Are Task Killers really necessary for Android phones?

byronbw

I have noticed most C-hings will recommend a task killer as one of the first apps to install for Android phones. Myself included, coming from a WM background, it seemed killing task is a must to free up phone memory, and I have become obsessed with it. However, please take a look at the following thread:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum ... ing-background.html

There are some quite technical explanations as to why task killing isn't necessary for the Android OS. Apparently the system will allocate memory by itself, and close off unused apps if necessary. Background apps don't use any memory or CPU cycles. On the other hand, if we kill off some necessary system apps, this will lead to slowing down of the system or even forced closure.

As a test, I have resisted the temptation of using a task killer on my N1 in the last 2 days. At the same time I monitored the system memory with systray monitor. I noticed the system memory remained quite stable, and actually increased as I opened more apps (e.g. Browser), confirming the above finding. I also checked battery usage in the setting, none of the apps running in the background were drawing any battery power.

Sorry for the long post, but would like to see what you guys think.

omecon2000

無用好耐了 但仲keep係home度得閒睇下

byronbw

回復 2# omecon2000


   

但仲keep係home度得閒睇下

I find that if I keep it on the home page, I'll keep checking it all the time and killing everything running in the background - it became an obsession!

I have to remove it

Kelzad

it's unnecessary, but not a bad thing to play around with

outlook

Not necessary at all. If there's not enough memory, Android will kill the app automatically.

aswdv

I also stop using for a while.
In the past, I flashed some Hero ROM onto my G1, task killer seems a bit helpful. But since I gave up Hero ROM and now switched to CM ROM, task killer is no longer necessary.

pakchi70

i seldom use kill apps app
but you feel better when you can really close an app
so it's just psychological feeling better

penthlon

你有時可能想kill左某d apps, 避免佢地係background下載好多data。

byronbw

回復 8# penthlon


   

你有時可能想kill左某d apps, 避免佢地係background下載好多data

For example? As far as I know, background apps remain inactive, while Android services running in the background cannot / should not be killed. In fact I have noticed after I stopped killing apps in the past 2 days my data use has gone down. What gives?

xenomorph

其實我最擔心係D taskkiller Apps Kill 多左D 常註Process 而導致死機或自動reboot. 始終呢D taskkiller Apps 係由第三方人士寫, 唔知會點. 就好似我install好多Apps之後都攪到部野慢晒.
我宜家都好小心揀D Apps. 冇用既都會uninstall.