How to see your most used apps on android

Joe Fedewa is a Staff Writer at How-To Geek. He has been covering consumer technology for over a decade and previously worked as a News Editor at XDA Developers. Joe loves all things technology and is also an avid DIYer at heart. He has written thousands of articles, hundreds of tutorials, and dozens of reviews. Read more.

Smartphones are great, but a lot of people worry that they’re using them too much. If you’re curious about which apps are taking up your time, we’ll show you how to get some insight with Digital Wellbeing tools.

Many Android devices include a suite of tools called “Digital Wellbeing.” These tools are aimed at helping you use your phone in a healthy way. Part of that is providing information about how you’re using your phone. You can see which apps you’re using the most, revealing any possible unhealthy behavior.

Most-Used Apps on a Samsung Galaxy Phone

First, swipe down once from the top of the screen and tap the gear icon.

Scroll down and select “Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls.”

Now, tap the graph icon in the top-right corner.

Here’s where you can see a weekly breakdown of the apps that you’ve used the most. The bar graph also shows your screen time for each day of the week. It’s as simple as that.

Most-Used Apps on a Google Pixel Phone

To get started, swipe down twice from the top of the screen to reveal the Quick Settings menu, and then tap the gear icon.

Scroll down and select “Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls.”

At the top, you’ll see a circle with your screen time for the day in the center. Around the ring are all the apps that you’ve used and colors that show how much you’ve used them. Tap the center of the circle.

Note: If you haven’t looked at this before, you might have to tap “Show Info” to see your stats.

Next, you’ll see a bar graph that shows your screen time compared to previous days. Underneath that is where you can see the list of your most-used apps.

Use the arrows to move between the different days to see which apps you’re using the most.

Hopefully, you can use these tools to better understand your usage habits and make changes if that’s something you’re interested in doing.

Your Android device probably has a lot of apps, and each of these apps uses resources like battery power and wireless data.

You have a few simple tools for tracking these kinds of app usage stats, which you can use to decide if you need to uninstall apps that are hogging your phone’s resources.

Various Android devices sometimes label the Settings options differently, so your phone’s Settings might not perfectly match these instructions, but they should be very similar and not difficult to find.

How to check your app usage on an Android

Battery life

Every app uses some amount of battery power. This will let you see what apps are battery hogs.

1. Start the Settings app and tap “Battery.”

2. Tap “Battery Usage.”

3. Make sure you’re on the App tab. You can scroll through the list of apps on your phone and see what percentage of the total battery each of your apps is currently using.

Internet and data

This is useful if you’re using a limited mobile data plan.

1. Start the Settings app and tap “Network & Internet.”

2. Tap “Data Usage.”

3. On the Data usage page, tap “View Details.”

4. You should now be able to scroll through a list of all the apps on your phone, and see how much data each one is using. You can change the time period using the date control at the top of the page and see more details about data usage by tapping on a specific app.

Screen time

This lets you see what your favorite apps are, and how much time you’re spending with them.

1. Start the Settings app and tap “Digital Wellbeing and parental controls.”

2. Tap “Show your data” in the Your Digital Wellbeing tools section at the top of the page.

3. You can see your current app usage statistics front-and-center on the screen. To see a weekly report of your screen time in apps, tap the graph icon at the top right of the screen.

Smartphones are great, but a lot of people worry that they’re using them too much. If you’re curious about which apps are taking up your time, we’ll show you how to get some insight with Digital Wellbeing tools.

Many Android devices include a suite of tools called “Digital Wellbeing.” These tools are aimed at helping you use your phone in a healthy way. Part of that is providing information about how you’re using your phone. You can see which apps you’re using the most, revealing any possible unhealthy behavior.

Most-Used Apps on a Samsung Galaxy Phone

First, swipe down once from the top of the screen and tap the gear icon.

Scroll down and select “Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls.”

Now, tap the graph icon in the top-right corner.

Here’s where you can see a weekly breakdown of the apps that you’ve used the most. The bar graph also shows your screen time for each day of the week. It’s as simple as that.

Most-Used Apps on a Google Pixel Phone

To get started, swipe down twice from the top of the screen to reveal the Quick Settings menu, and then tap the gear icon.

Scroll down and select “Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls.”

At the top, you’ll see a circle with your screen time for the day in the center. Around the ring are all the apps that you’ve used and colors that show how much you’ve used them. Tap the center of the circle.

Note: If you haven’t looked at this before, you might have to tap “Show Info” to see your stats.

Next, you’ll see a bar graph that shows your screen time compared to previous days. Underneath that is where you can see the list of your most-used apps.

Use the arrows to move between the different days to see which apps you’re using the most.

Hopefully, you can use these tools to better understand your usage habits and make changes if that’s something you’re interested in doing.

Smartphones are great, but a lot of people worry about using them too much. If you’re curious about which apps are taking your time, we’ll show you how to get insight with digital wellness tools.

Many Android devices include a suite of tools called “Digital Wellbeing”. These tools aim to help you use your phone in a healthy way. Part of it provides information on how you use your phone. You can see which apps you use the most, revealing any possible unhealthy behavior.

Most used apps on a Samsung Galaxy phone

First, swipe down once from the top of the screen and tap the gear icon.

Scroll down and select “Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls”.

Now tap on the graph icon in the top right corner.

Here’s where you can see a weekly breakdown of the apps you’ve used the most. The bar graph also shows your screen time for each day of the week. It’s that simple.

Most used apps on a Google Pixel phone

To get started, swipe down twice from the top of the screen to bring up the Quick settings menu, then tap the gear icon.

Scroll down and select “Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls”.

At the top you will see a circle with your screen time for the day in the center. Around the ring are all the apps you’ve used and colors that show how much you’ve used them. Tap the center of the circle.

Notes: If you’ve never looked at this before, you may need to press “View Info” to see your stats.

Then you will see a bar graph that shows your screen time compared to previous days. Below you can see the list of your most used apps.

Use the arrows to move between days to see which apps you use the most.

Hope you can use these tools to better understand your usage patterns and make changes if you are interested.

Writing Tremplin Numérique, French web agency.

Once the Galaxy Gear is active, tap and hold any screen with 2 fingers, this will show the Apps which you have recently used. Swipe the screen to scroll through the different Apps.

How do I check recently used apps on Android?

In your default dialer, type *#*#4636#*#* . It would open a window named Testing which is a sub-setting of Settings app. Go to Usage Statistics. The order of entries are App, Last time used, and Usage time.

How do I find recently used apps?

The new “home” button on Android Pie. To open the recent apps overview, tap on the Home button, and then swipe upward. Make this swipe short (if you swipe too far, you’ll open the App Drawer instead).

How do I check my Android history?

