? & Confusion on Task Killers

[Jenlj78]

Hey Everyone,
I am honestly a little confused! With all the things I am reading and comments on other posts. This whole ATK stuff is confusing. I read not to use advanced task killer and then I read about people who do. My sister has had it on her Droid for over two months and her phone works with 0 problems. My new X will be here next week and I want to do what is right for me and my phone.
I am being totally honest and I am confused on the difference in opinions and what to do that is best.

 

[ndhill1976]

Read this article.

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

To address your sister having ATK, it is possible to run it without noticeable problems. However you are guaranteed no problems and a smooth running phone without ATK.

Don't use it, you don't need it.

 

[pilot25]

You need it without a doubt if you run widgets and apps that don't follow the instructions in that article, ndhill1976, linked.

Example is the MLB widget which updates scores every 15 seconds to 1 minute even if it's 3:00am and there are no games on for 16 hours. You have to kill the task until the next game you want to monitor otherwise your battery will die faster than you can imagine.

Virtually every widget is like this including the Google News and Weather and Google Finance. Google claims you don't need task killers but their own widgets are culprits in killing batteries.

Widgets = need for task killers. If you don't run widgets then you "probably" don't need it.

 

[xeene]

it's useful on dx with 2.1 operating system. once you upgrade to 2.2 task killers become useless. if i were you i'd forget it since droid x will be upgraded to 2.2 froyo next month.

 

[Trillium]

Hey Everyone,
I am honestly a little confused! With all the things I am reading and comments on other posts. This whole ATK stuff is confusing. I read not to use advanced task killer and then I read about people who do. My sister has had it on her Droid for over two months and her phone works with 0 problems. My new X will be here next week and I want to do what is right for me and my phone.
I am being totally honest and I am confused on the difference in opinions and what to do that is best.

LOL I think this is a question that people just aren't going to agree on, no matter how many debates there are on it.

My advice would be to experiment for yourself and see how it goes. I'm not running any kind of task killer and things are going swimmingly so far. I'll reevaluate if I have trouble down the line.

 

[psionhacker]

Task killers are only good for programs that need to be "reset" otherwise there are options for data usage on most widgets and the native task manager has given me brilliant battery life even with above average usage.

Sent from my Moto Droid using Tapatalk

 

[viper3773]

if you had to use a task manager for the special occasions, would you use ATK or some other one?

 

[psionhacker]

I actually didn't like ATK, I use android mate. Its a file explorer/app manager/task manager. Great app

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[viper3773]

android mate? ok thanks i will try that.

 

[Jenlj78]

Thanks for the replies. I really want to know what people think and why even if everyone has to agree to disagree. I like the input so far

 

[Abaddon]

I am new to android (coming over from an iBore) but I have been using the advanced task killer. I have heard/read many times not to use a task killer but in my case I've had better results with it.

I tried an experiment where I didn't kill anything and just let the OS do its job like everyone says to do. However, the day after doing this, my phone would get warm, and the battery would drain very, very quickly. On one occasion it went from about 70% to 30% in an hour. And that was just sitting in my pocket!

However, when I use the advanced task killer (only killing selected apps - not all) my battery life is pretty good and the battery doesn't get warm when the phone is just sitting (and it shouldn't!).

I also noticed on the Motorola site that in the keys to extending battery life section they actual say to use a task killer. I know what people in here will say about what Google says, but in my own personal (and my humble opinion) I believe that you should try out the task killer. Although I do think you should try without too. Just experiment and see what works. In my particular situation, the phone was better off if I selectively killed off apps that were in the background. Many I hadn't even used.

 

[psionhacker]

The problem for battery life isn't entirely memory consumption. It's more background data usage like auto syncing. Allowing apps to do that will cause your battery to be dry. I would say instead of using a task manager, get rid of programs you don't use (if you are rooted system/gapps too) and disable auto syncing. Works for me

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[aminaked]

I tried an experiment where I didn't kill anything and just let the OS do its job like everyone says to do. However, the day after doing this, my phone would get warm, and the battery would drain very, very quickly. On one occasion it went from about 70% to 30% in an hour. And that was just sitting in my pocket!

Track down what app is causing that, uninstall it, and contact the dev. Task killers are treating the symptoms and not the root cause.

 

[tofasttafuri]

ATKs are evil

 

[xeene]

atks are endangered species, once 2.2 goes live they'll become extinct.