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[Q] how do you close apps?

so i found out how to force close apps under settings but theres gotta be a better way.
for example lets say i have browser, market, and facebook apps open. all showing under the window selection button. after time i get a ton of windows there and i don't want all of them open. how do i close them selectively without going through all the settings menu crud?
some apps let me close from within, most don't though and leave me stuck with a ton of windows (apps) open.

What you are asking isn't necessary unless an application has malfunctioned. There is no other way to close applications other than using the force close button in settings. Android handles this itself -- if this doesn't satisfy you download a task manager.

I don't think there is a way yet.
What Google needs to do is make those preview windows in the multitasking bar long-pressable for a menu to be able to close them.

modru2004 said:
so i found out how to force close apps under settings but theres gotta be a better way.
for example lets say i have browser, market, and facebook apps open. all showing under the window selection button. after time i get a ton of windows there and i don't want all of them open. how do i close them selectively without going through all the settings menu crud?
some apps let me close from within, most don't though and leave me stuck with a ton of windows (apps) open.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no need to manually close out apps. Since 2.1, Android has done an excellent job managing memory. It's been written many times (some directly from Google) that micromanaging your apps will actually hurt battery performance. You'll essentially be working against the system as opposed to helping it.

I am not sure if my task manager is working on this device. I use AutoKiller and when I killed task it doesn't appear as though anything closes. Can somebody confirm?

atoy74 said:
There is no need to manually close out apps. Since 2.1, Android has done an excellent job managing memory. It's been written many times (some directly from Google) that micromanaging your apps will actually hurt battery performance. You'll essentially be working against the system as opposed to helping it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
id like to point out thats NOT the issue.
the issue is the ton of windows you end up having to sort through unless you close them. its a quality of life thing, i don't like having unused unnecessary windows open that i have to sort through to get to the stuff i am using. its just bad form.

foldog22 said:
I am not sure if my task manager is working on this device. I use AutoKiller and when I killed task it doesn't appear as though anything closes. Can somebody confirm?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will most likely not work until its rewritten. The way 2.2 and now 3.0 allow access is completely different then 2.1 and below. Plus as said about 200 million task there is 0 reason to run a task killer. If you wanna clear them out, even though there is 0 reason, reboot.

Okay, I get the memory management issue, but as the OP pointed out, I've got all sorts of icons in the "task bar area" (bottom right hand corner) that just sit there or keep coming back.
For example, I haven't listened to any music on my Xoom since yesterday morning, yet I've got an icon down there for Music and Rhapsody. Also, there's no way to clear some notifications.
There's got to be a way to at least clear out the notification isn't there?

you tap on the little icon music for example and you will see a little x on the right of it, click that and it closes it from the notification system

There is absolutely no reason to use a task killer or manually kill tasks. 2.2, 2.3, 3.0, etc. handle memory and tasks extremely well. In many cases, task killers will only cost you more battery and more slowdowns than letting tasks just run out and sit in memory. Unless you're seeing rogue or malfunctioning tasks in the background causing slowdowns, there is no need to kill them.
I do wish you could scroll through the recent running apps rather than only being able to access the latest 5, but spam closing background apps doesnt help at all.

arrtoodeetoo said:
I don't think there is a way yet.
What Google needs to do is make those preview windows in the multitasking bar long-pressable for a menu to be able to close them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I haven't used a task manager since I started learning how android actually works last year when starting to make apps, I can't help but want the same thing in honeycomb for malfunctioning apps. I think google left it out intentionally to discourage task-killing rampages by oblivious users.