Internet and data

1. Start the Settings app and tap “Network & Internet.”
2. Tap “Data Usage.”
3. On the Data usage page, tap “View Details.”
4. You should now be able to scroll through a list of all the apps on your phone, and see how much data each one is using.

What is the use of * * 4636 * *?

Android Hidden Codes

How do I see app activity on Android?

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open your device’s Settings app Google. Manage your Google Account.
2. At the top, tap Data & personalization.
3. Under “Activity and timeline,” tap My Activity.
4. View your activity: Browse through your activity, organized by day and time.

Why my recent apps are not showing?

Reboot Your Android Device In Safe Mode

Now, if you are able to access the recent apps button again, quite possibly a recently installed app is the culprit. So, you can again go back to the normal app and remove all the apps that you have installed recently. Your device will now restart in Safe Mode.

Does Android have an activity log?

By default, the usage history for your Android device activity is turned on in your Google activity settings. It keeps a log of all the apps you open along with a timestamp. Unfortunately, it doesn’t store the duration you spent using the app.

How do I see deleted history?

Recover the deleted browsing history in this way. Open a web page in Google Chrome. Type in the link When you enter your Google Account, you will see the list of everything that Google has recorded from your browsing activity.

How do I find deleted history on my Android?

Enter your Google account and you’ll see a list of everything that Google has recorded of your browsing history; Scroll down to Chrome Bookmarks; You’ll see everything that your Android phone has accessed including Bookmarks & app used and you can re-save those browsing history as bookmarks again.

How can I track my phone activity?

Family Orbit is the most accurate and reliable app that you can use to monitor an Android cell phone. The app is easy to use and will give you real-time insights into the cell phone’s calls, text messages, apps, photos, location, and more.

What is *# 0011?

*#0011# This code shows the status information of your GSM network such as registration status, GSM band, etc. *#0228# This code can be used to know about the battery status such as battery level, voltage, temperature etc.

What happens if you dial *# 21?

*#21# tells you the status of your unconditional (all calls) call forwarding feature. Basically, if your cell phone rings when someone calls you — this code will return no information to you (or tell you that call forwarding is off).

How do I find my hidden menu?

Tap the hidden menu entry and then below you’ll see a list of all hidden menus on your phone. From here you can access any one of them.

Check which apps you use the most on Android!

Let’s admit, we all have at least 20-30 apps installed on our Android smartphones. However, out of all those, we only use selected apps daily. So, for example, we use Instagram, YouTube more than Evernote or Antivirus apps.

Smartphones are great, but many peoples worry that they are using them too much. Sometimes, it’s true because we end up wasting lots of time on time-consuming apps like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc. And, after wasting about 3-4 hours, we regret it.

Digital Wellbeing Features

To deal with such time-consuming apps and help you become more productive, Google introduced a Digital Wellbeing Tool in Android 10. Digital Wellbeing is a set of tools aimed at helping you healthily use your phone.

For example, with Digital Wellbeing tools, you can easily find the apps that you use the most. Apart from that, you can also enable the Focus mode to avoid distractions like App notifications, messages, and more.

Steps to Find out Your Most Used Apps On Android

In this article, we will talk about one of the best features of Digital Wellbeing that lets you see your most-used apps on Android. With this, you can see which apps you’re using the most and could take further action after that.

Step 1. First of all, swipe down the notification panel and click on the ‘Settings‘ icon.

Step 2. On the Settings page, tap on the ‘Digital Wellbeing and parental controls’ option.

Step 3. On the main screen of Digital Wellbeing, you will be able to see your most used app. Just tap on the card to view more details.

Step 4. On the next page, you will see some more apps and the amount of time you have to spend. Finally, onn the bottom, you will be able to see the total app notifications your phone received.

Step 5. Digital wellbeing also lets you view the app usage by date. You need to click on the arrow button behind the date to select a particular time frame.

That’s it! You are done. This is how you can see your most-used apps on Android.

Note: The settings might vary from device to device. However, the feature is preset on the Digital Wellbeing app of Android.

So, this article is all about how to see your most-used apps on Android. I hope this article helped you! Please share it with your friends also. If you have any doubts related to this, let us know in the comment box below.

Where does all your time go? At least when it comes to the hours you spend on your phone and your computer, this isn’t a rhetorical question. There are plenty of tools out there will track and monitor your time automatically, telling you exactly which apps and sites are sucking up your precious minutes.

These tools are slightly different from the broader, more comprehensive time-tracking services like Toggl or Hours , which let you know where all of your time is being spent, from early morning to bedtime. (At home? Cool, us too.) If you really want to dig into how you spend your days, those more detailed apps are worth a look. For our purposes, we’re focusing on how you spend your time on your devices.

The most recent versions of Android and iOS have built-in tools for just this purpose, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should discount third-party alternatives. You may find features that are more suited to you in those options, or you might just want to avoid putting all your eggs in one Apple or Google basket.

The one major caveat is that most of these apps require you to give that usage data over to the app maker—including the ones made by Apple and Google. So check and double check the terms of service for the application you install to make certain you’re not giving over more data than you might be comfortable with.

Screen Time (free for iOS, macOS)

Microsoft Home & Business for Mac: Lifetime License

Own the 2021 suite forever
That includes all the programs you need for leisure and for work—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote are all included in this single-device license key.

Apple’s Screen Time feature tracks your time spent on apps and on your phone overall. You can set it up in the Settings menu for iOS/iPadOS and in System Preferences on macOS. It’s fairly simple and straightforward: The tool shows you which apps you’re spending most time in, and you can see your stats across all the Apple devices that you’re signed in on.

If you want to take action and fight back against your app addictions—say if you’re spending hours on Instagram for no reason—you can set daily limits based on app or app category. These are easily overruled, if you want just five more minutes of Twitter, but they can be helpful. You can also see which apps are bugging you with the most notifications across all your Apple devices.

The Android 12 update comes with a slew of privacy features, including a privacy dashboard and a camera and mic kill switch.

Use Android 12’s new privacy dashboard and settings to control what information your apps can access.

Android 12 is now available on Pixel phones , including the new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro , and it’ll be rolling out to other compatible Android devices soon. The update was announced at the October Pixel event and comes with a few popular features , like scrollable screenshots and Quick Tap.

Some of the new OS’s most exciting features are its privacy upgrades . (Google also gave Android 12 some cool hidden features .) They’re designed to give you more control over how much private information the apps on your phone can access. Now Android users can access a privacy dashboard that lets them manage their permissions and location. The October Android update also lets you disable your microphone and camera on all apps (more below).

Here’s how to see exactly which apps can access specific information about you, and how to revoke any permissions you aren’t comfortable with. And we’ll show you how to access your new privacy dashboard to better control what your apps can see about you.

