How to Close Background Apps in Android

How To
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Android apps continue to run in the background, even after you’ve moved on to other tasks. Here's how to close those apps to free up memory.

In Android, once you launch an application, it will continue to run in the background, even after you’ve left it and moved on to other tasks. After enough applications are opened at once, you may notice your device lagging a bit due to the number of apps eating up your device’s RAM.

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Here’s how to kill applications running in the background.

3. Tap and hold on the application and swipe it to the right. This should kill the process from running and free up some RAM. If you want to close everything, press the "Clear All" button if its available to you.

4. Navigate to the Apps tab in settings if your phone’s still running slow. On Samsung phones, this menu is called "Application Manager." On LG phones, go to Settings > General > Apps.

5. Go to the "All apps" tab, scroll to the application(s) that’s running, and click on it.

6. Tap "Force Stop" to kill the process for good.

Andrew E. Freedman
Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew E. Freedman is an editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming as well as keeping up with the latest news. He holds a M.S. in Journalism (Digital Media) from Columbia University. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Kotaku, PCMag, Complex, Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag among others.

2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • musical marv
    There is a app called Close IT. It stops running background apps.It is free also.
    Reply
  • siarheiuk810
    and it saves a lot of battery live
    Reply