Every time I read "you do not need to close apps" I want to scream. first hour of usage I had a second browser installed and it and the stock browser were conflicting with each other... all I wanted to do was a quick close of one of the browsers.
There are always a multitude of good reasons to want to close a background app. I completely understand the technical reasons why an app does not need to be closed, but from a user experience point of view, it should be made simple.

mjpacheco said:
Every time I read "you do not need to close apps" I want to scream. first hour of usage I had a second browser installed and it and the stock browser were conflicting with each other... all I wanted to do was a quick close of one of the browsers.
There are always a multitude of good reasons to want to close a background app. I completely understand the technical reasons why an app does not need to be closed, but from a user experience point of view, it should be made simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which is exactly why in my first post I said "...isn't necessary unless an application has malfunctioned" otherwise such a thing is barely necessary. And in your case, the classic "Settings > ....... > Force Close" would have easily sufficed.

So what you are saying is that a method to kill tasks is necessary, just not often. I, for instance, just had the xda app stuck on the splash screen. I killed it and restarted the app and all was good. There is a potential for harm if used over zealously but at times it would be nice if there was a more convenient way to close an app when necessary.
Applications do not always behave as they should so to say there is no need to kill am app is making a naive assumption that every android app is perfect.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App

martonikaj said:
I do wish you could scroll through the recent running apps rather than only being able to access the latest 5, but spam closing background apps doesnt help at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oddly enough, if you turn to portrait, you get a few more. So, technically its not a hard limit on 5, but rather (literally) limited by space on the screen.
Anyone want to place a bet as to what rev we see scrollability?
Sent from my Evo using the XDA App

JanetPanic said:
So what you are saying is that a method to kill tasks is necessary, just not often. I, for instance, just had the xda app stuck on the splash screen. I killed it and restarted the app and all was good. There is a potential for harm if used over zealously but at times it would be nice if there was a more convenient way to close an app when necessary.
Applications do not always behave as they should so to say there is no need to kill am app is making a naive assumption that every android app is perfect.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this happens use the built in task killer, settings/applications/running tab.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

bwcorvus said:
If this happens use the built in task killer, settings/applications/running tab.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did and it worked. As I said it would be nice to have a more convenient way of force stopping apps that are not behaving.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App

Closing apps isn't necessary for two reasons.
1. Android does a good job at managing apps on its own.
2. You have 1GB of RAM to work with.
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk

Watchdog does a considerable job since it only lets you know when an app is misbehaving. And since being on 2.3 its barely given me any alerts. Perhaps further proving the awesome memory management.
Sent from my Xperia X10 using XDA App

delete please

[Q] Mango 7720: Terminate an application

I can't find a way to close (terminate) an application other than hitting the back button, which can be not only painful but unwanted. In IE9 for example, if I've navigated through several pages in a session, if I want to close IE I have to go all the way back until the application closes, which also means that, next time, unless I go into History, I won't be able to start browsing from where I left.
It seems that is not possible to close an application from the task switcher, which is hard to understand.
Am I missing something?

Nop, it is just like that. It's not a mess like Android, but it would be better if we could close from task switcher, yes.

Since applications do not actively run in the background, there's no need to terminate anything.

dkp1977 said:
Since applications do not actively run in the background, there's no need to terminate anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At least for now. Eventually, every app will come with background support.

mikeeam said:
At least for now. Eventually, every app will come with background support.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But these are agents which can be setup in the settings. Agents running in the background will never ever appear in the task switcher and will even run when you didn't even start the according app after a reboot.

There is no need to terminate apps because they do not run in the background. Period. What you are seeing in the task switcher is simply a history list of the 5 most recent apps or things you have done, show in a thumbnail view. These apps are not open.
Now to be able to remove cards from the task switcher so you can view other cards in the back stack would be useful, but not available at this time.
If you wanted to 'close' IE', you could simply close each tab you have open. No need to go back through all your web pages.

prjkthack said:
Now to be able to remove cards from the task switcher so you can view other cards in the back stack would be useful, but not available at this time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. As it is now, most of the time the task switcher will be useless to me, since it will always be filled with the five most recent apps I have run, whether or not those are the five apps I would like to be able to quickly switch back to. And most of the time, they won't be. I want to be able to a) pin apps to the card stack, and b) "flush" unneeded apps from the card stack.
It's supposed to be a convenience tool, but doesn't strike me as adding much convenience in its current implementation.