How to tell if your phone’s camera or mic is in use

Android 12 adds a new indicator to the top menu bar that appears when either your camera or microphone is being accessed. When the indicator appears, you can swipe down from the top of the screen to view your quick-settings panel and turn access off (more on that below).

The new Privacy Dashboard provides a timeline of which apps have accessed your phone and mic (or your location, or other sensitive pieces of information) and when. To get to the Privacy Dashboard, go to Settings > Privacy > Privacy Dashboard.

Manage your location and permissions for Android apps

1. Open the Privacy Dashboard.

2. From the main page, you can navigate to different permissions to see which apps accessed that information in the last 24 hours. These include location, camera, microphone and contacts.

3. Tap the permission you want to view. You’ll see a timeline of which apps accessed that information and when.

4. Tap Manage permission at the bottom of the screen. This will let you change what that app can access. (You can also do this directly from each app.)

You’ll also find the ability to turn on approximate location instead of precise location, so apps that don’t need to know exactly where you are (such as weather apps) won’t get that level of detail.

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Related

• How to Change the Brightness on an Apple Mac
• How to Turn Off Voice Text Messaging on an iPhone
• How to See What Is Running on Android?
• How to Close Apps on a Multi-Tasking iPhone
• How to Uninstall an App on a Kindle Fire

When you close an application on your iPhone, it doesn’t close completely; instead, the program remains open in the background, enabling it to quickly load the next time you open it. Your iPhone contains a list of all recently used applications that you can access at any time, even while using another application. From this list, you can view all recently used applications, quickly switch to another application or fully close an application.

Double-tap the “Home” button to open the list of most recently used applications on your iPhone.

Swipe to the left and right to view the recently used applications, as only four applications display onscreen at one time.

Tap an application to launch it. If you are already using an application, your current application will close as the new one launches.

Tap and hold on an application, and tap the “-” in the corner of that app’s icon to close it. Press the “Home” button to exit this mode.

Double-tap the “Home” button again to close the list of recently used applications.

As I want to optimize my workflow, how do I determine my most frequently used apps?, so I can put them on start screen. Of course I guess the 3-5 most frequently used apps by myself, but as there space for upto 16 icons on the first screen, it’s hard to tell whether some apps are frequently used or not. As for SMS, MMS there are apps generating statistics, is there someway I can determine the most frequently or often used app?

2 Answers 2

Spare Parts does this. It’s included in CyanogenMod and some other custom ROMs, but the Market version should work as well, I think. One of the menu options on the main page is “Usage statistics” which you can then order by launch count, time used, and app name:

There is the app called “Frequency”.
But for me, a better solution was to have launchers for only the

10 most frequently used app and to launch the rest using Google Gesture App

Not the answer you’re looking for? Browse other questions tagged applications or ask your own question.

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Quality Time is a simple app that’s easy to use and provides a lot of good information in an intuitive interface.

We use smartphones all the time, and most of the time, of course, it is filled with many apps. Which app do you use the most? You can always assume that you have been using the XYZ app the most, but it is the time to check if you are right about it.

All you need to do is download an app known as “Quality Time” from Google Play Store. With more than one million downloads, it is the best app to know about your smartphone habits through which you can manage your digital diet.

Features of Quality Time

It is one of the most popular apps in the productivity section of Google Play Store. Here are the highlights of the app:

• It has a simple user-interface.

• It gives you real-time reports on how much time you have spent on your smartphone and your favorite app/

• It gives you the in-depth analysis of your smartphone activities.

• You can use features like ‘take a break,’ ‘alerts’ and ‘scheduled breaks’ to manage your phone addiction.

• You can avoid distraction by blocking notifications and rejecting calls automatically through this app.

In short, Quality Time is the tool that helps you know about the app in which you are spending most of your time.

How to use “Quality Time” to check your most used app?

Our step guide will first tell you how you can download the app and then use it to know about the most used app on your Android device.

Step 1: Open “Google Play Store” and type “Quality Time” in the search box and hit on the search.

Step 2: Click on “Install” tab to download and install “Quality Time- My Digital Diet.” Wait for the installation procedure to be completed. Tap on the app icon when it is installed.

Step 3: You now need to create an account in Quality Time. You can either do it by logging in to your Facebook account or by starting from the scratch by hitting the “Create Account” tab.

Step 4: A quick tutorial will be shown to brief you on the app. A pop-up will then appear on the screen of your device that will request you grant usage access to Quality Time for increasing its efficiency. Click on “Permit” to give access to the app.

Once you have granted the permission, Quality Time will track the usage of your app.

What can you do?

The app will keep the track record of your app usage, right after you have permitted it for usage access. Now you can check the following information in Quality Time:

• The time that you spend on a particular app.

• The number of times that you have opened a specific app.

• The frequency of unlocking your screen.

You can study your digital habit daily and weekly to discover more about your digital diet!

Check for suspicious activity on your phone and laptop.

By David Nield | Updated Aug 17, 2021 10:40 AM

With so much sensitive data and access to so many apps and services on our phones and laptops, it makes sense that we don’t want unwelcome visitors snooping around.

That’s why it’s essential to get a PIN code, fingerprint lock, password or some other kind of security protection in place, so that you and only you can access everything within your gadgets.

However, you might have let your guard down and now you think somebody else may have spent a few minutes with your hardware. Or perhaps you suspect someone knows your device PIN or password and can get access any time they like.

Investigating a potential breach doesn’t take a forensics kit, and you can easily run some basic checks to help you figure out if you were a victim to an intruder. These diagnostics won’t necessarily provide definitive proof someone has accessed your devices, but they can give you a pretty good idea whether that’s the case.

(By the way, if you want to lend your phone out to people every now and again, there are ways of doing it safely).

Checking your smartphone

Apps can’t hide on smartphones. If someone has installed an additional app on your handheld device, you’ll be able to see it in the main list. On Android, open Settings and pick Apps and notifications then See all apps. On iOS, just open Settings and scroll down to see everything that’s installed.

You can specifically look at recently installed apps too, but only on iPhones. Scroll to the App Library screen (it’ll be to the right of all your home screens), and you’ll see there’s a Recently Added window showing the last apps installed.

If you have web and app activity logging set up for your Google account, this will show what’s been happening on any Android devices linked to your Google ID, and any Google apps you’re signed into on iOS devices. Visit the My Google Activity page on the web to set up this feature, and see which apps have been used and what websites have been visited.

Don’t forget that the latest versions of Android and iOS also keep local logs of device activity, if you’ve enabled the feature. Pick Digital Wellbeing and parental controls from Android Settings or Screen Time from iOS Settings. There, you can dig in to see which apps have been in use in the past 24 hours or the past few days—if there are apps you don’t remember using, it might be a sign that someone else has been on your phone.

