To have an app killer or not to, that is the question
Kle0408
Newbie

Hey guys. I have a quick question. May sound dumb or may have already been asked but i can't find it. The question being, is it safe to use an application killer or not. I understand that some programs must stay running (have done that much research.) But it is safe to have an app killer and kill simple apps such as facebook, myspace, yahoo messenger, etc. I am currently using the advance task killer free version. I just don't want to do anything to harm anything such as the phones functioning. Thanks in advance for the help.

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Re: To have an app killer or not to, that is the question
fezzik
Contributor - Level 3

The answer is a resounding no.  Appkillers and Virus scanners use system resources and do very little that is useful that you can't do yourself without using all those resources.  On the DINC some people have claimed it saved their battery life but to me it isn't worth it.  It causes more problems than it solves. 

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Re: To have an app killer or not to, that is the question
AZSALUKI
Legend

while i agree with fezzick, i do still use advanced task killer. just make sure you have apps that you need to run on the ignore list (like my alarm clock. i thought it didn't work.....i was just killing it constantly, so of course it didn't work...lol). i just like to kill them all at once as it seems i have about a dozen running after a couple hours and it's just easier for me to hit kill all apps (minus the ones on my ignore list).

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Re: To have an app killer or not to, that is the question
nlawrence77
Newbie

I read a bunch of posts about having a task killer with the 2.2 update. I had one for awhile after the update but after everything I read about why to not have one, I finally uninstalled it. And wow, I could not be happier. My battery life is amazing now! And I use my phone like crazy. I'm texting all day long, and using the internet several times a day, not to mention several of my different apps. I can get a full days use out of my phone without having to charge it. Of course, I do have to charge it every night. I highly highly recommend uninstalling the task killer...

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Re: To have an app killer or not to, that is the question
w40d1n1
Enthusiast - Level 3
It all depends on what you want out of your phone. If you want long battery life, then don't install a task killer. If you want faster application response (from already running apps, i.e. Internet browser) that dynamically require more and more memory as you use it, then install a task killer and configure it to only stop apps that don't auto-start. I've found that some apps like mail, gmail, browser, games, run much snappier if the underlying OS isn't busy having to stop other apps and free other resources. Ironically, none of these issues are new, Mainframe, host based, virtual, and cloud computing developers have been dealing with shared resource issues for decades. Silly android devs, they think they've discovered something new.
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Re: To have an app killer or not to, that is the question
Chillenout
Newbie

I would say no. It's not needed. ATK made my system really lag. I deleted it, but then my battery life tanked big time,I could barley get 5 hours of battery life with hardly using the phone at all....until I found this niffty little app called Juice Defender.

 

Juice Defender is a miracle worker. After configuring it, I'm able to get my 1750 battery to last 14-15 hours....and that's WITHOUT A.T.K and   with heavy use....

 

 

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Re: To have an app killer or not to, that is the question
FramCire
Newbie

NO NO NO

 

With Froyok, if you use an app killer you will be stopping and restarting apps a ton that dont take up any resources when running.  Thus, you are hurting your phone!

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Re: To have an app killer or not to, that is the question
ericreinhardt
Contributor - Level 1

What is everyones take on System Panel? Do you think that its something that takes away from the battery etc.

 

 

Eric  

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Re: To have an app killer or not to, that is the question
dino22
Newbie

 

ATK shows apps running in the background.  Actually, they are not.  Click settings, about phone at bottom, battery, battery use and it will show you what is actually running. 

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Re: To have an app killer or not to, that is the question
w40d1n1
Enthusiast - Level 3
What if the app shows up under Settings, Applications, Manage, Running ?

If Android is Linux, and the app shows up in the process table, it is running. It might be idle, but the app still has all the same capabilites (i.e. use resources) as a foreground app. So, it the app has bugs, or is poorly written, it can still consume resources on froyo, even if you think it isn't running.

Google recently wrote an article encouraging Android users, when installing apps, to pay attention to the features/resources/functionality being granted to the new app during the installation process. I didn't get the oppty to deny that choice to Skype, Amazon, etc.
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