RoboDad said:
Exactly. As it is now, most of the time the task switcher will be useless to me, since it will always be filled with the five most recent apps I have run, whether or not those are the five apps I would like to be able to quickly switch back to. And most of the time, they won't be. I want to be able to a) pin apps to the card stack, and b) "flush" unneeded apps from the card stack.
It's supposed to be a convenience tool, but doesn't strike me as adding much convenience in its current implementation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm assuming it was built this way to accommodate the most common multitasking scenarios, of course that doesn't suit everyone, but I'm sure it'll work just fine for the majority of people.
When thought of from that perspective, 5 cards is more than enough for the majority. Maybe even too much.

Ok, let me see if I understand:
If I'm in IE9 and hit the windows button, IE9 will no longer be using resources. So each application in the foreground is sort of "running alone". Is that right?

octaedro7 said:
Ok, let me see if I understand:
If I'm in IE9 and hit the windows button, IE9 will no longer be using resources. So each application in the foreground is sort of "running alone". Is that right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.
With mango there might be background agents running, but they are restricted in what they can do and what resources they can take up. So the answer will still be yes.

2 questions - multitasking issues and native gchat

i installed mango RTM over the weekend and its been great. as i've been playing with it i've noticed 2 things
1. if you're texting with someone and you place the messaging app into "standby" (press windows button) and you get a text msg notification toast, if you click the toast it opens up a new copy of the messaging app. you can verify this by going into the multitasking switcher, you'll see 2 panels of "messaging". is this a bug or is this how its supposed to be?
2. i'm not really a big user of facebook chat but i am on gmail all the time so i was wondering if there's any way we can hack gchat on? gchat and fb chat both use the jabber protocol and since fb chat is enabled natively, we know there's a possibility of it being supported. any ideas?
thanks!

1: The "Multitasking" fast App switcher isn't showing instances of open apps. It's just showing recently use apps. Every app is in stand by mode if you don't "Back" out of them with the Back Button. The Task Switcher also has a 5 page limit. Apps outside that limit are still open/standby, just not in the list. At least this is how I believe it works. No way to tell till we have enough resume enabled apps that are Mango compatible to test this more. It's not the greatest implementation of Multitasking IMO. My 2 complains is this multiple pages of the same app issue that you mentioned & the 5 page limitation. When I'm really active on my phone, I can see this being an issue. Not a deal breaker, more of an annoyance.

1. The task switcher just show what you've done last. Also, native apps are always running and are not confine to the same restrictions as 3rd party apps.
2. Now that Microsoft open up Marketplace for Mango apps submissions, it won't be long before unofficial Google Talk apps show up.

Something that I noticed with wonder reader. Dont know if it's how the app is made, but..
When you open it, you hit windows (home) button, and hit back, it just come back instantly. But if you open it using the tile, it dont resume. It re-open it and it's not instantly.
Anyone else noticed?

mikeeam said:
Something that I noticed with wonder reader. Dont know if it's how the app is made, but..
When you open it, you hit windows (home) button, and hit back, it just come back instantly. But if you open it using the tile, it dont resume. It re-open it and it's not instantly.
Anyone else noticed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Microsoft made a conscious design decision that apps started from the tile (on the Start screen or app list) are started as a new instance. The only way to fast app switch is by going through the backstack (either navigating sequentially via the back key or directly via the app switcher). I believe "a consistent user experience" was cited as the reason for this behavior.
This is quite different than in iOS, where the app switcher AND the home screen icon will fast resume an app (if still in memory). And that is why iOS has a way to delete apps from the app switcher, because that's the only way to start a new instance (it's also why Windows Phone doesn't need a way to clear apps from the app switcher). I happen to think Apple's design is better because more often than not, a user is looking to resume an experience, no matter how they end up starting app; therefore it should be the default behavior.
With Windows Phone deep linking, clicking on a secondary tile, toast notification, or a search extension can launch directly into a "page" inside the app, but it still takes time to fire up new instances of the app and the page.
You might also be interested to know that an app can only appear in the backstack once. So if you open an app using the main tile, then to go to the Start screen and start it again with a secondary tile, it'll knock the first instance off the backstack.
Anyway, probably more than you ever wanted to know but hope this clears it up.
Anthony
Wonder Reader

[Q] Worst multitask ever?