Then there are the activity logs inside your individual apps, and your mobile web browser is a good example. Open up Chrome for Android, tap the three dots (top right), then choose History to see recently viewed webpages. In Safari on iOS, tap inside the address bar, tap the book icon, then open the History tab that is under the icon that looks like a clock.

If you’re an Android user, another useful place to check is your notification history. From Settings tap Apps and notifications, Notifications, and Notification history to see alerts that have come in recently. It’s possible that if an unwelcome guest has been on your phone, there will be some traces of what they’ve been up to here.

Regardless of your operating system, you’ve got plenty of other options too—open your phone’s gallery app to see recently taken photos, for example, or open your email client and switch to the sent items folder to check if any messages have been sent in your name. Apps like YouTube and Netflix let you look back on what you’ve viewed recently as well.

These checks don’t really give you any guarantees. For example, someone could send a message on your phone and then go back and delete it before you have a chance to check. But they might turn up some clues of suspicious activity.

Checking your laptop

Checking your laptop for recent activity is similar to the process we just described for your phone. Looking at the installed apps is a good start: On Windows, open up Apps from Settings, and head to the Apps & features screen. You can sort the list of apps by installation date to see if something unfamiliar has been added to your computer.

On macOS head to the Applications folder in Finder. Here you can group the installed apps by date by clicking View, Group By, and Date Added. There’s also Screen Time on a Mac, which works just as it does on an iPhone or iPad. Open the Apple menu, then choose System Preferences and Screen Time to see which programs have been open recently.

Digging back through your web browser’s history may reveal activity on your laptop you didn’t know about. In Chrome, for example, you can click the three dots (top right) then History to see it. In Safari, choose History then Show All History. Any other browser you or someone else might have used will have a similar history feature that shouldn’t be difficult to find.

Any kind of activity related to Google apps—from search to Gmail—will be logged on the My Google Activity page in your account. It’s handy if you use Google apps inside your web browser a lot.

Another idea is to check the list of recently edited files, which might reveal unauthorized activity. On Windows, type “run” into the taskbar search box, choose the Run app, and run the “recent” command—a list of recently edited files will appear. It’s a little easier in macOS, because you can just click the Recents link in Finder.

It’s also worth diving into individual applications to see what you can discover about recent activity. For example, image editing programs, word processors and many other apps will have a list of recently opened files, which you can check out. In Excel for Windows, for example, go to File, Open, and Recent. Other programs will have something similar.

Remember that a lot of websites and web apps will give you a customized breakdown of your recent history, too. You can very easily bring up your YouTube history or your Netflix history and check if there’s any unfamiliar movements.

If someone has accessed your computer, there are ways of getting around the checks that we’ve mentioned. Browsing the web in an incognito or private mode so it won’t show up in your history, is an easy one most people know about. Keep this in mind and treat these checks as helpful pointers rather than conclusive evidence that your laptop has or hasn’t been accessed.

David Nield is a tech journalist from the UK who has been writing about gadgets and apps since way before the iPhone and Twitter were invented. When he’s not busy doing that, he usually takes breaks from all things tech with long walks in the countryside.

You probably have a few dozen Android apps installed on your phone but the number of apps that you may be using on a regular basis is likely to be small. A recent Nielsen report says that the average number of apps used by phone owners is just around 26 per month. Another Comscore report suggests that people tend to cling to a few apps they like and that nearly three of every four minutes spent using apps was in any of four preferred apps.

Now what is the best way to arrange your favorite apps on the home screen so that the apps you use most often are easily accessible? You can of course arrange apps manually or put them in the dock area but wouldn’t it be nice if the phone itself were smart enough to dynamically arrange apps on the home screen based on your own usage. There are apps that can help.

Nokia, the company behind the Lumia series of Windows Phones, has created Z Launcher, a must-have Android app that helps you find anything faster on your phone be it apps, contacts or even websites. It places you most used apps on the home screen while everything else is just a scribble away. You also have the option of pinning apps to the dock area just like your standard Android launcher.

Then there’s Bar Launcher, a free Android app that will help you place shortcuts to your favorite apps in the notification area of your phone (or tablet). The big advantage with this approach is that you will be able to launch apps from any area of your phone with a simple swipe from top to bottom. There’s no longer a need to close the currently open app to launch another one – you can just open the notification drawer and tap to open.

I would also recommend Hangar. This is an open-source app that monitors how you use apps and places the ones you use most frequently on the home screen. Unlike the Z-launcher app, Hanger is a widget that you can place anywhere on the home screen and because it is resizable, the widget can display one or more rows of your most-used apps. You can also pin the most important apps in the widget or blacklist the ones that you would never like to show up on the home screen.

Multi-tasking is easy with Android™ because you can use and switch among several open apps. Android™ manages each app, stopping and starting them as needed, to ensure that idle apps don’t consume resources unnecessarily.

Opening an app

Open an app simply by tapping its icon on the screen.

You can customize your Home screen with the app icons you use most often. Apps are located on the Applications screen, but you can copy any app icon to your Home screen for faster, more convenient access. No matter where the icon is, on the Applications screen or your Home screen, just tap it to open and use it.

Opening multiple apps

Tap an app icon to open it.

Tap the Home Key (in the Touch Keys bar).

If the app icon you want is on your Home screen, simply tap the icon to open and use it.

Tap the Apps icon (in the QuickTap bar).

Tap the Apps tab (if necessary), then tap the icon for the other app you want to open.

Switching between multiple apps

Tap the Recent Apps Key (in the Touch Keys bar). A screen opens and displays a scrolling list of all of the apps that are currently open.

Tap the app you want to use or tap the Back Key (in the Touch Keys bar) to return to the current screen.

Swipe up or down to view the entire list of open apps.

Tap an app to use it.

Flick an app icon to the right or left to close the app and remove it from the list.

Navigation in the Recent apps screen depends on the device orientation. When held sideways, swipe left and right to view the entire list. Flick an app icon up or down off the screen to close the app and remove it from the list.

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Here are the most amazing apps for Android that will change how you use and interact with your device on a daily basis.

There are millions of apps in the Play Store that range from addictive games, to essential productivity tools, to great ways to customize your phone.

Even better, there are also apps that will completely change how you use Android. Some enhance the user interface, others automate common tasks, and some take popular features in the operating system and make them even better.

Let’s take a look at some of the most amazing apps for Android.

1. Lynket Browser

Image Gallery (3 Images)

Social media is great for finding interesting articles around the web, but it isn’t always convenient to read them right away. Sometimes it’s better to queue up several articles and come back to them later.

That’s what you can do with Lynket Browser. It opens web pages in the background. You can access it whenever you want by tapping floating, onscreen bubbles.

