Article: The truth behind the Task Killers

The task killers for Android, apps that close other apps, improve performance and increase your phone's battery life - or at least that is what they promise. Here is an overview of how they actually work when you should use them (and when not to use them) and how to replace them with real solutions.

A task is a killer app where you can (sometimes automatically) to force other apps to close, because it is believed that the less apps are running in the background, the better the performance and battery life of Android. But not everyone agrees with this. The debate on the efficiency of the task follows heated killers all over the internet: Android forums are filled with endless discussions of topics and conflicting accounts of personal experiences, making it difficult for most users understand the situation right.

Below, we'll reveal the truth about the killers for Android task: the system manages the tasks properly without user intervention, and that the task killers present several problems. We will also see the rare grounds where they are useful, and offer some alternatives you should use to improve performance and battery life of your phone. 

How Android manages processes

Android applications and processes are two different things. One app may be "running" in the background while other processes consume the resources of your phone. Android holds the app in memory to be open soon and return it to its previous state. When your cellphone runs out of memory, Android automatically closes processes alone, starting with those that you do not use for some time.  The problem is that Android uses the RAM of different systems, for example, Windows. Android, have your memory almost full is good. It means that if you reopen an app that was open before, it opens faster and back to its previous state. So although Android using RAM efficiently, many users see that the memory is full and think that it's making the device slower. Indeed, it is the processor - used only for apps that are actually functioning - which almost always reduces performance.


Why task killers (usually) are a problem 


Apps such as the Advanced Task Killer, the killer task more popular Market, acts with the incorrect assumption that free memory on a device with Android is a good thing. When opened, it displays a list of apps "running" the machine, and gives the option of closing as many as you want. You can also use the Menu button to access the services so that lists exactly which parts of each application are "running", how much memory are taking and how much free memory is available on your mobile.
This provision of information requires that the goal of closing those apps is free memory. Nowhere mentioned in the list is the number of CPU cycles that each app is consuming, only the memory that you will release when you close them. As we have seen, full memory is no problem - we need to monitor the CPU, the feature that actually lets your phone slower and drains your battery.
That is, close all apps except for the essential (or compel the Android apps to close more aggressively with the "autokill") is usually unnecessary. Furthermore, it is possible that this worsens performance and battery life of your phone. Whether closing apps all the time or manually configuring the task killer apps to close aggressively and consistently, you are using the CPU cycles that should not - closing apps that were not doing anything. 

In fact, some of the processes related onths apps open again immediately, using the processor even more. If it is not the case, you may have other problems: do not fire alarms, text messages do not reach the cellular processes that use these apps closed suddenly. In the end, you better keep your phone working as it should - especially if you're not an experienced user. In such cases, the killer task creates more problems than it eliminates.
Remember that, in Android 2.2, the task killers stopped working: the Froyo comes with a task manager and does not allow native apps to close other apps. Namely, it is an official stance, even if implicit, task against killers on Android. So stop using them forever.

So, what do I should do?

That said, not all apps are created equal. Many of you have used task killers in the past and realized that after freeing memory, his cell phone ran a little better. This probably happened because you closed a bad app - an app badly coded, for example that tries to access the Internet even when it should not. Any improvement in performance probably occurred because you closed the app right, not because you released a lot of memory - or in many cases, it's just placebo effect. Instead of closing all those apps, find out what is causing problems. If you know what you're doing a task killer can help you get rid of an inefficient or two apps on your phone.
But know that even this is still debatable. Many developers (including Cyanogen, which creates the best-known for Android ROMs) or look at your bug report if you use a task killer. In our humble opinion, your best bet is to not use Task killers regularly. But if you need an app that consumes lots of battery on your phone, then continue to use task killers - but know that when you find a bug in Android later, the killer task may be to blame. (Of course, you can simply stop using it and see if it is the case.)
Then we know that it is better not to use task killer, but there are several other things you can do to fill this gap, improving performance and battery life:

• Monitor rebels processes: Watchdog is a different kind of task killer, because instead of saying that your phone has no memory and it's time to kill everything, it alerts you when an app starts to eat up CPU for no reason. Then you can close the app and the Watchdog continue its day (though honestly, when it comes to that, I usually restart my phone). If this happens often with the same app, however, you will want to follow the next step.
• Uninstall bad apps: worse than the app that gets out of control once or few times, it is poorly written app that eats your CPU. If you discover (with the Watchdog or some other method) that a particular app seems to be draining your CPU and battery, confirm their suspicions by uninstalling it and seeing what happens. If an app is causing problems on your phone, better not have it.
• Make root on your mobile: we advocate quite the rooting of Android handsets in Lifehacker, after doing this is as useful as everyone says. You can overclock and underclock with SetCPU (to increase performance or save battery life), install custom ROMs that improve performance, and use programs to prevent apps do not open when Android starts. Look, with apps that make root with just a touch, such as the aforementioned Universal Androot, available for various devices, root is something that can take a few minutes and that is very worthwhile. 
• Disable connections that you are not using: this may seem obvious, but if you are not using any type of widget to turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and control the screen brightness is good to get one. Android 2.0 comes with a widget so by default, the latest MotoBlur also provides widgets so, and you always have good options in the Market. Unplug those connections when they need them, and you'll get to see who gives a longer duration of your battery.  

• Charge the battery in your cell phone: an even more obvious advice, but that few take seriously: always carry your cell phone. This is not as difficult as it seems for most people. Sure, you can sometimes spend 14 hours with no place to load your player, but most of us spend time at home, office and other places full of shots available. Take your charger with you, or buy an extra charger and leave one at home and one at work, for example. When you're at home or at work, just plug your phone into the socket and give an extra charge, not to worry later. Almost every smartphone with Android charges the battery via microUSB entry, then find a charger for it will not matter. Just do not buy boots of dubious quality: they often overheat the battery, and nothing kills the battery life as excess heat.
        Charge the battery constantly, however, is not a problem: the story of memory effect is a thing of the past, nickel-cadmium batteries. The current batteries are lithium ion and in fact if you are losing autonomy, before you load it, wait for it to fully discharge.   

 Source: Gizmodo