Hello there.
First, i'm not trolling.. I just want to be sure i'm not msising anything here.
I've been using Mango for a while, and with some mango updated apps here. Like Gchat, Tasks, Wonder Reader.. Well, I noticed something:
The multitask just works when you use the back button. So if you go to another app, come back to home and open it in tiles, it will reload the whole app instead of resuming. Seriously?!
Or is this an option to developers?
Please, tell me i'm wrong. I love WP7 too much to handle a glitch like this ;/
Thank you guys.

I would say this is up to the developer. There's a resume hack that exists in NoDo, which requires editing one of the app's XML's.
Resumable XAP Tool v0.1 Release

drkfngthdragnlrd said:
I would say this is up to the developer. There's a resume hack that exists in NoDo, which requires editing one of the app's XML's.
Resumable XAP Tool v0.1 Release
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but resuming apps just works when you use fast switch or back button. Not in home opening the app..

mikeeam said:
Yeah, but resuming apps just works when you use fast switch or back button. Not in home opening the app..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From the home you just open another instance of the same app ..you are not multitasking ...
If an app let you open multiply instances of its self (the app) its have nothing to do with multitasking.
And by the way i like the title of your thread !!!!! Really ???? Most of the mobile industry agree that the WP7 multitasking its one of the best ...

colossus_r said:
From the home you just open another instance of the same app ..you are not multitasking ...
If an app let you open multiply instances of its self (the app) its have nothing to do with multitasking.
And by the way i like the title of your thread !!!!! Really ???? Most of the mobile industry agree that the WP7 multitasking its one of the best ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it has to do with the way it's coded or the system does that automatically? Because, seriously, I dont see where it's better than just re-open the same instance that is already opened. Takes much more time.

mikeeam said:
But it has to do with the way it's coded or the system does that automatically? Because, seriously, I dont see where it's better than just re-open the same instance that is already opened. Takes much more time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its app related ...Some apps they do let you open more that one instance ...some other they dont

mikeeam said:
But it has to do with the way it's coded or the system does that automatically? Because, seriously, I dont see where it's better than just re-open the same instance that is already opened. Takes much more time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that the motivation behind that is that most users wont actively multitask with more than 2-3 apps at a time, and for that holding the back button will suffice just fine. For most users there's better to go to a new instance instead of returning to the old one when they've spent a long time doing something else, and mostly I agree with this.

As smarthphone user (and developer for HTC Charmer few years ago) since 2003, I must agree. I'm really disapointed with WP7 parody to multitasking. Hope things will go better when Nokia reveals their WP devices and more users will force MS to relook their policy.
Cracking this and breaking through this system is currently nonsense - you can only lost excellent WP7 stability and performance. This step must come from core MS developers...
Hope they started WP7 the same way as they did in case of Windows 7 - they started to use "tiny core" minwin architecture which is highly modular. In windows 8, minwin kernel idea is pushed further and it can only be better. This modular core architecture allows them to add major functions without need of complete rewriting the code. WP8 could be a really great system if its handled this way

I wish multitasking was option, as you can turn it off and on via settings. I rarely if ever use it. Its pretty annoying how it works.
Sent from my HD7 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