It’s simple yet so useful. The app works with your existing default browser and can also speed up browsing by automatically loading the AMP versions of the links you click.

Another great feature of the Lynket Browser is the option to read pages in Article mode, which loads a sleek-looking reader mode without all of the fluff and fillers.

While the app hasn’t been updated in a little while, it still delivers what it promises.

Download: Lynket Browser (Free, in-app purchases available)

2. Popup Widget 3

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The best Android widgets are really useful, but if you use too many of them, they’ll quickly clutter your home screens and slow down your phone.

Popup Widget 3 rethinks how they work. It turns all your selected widgets into 1×1 icons on your home screen. When you tap one, it’ll pop open, so you can see what’s inside.

The app gives you the convenience and speed of widgets—you don’t need to launch the full app just to see your latest tweets or check the weather—without the performance hit.

Download: Popup Widget 3 ($1.99)

3. Notepin

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Notepin does something so obvious you’ll wonder why it isn’t already a part of Android. Put simply, it allows you to create notes and then pin them to your notifications panel as reminders.

While the app isn’t too complex, you are able to sort your notes by priority or recently added, and they’re color-coordinated too, which looks great. Once pinned, your notes will be visible in your notifications panel until you unpin them.

While Notepin isn’t doing anything groundbreaking, it’s definitely one of the most amazing apps for Android users who value productivity and organization.

Download: Notepin (Free, in-app purchases available)

4. MacroDroid

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Take the tedium out of the common tasks you perform every day by turning them into macros, a series of commands that happen automatically.

MacroDroid is similar to the popular Android automation app Tasker. But using Tasker effectively for more complex tasks has an incredibly steep learning curve, and MacroDroid is an app you can install and start using instantly.

The app needs you to configure as few as two settings—just an action that will be prompted by a trigger. So plugging in your headphones could be the trigger, and the corresponding actions could be the automatic launch of the Spotify app and adjustment of the volume level.

Or you could have your phone switch to Airplane mode (the action) at night (the trigger). You could also tell it to read your text messages aloud when your phone’s in a car dock.

You can add optional constraints to fine-tune the conditions under which your macro can run. This gives the app even more power, and your macros can be as simple or as complex as you need them to be.

Download: MacroDroid (Free, in-app purchases available)

Is there a way to see which apps are using the most data?

It’s easy to exceed the limits of your data plan without realizing it. But there’s a way to avoid surprises. You can monitor data consumption, day-by-day and app-by-app. The reporting is visual, so you don’t need to wade through a lot of numbers to figure out what’s going on.

To cut costs, you can set a monthly limit on mobile data. Or restrict background data, so that data-intensive actions occur only when Wi-Fi is available.

To monitor your data usage:

Touch Apps > Settings > Data usage

Your tablet shows a list of the apps that are running, from highest to lowest data usage. Touch an app to open its details.

To turn mobile data on/off:

• Touch Mobile data switch On (right).
• Or touch Off (left). This is a quick way to temporarily block all mobile data usage.

To set mobile data limits:

Checkmark Set mobile data limit.

Touch the current Data usage cycle.

Then touch Change cycle and select the day when your plan starts each month.

In the graph of mobile data usage, adjust the orange warning and red limit bars. Touch the right end of each bar and drag higher or lower to change the settings.

To restrict mobile data usage, touch > Restrict background data. Your apps will wait for a Wi-Fi connection to carry out data-intensive actions (such as app updates, downloads of large email attachments, podcast downloads, and video or photo uploads). Note that some apps and services stop working when Wi-Fi is unavailable.

The results might surprise you.

It’s safe to say that many of us spend a lot of time on our phones. Whether it is texting friends and family or mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, our phones are rarely very far from us.

Which begs the question, just how much time are we spending looking at Reddit, Instagram, and other apps that call our phones home. It’s fairly easy to do this on an iPhone, but what about on Android?

How to check app usage time on your Android phone

If you are curious to know how much time you’re spending wasting on different apps like Facebook, Spotify, and Twitter on your Android phone, the answer depends on which handset you own.

If you have one of Google’s Pixel range, you can use the Digital Wellbeing app to see all the stats you want about app usage, notifications, and other on-device stats. If you own literally any other Android, you’ll have to use one of the third-party apps that fill the same need.

On a Google Pixel device, it’s super easy to check your app usage stats:

1. Open up the Settings app
2. Scroll down to Digital Wellbeing and tap on it
3. You’ll then see an overview of your app usage stats. Tapping on any of the names gives you a more in-depth view of your usage of that app, including when during the day you used it most.
4. The Dashboard option shows information about Unlocks, Notifications and App Usage. You can also set timers here to limit how long you can use a particular app during the day.
5. If you scroll down to the bottom of the Digital Wellbeing page, you can toggle a switch to show the app in your app drawer. That’ll stop you having to scroll through the Settings app every time you want to look at your stats

If you own any other Android handset:

If you don’t own a Pixel, it’s time to head on over to the Google Play Store where you can find a number of app usage tracking apps. Here are some of our favorites:

Quality Time

Image: Quality Time

Quality Time is one of the most-downloaded time trackers (over a million installs and counting), probably because of how well everything is laid out inside the app. You’ve got a daily timeline that shows which apps you used in each hour, with total time, daily usage overviews, and individual app overviews over a longer time period.

You can also set daily usage alerts, custom profiles that ban certain apps when applied, and the Take a Break mode, where your smartphone turns into a dumbphone with calls only while set.

App Usage

Image: App Usage

App Usage is also a great option, and the most like the Digital Wellbeing app for Pixel devices, with some useful additions. It also has a chronological timeline of app usage, a “per-category” view in case you really do spend too much time on social media, and a really handy battery history tracking screen which shows battery drain overlaid on your app usage stats.

There’s also a handy widget for your home screen, so all the stats about your app usage are just a tap away.

Things to keep in mind

Whatever method you do use on your Android phone to track app usage stats, remember that due to Android system restrictions, whatever method you choose will only track foreground usage. That means the app has to be in use, with the screen on. That makes tracking just how much time you spend listening to Spotify in the background impossible.

What apps do you use to track your smartphone activity? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

You might not like the results.

Ever stop endlessly scrolling on Instagram and realize you’ve been on the app for far too long, and you have no idea how you got there?

If so, there’s a way to see exactly how much time you’re spending (or wasting) on your phone. Here’s how to find out the number—and how to make it much more manageable.

➡ Tech is tricky. We’ll be your support.

How to Check Your Screen Time on iPhone

📲 Go to Settings > Screen Time > Scroll down beneath the graph and tap See All Activity.

