-life-not.html

a thread i started about what i found while using ATK and my theory about them.

 

[Droid DOES!!]

http://m.lifehacker.com/5650894/and...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them

DroidForums Junkie!!

 

[hookbill]

We do ask that you search before opening a new thread. In this case the thread was on the same page. In the stickies.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-applications/65483-task-killers-answer-google-developers.html

This thread is closed