There's a difference between third party apps versus the first party apps provided by Microsoft.
First party apps can have multiple entries in the app switcher (One example is the Messaging app where you'll see multiple chat sessions in the back stack).
Third party apps can only have one entry in the app switcher list at any one time. If you have a third party app in the back stack and you start a new instance of it by tapping on its main or secondary app tile, the previous instance of the app is removed from the back stack. So even if an app has multiple entry points (such as if it has more than one tile pinned on the Start screen), it'll only ever appear once in the app switcher. As far as I know, there is no way for a dev to change this behavior.
And it's true that opening an app via its tile will start a new instance, and this is the opposite of what iOS does. I've already described it in some detail here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17171504&postcount=5
Since Mango and iOS are the only 2 major phone OS's that do fast app switching, I'd have to agree that Mango's implementation is worse than iOS's.
(Not to be picky, but this is technically not "multitasking". Multitasking on Windows Phone involves the use of background agents. And IMO it has a better multitasking API than iOS because it has periodic agents that can be scheduled.)

SuperSlacker said:
There's a difference between third party apps versus the first party apps provided by Microsoft.
First party apps can have multiple entries in the app switcher (One example is the Messaging app where you'll see multiple chat sessions in the back stack).
Third party apps can only have one entry in the app switcher list at any one time. If you have a third party app in the back stack and you start a new instance of it by tapping on its main or secondary app tile, the previous instance of the app is removed from the back stack. So even if an app has multiple entry points (such as if it has more than one tile pinned on the Start screen), it'll only ever appear once in the app switcher. As far as I know, there is no way for a dev to change this behavior.
And it's true that opening an app via its tile will start a new instance, and this is the opposite of what iOS does. I've already described it in some detail here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=17171504&postcount=5
Since Mango and iOS are the only 2 major phone OS's that do fast app switching, I'd have to agree that Mango's implementation is worse than iOS's.
(Not to be picky, but this is technically not "multitasking". Multitasking on Windows Phone involves the use of background agents. And IMO it has a better multitasking API than iOS because it has periodic agents that can be scheduled.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldnt find that post, and thought no one answered. Glad to see you did. Yes, it helped a lot. I really love this OS, but forcing me to use back button instead of just resuming the app is lame.
Most of users just want it to be fast. Dont care about how they close, or how they open it. Me included. MS could just change it, using the same API as now. Opening in tiles resume the instance. Way faster for most of users.
Now I'm going to try to get used to it. Or just go back to iOS, unfortunately.

Q: IRC app that runs in the background

Hi, I've been trying to find a decent IRC app for wp7. Sadly no luck to date. There's a number of fairly great ones in the marketplace - WPirc looks great and most of the time works great as well.
But it has one problem that I've currently noticed in all other apps. It doesn't have a background agent so when I switch out of it, it automatically disconnects me from the network I'm on. Same thing when the lockscreen goes over it.
Does anyone know an IRC app, even paid, that doesn't do this? Not talking about disconnecting on the lockscreen if connection over wifi. Just disconnecting when not in focus.

No luck on this one
Unfortunately, the current 'Mango' version of Windows Phone does not allow 'true' background processes to give you real time updates of anything. So don't expect anything like you are asking to appear in the marketplace soon.
The best any developer can do at this moment is to create an app that checks for new messages every 30 minutes for a very brief time. And even then, the app is only allowed to give you a small toast message, but never open (or put in focus) the application by itself.

Well, it is permissible for apps to continue running under the lock screen (although MS is very strict about when they allow an app to use that permission, I think chat apps qualify). Real background processing is actually possible - the phone runs a fully multitasking OS - but the official APIs don't allow it.

GoodDayToDie said:
Well, it is permissible for apps to continue running under the lock screen .... Real background processing is actually possible - .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but to stay on-topic I read the question as 'Are there any apps in the marketplace that allow me to run IRC in the background, supporting multitasking (staying connected) even if I use other apps'. From that perspective the answer is unfortunately no.

You can use ZNC and keep a persistent connection going on a remote computer, which will save and replay the conversation when you lose connection. You can also couple SuperToasty with the ZNCPush plugin I've forked at github (I have to update my branch and poke the dev to pull the fork.) to push alert you when someone mentions you, PM's you etc.
Any of the IRC clients in the market should work fine with this setup... though, I haven't tried.