Here, you can see your most used apps in order of time spent, categories for the time you’ve spent on your device (Social, Information & Reading, Productivity & Finance, etc.), and data on how many times you’ve picked up and unlocked your device, among other things.

How to Check Your Digital Wellbeing on Android

Most Android phones—including Google’s line of Pixel devices, Samsung smartphones, and Motorola—use Digital Wellbeing as the equivalent of Apple’s Screen Time. It takes a bit more work, as the first time you launch the app, you’ll have to set up a profile, but it will be worth the trouble in the long run.

📲 Go to Settings > Tap Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls > Beneath Your Digital Wellbeing Tools, tap Show Your Data.

Don’t forget to head to your Settings app and click Show Icon in the App List to ensure that you can easily find Digital Wellbeing the next time you’d like to check it.

How to Set Screen Time Limits

📲 For iPhone users: Go to Settings > Screen Time > App Limits > Add Limit > Tick the bubbles for each app, category, and website for which you’d like to set a limit > Tap Next in the upper right-hand corner > Tap Add in the top right-hand corner > Tap Add Limit in blue at the bottom of the page.

💡 Tip: You can customize time limits for each app based on the day of the week, too. For example, if you want to set time limits for streaming services like HBO Max, but only on the weekdays, you can follow the steps above. Just tap Customize Days (right below the time section) after you set the time limit.

📲 For Android users: Go to Settings > Digital Wellbeing & Parental Controls > Tap the chart > Tap Set Timer next to the app for which you’d like to set a limit > Choose how much time can be spent in the app each day, then tap Set.

Is Screen Time Bad for You?

Being on your phone isn’t going to kill you, but as with all things, screen time is best when it’s done in moderation. Cutting back on your YouTube binges and the hours you spend doomscrolling through Twitter is probably a good idea, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Those experts say cutting back on screen time can improve your physical health, decrease your risk for obesity, give you more time to focus on other activities, boost your mood, and even enhance your relationships. To nab those benefits, try to limit screen time to about two hours per day (outside of work screen time, that is).

You can customize your Start menu and taskbar. You can also make sure that installation errors, antivirus software, or pending Windows updates aren’t getting in the way.

Note: Students using Windows 11 SE will not be able to download apps from the Microsoft Store. Apps are managed by their IT Admin. Learn more

Here’s how to customize what you see on the Start menu and taskbar:

To see a list of your apps, select Start , then select the arrow next to All apps to expand that pane. Scroll through the alphabetical list.

To choose whether your Start menu settings show the most used apps at the top of your all apps list, or whether they show recently downloaded apps in the recommended section, select Start > Settings > Personalization > Start and turn Show recently added apps or Show most used apps on or off.

To adjust which folders show up as icons next to your power button in the Start menu, select Start > Settings > Personalization > Start. Then select Folders and choose which folders will appear by toggling each option On or Off.

To pin your favorite apps to the Start menu or to the taskbar, select and hold (or right-click) the app you want to pin. Then select Pin to Start, Pin to taskbar, or More > Pin to taskbar.

To quickly find a specific app, type the name of the app in the search box above the Start menu. If an app you downloaded didn’t install correctly, it won’t show up in your app list or when you search for it. You can try to repair the app.

If you still don’t see the app you searched for, it’s possible the app’s installation is blocked by a pending Windows Update or your antivirus software. You can temporarily turn off your antivirus software while you try to install the app again. If you do turn off your antivirus software, make sure you turn Real-time protection back on after you’ve finished installing.

You can customize your Start menu and taskbar. You can also make sure that installation errors, antivirus software, or pending Windows updates aren’t getting in the way.

Here’s how to customize what you see on the Start menu and taskbar:

To see a list of your apps, select Start and scroll through the alphabetical list. Some apps are in folders within the app list—like Notepad, which is in the Windows Accessories folder.

To choose whether your Start menu settings show all your apps or only the most used ones, select Start > Settings > Personalization > Start and adjust each setting you want to change.

To adjust which folders you see on your Start menu, select Start > Settings > Personalization > Start. Then select Choose which folders appear on Start and toggle folders On or Off.

You can pin your favorite apps to the Start menu or to the taskbar. Select and hold (or right-click) the app you want to pin. Then select Pin to Start or More > Pin to taskbar .

To quickly find a specific app, type the name of the app in the search box on the task bar. If an app you downloaded didn’t install correctly, it won’t show up in the Start menu or when you search for it. You can try to repair the app.

If you still don’t see the app you searched for, it’s possible the app’s installation is blocked by a pending Windows update or your antivirus software. You can temporarily turn off your antivirus software while you try to install the app again. If you do turn your antivirus software off, make sure you turn Real-time protection back on after you’ve finished installing.

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Manage your phone usage habits with Digital Balance

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Digital Balance measures how much time you spend on your phone and it shows the usage duration of each individual app.

If you think you are wasting too much time on your device, this feature allows you to set usage limits for apps, as well as a daily on-screen time limit.

Digital Balance also includes parental controls for monitoring your child’s phone usage.

To use this feature, go to Settings and tap Digital Balance. There you can see the usage stats of your device.

You can press More to check the screen time and the app usage for the last 24 hours or for the last seven days.

You can also see the unlock frequency of your device.

Digital Balance allows you to set usage limits for your device. To do this go to Settings, tap Digital Balance and enable Screen time management.

Select This is my phone and press Done to initiate the screen time management. You can also set a Screen time management PIN to approve screen time extensions or to change the usage settings.

On the Digital Balance menu you can set the Usage hours, meaning the amount of on-screen time you define for each day.

You can select different rules for the working days and for the weekend. After the limit is reached, it can be extended only with your approval.

You spend to much time on Facebook or Twitter or you can’t get off Instagram? App Limits allows you to set usage limits for each individual app.

After the time limit is reached, you won’t be able to use the app anymore. Some apps can be set to Unrestricted, so you can open them at any time.

Digital Balance allows you to manage your children’s screen time and app usage, guiding them towards healthier technology habits.

To use this feature, go to Settings, open Digital Balance and enable Screen time management. Then select This is my kid’s phone and tap Next to configure the Daily Screen time and the Bedtime.

The Google-powered tool can pull up messages, emails, calls, and other details more rapidly than just fumbling through your phone’s apps.

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Google is all about helping you find what you want as fast as possible. But if there’s one place where tracking down the right information can be painfully slow, it’s your Android smartphone.

Messaging apps, the browser history, text messages, and articles to read are often siloed into their own little fiefdoms. If Google’s mission really is to organize all the world’s information, this is a place that could use some help.

Google’s In Apps search is an incredibly useful tool, but it’s a little buried. This functions similarly to Spotlight on iOS, which those who have dabbled with the Dark Side may be familiar with. Getting the most out of it, however, takes a little know-how. And if you want quicker access, there’s a trick to add it to your home screen. Here’s how it works.

Search party

The Google app indexes many of the company’s apps and those from third parties that are willing to let Google scoop up the content. In practice, when you initiate a search from the Google search widget or app, you’ll see an option at the bottom of the suggestions to look deeper into your phone’s contents.

Dig deeper into your messages or the contents of other applications.

When the Google search bar is spinning through its algorithm to give you suggested websites, links from your history, and the content that been indexed, you may also see a link at the bottom to Search In Apps. When you tap it, it will pull up another page that may be what you’re looking for.

You can select More under each of these to get a more extensive list of results. For example, Google found this collection of articles that it thought would be relevant to my search.

A search that begins with “was” will lead you to a lot of ESPN stories.

Using Google’s search this way helps you get to a message or app without needing to think about when you had a conversation or even which app you want to dive into. It can be a great one-stop shop, although it’s not without some caveats.

Understanding the quirks

Getting to the In Apps search is somewhat of a pain. I’ve found that once you start typing you may have to wait for Google to “decide” that this search also includes indexed content. Or, you’ll need to choose from the categories at the bottom of the search bar and swipe left to reach the last tab titled In Apps.

If it’s the In Apps search section you’re after, you’ll need to scroll to leftmost tab to get there.

If it’s actual app content you want to search, there’s a faster way to get there. Long press on the Google app, and then touch and hold Search In Apps and drag it to the home screen.

Add the In Apps search button to your home screen for quicker access.

You’ll then have instant access to begin a search of your content. If you’ve come from iOS, it’s certainly less elegant than just swiping down on the home screen to initiate the search. But it’ll do the job.

Additionally, the other challenge is which apps are supported. Google only introduced this capability last year, so it’s possible that your favorite messaging app isn’t on board yet. Facebook’s apps, Dropbox, Twitter, and other services are nowhere to be found, although surely the politics of letting Google index content plays a part of this.

Opting apps into search

Fortunately, there’s a way to find out which apps are using the feature, and to enable or disable it for specific ones. In the Google app, go Settings and then In Apps search. Then you can deselect any box for an app you don’t want indexed. By default, every new app will be opted in. To remove one of them from the list, just tick the box, and you’re done.

Choose which apps you want Google to index on your phone.

When it comes to day-to-day use, my preferred method is to just tap the Google search bar (or the pill-shaped widget on a Pixel phone) and just start typing. In most cases you have to get a few characters in before the In Apps results start to populate, but they generally show up pretty quickly.

However, if you know that you want to find a text message about a topic or just the name of a contact, then heading straight to the In Apps section is definitely the way to go.

There are plenty of ways to search on Android, but this method is helpful for getting into the innards of an application without racking your brain as to which app you need to find. We’d love to see more services get on board, but in the meantime, putting this trick to use should save you some time and give Google more test data to make the feature stronger over time.

Derek Walter is a freelance technology writer based in Northern California. He is the author of Learning MIT App Inventor, a hands-on guide to building your own Android apps.

Folders, quick-action menus, widgets and a little basic icon organization can make navigating your smartphone a smoother experience.

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Is your phone’s home screen jampacked with pages of apps in random order — including some apps you never use? Sure, you can always find the program you need with search or the voice assistant, or by browsing the app drawer. But app access can be quicker if you have your icons arranged in a useful order and you take advantage of shortcut menus and widgets. Here’s a guide to streamlining your home screen.

Take Inventory

First, audit your collection. While tidying up, you can also reclaim storage space.

On many recent Android phones, including models by Google and Samsung, you can see all your apps listed alphabetically by swiping up from the bottom of the screen to open the app drawer. (Depending on the Android version and carrier, you may have an apps button instead, and icons for installed apps may not automatically appear on the home screen.)

In iOS 14 and later, apps are automatically sorted by category in the App Library, which you can see by swiping repeatedly to the left until you get to the last screen. Tap the search field at the top to see the full list of installed apps.

Use Screen Time to see which apps you use the most

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What to Know

• To see your app usage: Open the iPad Settings app, tap Screen Time, and then tap the name of your iPad for an analysis.
• To limit app usage: Go to the Screen Time page, tap the Downtime slider, and then set the time ranges you want.
• To set time limits for entire categories of apps: Go to the Screen Time page and tap App Limits >Add Limit.

This article explains how to check your iPad app use history. Instructions apply to iPads with iOS 12 or later.

How to See Which Apps You’ve Been Using on iPad

With as many apps as you might have on your iPad, it’s hard to keep track of which ones you’re using. It’s a good idea to check, though, especially so you can find out which ones may be safe to delete to free up some precious storage on your iPad. Parents might also want to keep an eye on what their kids are doing.

Apple has provided iOS users an easy solution that will both tell them where their time is going and keep screen use under control. It’s called Screen Time.

Tap Screen Time.

A bar chart will appear with a breakdown by category of which apps you’ve used today and for how long. Tap the name of your iPad for a complete analysis on the next screen.

On the next screen, you can get statistics for both the current day and the past seven days by tapping the buttons at the top of the screen.

Scrolling down will show you the exact times each of your most used apps were open, how many times you’ve picked up your iPad, and which apps are sending you the most notifications. You can use all of this data to decide if something is hogging all the time, or if other users are spending too much of the day on one thing (for example, playing games).

How to Limit App Use on the iPad

Screen Time doesn’t just give you information. It also gives you control. Other than the readouts of which apps have seen the most use, you can also put time limits on certain ones or block some altogether.

How to Turn on Downtime

From the main Screen Time page, tap Downtime.

Tap the slider On/green.

Once Downtime is on, you can tap Every Day to keep a standard schedule, or you can do different down times for each day by tapping Customize Days. Tap the menus below these options to set the time ranges you want to limit app usage.

When Downtime is active, the icons of affected apps will show up darker on the Home screen, and their names will have hourglass icons next to them.

When you try to open an app that is in Downtime, a message will appear, giving you the option to ignore the daily limit or get a reminder in 15 minutes.

How to Set App Limits

If Downtime isn’t specific enough, you also have the option to set time limits for entire categories of apps, like games, social media, or streaming services. Here’s how to do that.

On the main Screen Time screen, tap App Limits.

Tap Add Limit.

Choose the category or categories you want to restrict and tap Next.

Set the maximum time per day you want apps to be available. Tap Customize Days to set different limits for each day of the week (for example, to limit your kids’ game time on school nights).

Tap Add to finalize the timer.

App Limits will affect every app of a specified type. That is, all games or entertainment apps will have the same restrictions. This option lets you put limits on several apps at once while leaving others alone.

How often have you downloaded an app, and since you’re lazy, you never move it to your home screen despite using it all the time? Or maybe you want easy access to Google Maps every time you get in your car to drive somewhere? If that sounds like you, we’ve got an app suggestion you’ll find pretty darn useful: Launchify.

Launchify is an app that has been released and designed to give you access to your favorite apps, but it does so with a twist. Smart app selection is a windy path to go down, but if executed correctly, can be extremely beneficial. Launchify attempts to strikes a successful balance by displaying 6 applications based on recently used apps and habits.

Before you can dive into Launchify, you’ll need to give the application access to see what apps you use the most, so you’ll be prompted to do so before getting into the meat of the app. Once completed, you’ll be greeted with the main app page. From here you’ll be able to set your Home and Work addresses, which will help Launchify learn what apps you use most frequently while at one or the other. If your work habits and home habits are very different, you’ll find this very useful.

At the top of the main page, you’ll see the current list of suggested apps. At first things will seem a bit wonky – for example it showed Voice Memos in my most used apps although I’ve never opened it before – but don’t worry, Launchify just needs some time to learn how you use your device.

Now, if you don’t feel like waiting for Launchify to work its magic, there’s an option on the main page that allows you to set Custom Apps. You will be able to go through all the apps on your device and choose your six most used apps. That way the applications will be easily accessed whenever you want, and you don’t have to worry about Launchify suggesting something aside from your favorites.

There’s also an option to upgrade Launchify to Premium for a $2.50 in-app purchase. This will unlock two additional features:

• Allows a second row of app shortcuts
• Ability to manually add contacts to your Launchify bar

There is a ton of value without upgrading to Premium, but if you love the app, it might just be worth the extra couple bucks. And if 6 apps is enough, but you’re dead set on having quick access to your significant other or momma dukes, two-and-a-half bucks isn’t much to ask.

Launchify is best enjoyed in the notification shade, but it’s not the only place you can use the app. There will also be a widget that is nestled on your Lock Screen and finally, there’s even an option to put a widget on one of your home screens. This literally gives you easy-access to your favorite applications from wherever you need them on your device.

Now that we’ve covered the meat of what Launchify is and does, let’s take a look at the other options that are found in the Settings panel:

• Background Tracking
• Notification
• Notification Icon on Top
• Driving Recommendations

These are pretty self-explanatory, and are pretty good at improving the overall experience that Launchify has to offer. An example of this is that the Driving Recommendations toggle will recommend apps that you most commonly use throughout your travels. Obviously, this is NOT encouraging the use of your device while driving, so please refrain from doing so, but you will get recommendations for your music app, Google Maps, Yelp, etc.

Also found in the Settings panel of Launchify are some shortcuts to various items. From here you can Rate Launchify on Google Play, contact the developers with issues, concerns, or compliments that you may have, and get another application from the Emberify developers. If you enjoy Launchify, please let the developers know via that shortcut in the Settings panel so that they can continue to build upon Launchify and make it great.

Launchify is a great option if you’re looking for a widget that allows access to your favorite applications from anywhere on your devices. You can download it for free from the Play Store, and the in-app purchase to unlock the Premium features is only $2.50, so head over to the Play Store and try it out. Drop us a line in the comments about whether this would be something you would actually use, or if there’s another option that you use for accessing your shortlist of favorite apps.

One of the biggest strengths of Android is the way it allows apps to continue running in the background, just like a normal computer does.

It gives Android a massive advantage over the likes of iOS and Windows Phone, which both have only limited support for multitasking. These operating systems constantly close apps when you switch away from them, then reopen them when you need them again. It makes these systems far less flexible in terms of what apps can do on them, and far less powerful for the user.

But Android’s strength in this area also gives rise to one of the most common questions: how do you close apps?

We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, the sideways answer: you don’t need to close apps on Android at all.

Why closing Android apps is worse than leaving them running

In fact, constantly closing apps can have a detrimental effect on your phone’s performance, and on its battery life.

Android is very good at managing its resources. It has a certain amount of memory (RAM) to work with, and it’ll happily allow apps to use as much as they need for best performance.

If RAM starts to get a bit short, and other apps and tasks need some, then the OS will quietly close one of the apps running in the background that you haven’t used for a while, and assign that app’s RAM to the new task.

As a result, apps can stay in memory for hours, days or potentially even weeks since you last used them. And this is fine. They’re not draining the battery or using other resources so there’s no downside; the upside is they will load much quicker when you need them, and load them right back to the place where you left off too.

(It’s also worth noting at this point that there’s really no benefit in keeping RAM free. RAM exists to be used, and using all of it at any given time—or virtually all of it at least—will ensure your phone or tablet runs smoother than if you try and keep some RAM free.)

With all this in mind, it becomes clear why closing apps can have a worse effect on Android than leaving them open.

Task killers are bad for Android

We’ve known for some time that task killers should not be used. Apps like Advanced Task Killer continue to rack up millions of downloads, despite being worthless or even harmful.

Task killers will frequently close down apps and services that are designed to be left running in the background. When these are closed, they open up again straight away, and the cumulative effect of this constant stopping and starting is that your phone gets slower and the battery drains quicker—the exact opposite of what these task killers are designed to achieve.

The same principle applies to manually closing apps too.

As Oasis Feng, the developer of the excellent power management app Greenify, explained recently:

Swiping away apps from recent tasks kills the process of those apps, thus prevent them from being cached in memory. When you launch them later, it takes longer time and much more CPU cycles to create the process and re-initialize the app runtime.

In short: don’t worry about closing apps as a matter of course. Android will take care of it.

How to close apps

All that said, there are occasions when you do need to close apps.

Maybe it has frozen; maybe it is using too many of your device’s resources (loading a large desktop webpage on a device with limited memory can do this); or maybe you want to “reset’ it back to the home screen rather than have it launch at the point where you last left it.

In these cases, and a few more, you should close the app manually.

The process differs slightly from one device to the next. In all cases it involves accessing the ‘recent apps’ menu.

On most recent devices this is a dedicated button. The HTC One M8 has one (on the original HTC One you need to double-tap the home button).

On recent Samsung Galaxy devices like the Galaxy S5, you tap the recent apps button to the left of the home button. On the Galaxy S4 or older, long press either the menu button or the home button.

To close apps on the LG G3 tap the recent apps button to the right of the home button at the bottom of the screen. This is the same as on Nexus devices, Sony Xperia phones and Motorola handsets such as the Moto X and Moto G.

On tapping (double-tapping or long-pressing as needed) the recent apps menu will open showing little thumbnail images of all the apps you’ve used recently and are in memory.

To close them, simply swipe them away—hold your finger down on the thumbnail image and swipe it off the screen, either left or right, or up or down, depending on the device.

The app will now be closed, and will free up the memory it was using.