How to Close Apps on Samsung Galaxy S5

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is one of the fastest and most powerful smartphones available today, and as a result, users will multitask and open a wide variety of apps. The Galaxy S5 can handle just about any app or game available today and has 2GB of RAM for advanced multitasking, but sometimes it’s useful to clear or close apps.

The simple action of clearing or closing unused apps may seem too common and straightforward to average users, but first-time smartphone owner or iPhone converts need to know how to perform such a task on their new Galaxy S5.

With millions of Galaxy S5s sold and expected to be sold, this question actually comes up more than expected. It is extremely easy to close and clear apps on the Galaxy S5 to improve performance and battery life, so read on to see exactly how to do it.

The general Android rule is to let the operating system manage your memory, not to mention that the Samsung Galaxy S5 comes with 2GB of RAM so there is no need to manage it much. However, there are times when a user might want to delete unused apps from memory.

Google’s Android operating system does an excellent job of managing apps and multitasking unlike other operating systems by getting apps ready to take action when needed, and saves battery the rest of the time. However, many users still prefer to close apps manually and here’s how to do that on the new Galaxy S5.

Instructions

Clearing apps from memory or multitasking menu on Galaxy S5 is extremely easy, but few changes made to previous Galaxy devices confuse some users, even experienced Android owners. Most Samsung devices, a long press on the dedicated home button brings up this menu, but it’s not done that way anymore. There’s now a dedicated multitasking button instead of a three-row menu key, and that’s where you start.

Simply tap the overlapping rectangle-like button to the left of the dedicated hardware home button. This is the multitasking menu key that brings up all currently used and running applications. For those who don’t know, switching from Gmail to YouTube, then to the browser and back to Gmail is extremely fast and efficient with this menu. However, this is also where a quick swipe will close and kill apps.

The image above is what you’ll be greeted with when you tap the multitasking menu key showing all currently running apps. It’s a good idea to leave things like phones, messages, and even browsers here, especially if you use them frequently. Deleting the SMS text app means it will only need to be restarted at your next message, wasting battery and CPU cycles. This same rule applies to all apps, so only turn off the ones you won’t need anymore.

A simple swipe of your finger on each box will swipe them away and instantly close the app. Any saved progress or the website you might be on will have to be reloaded the next time you use that app. The image above shows us swiping to clear the menu and browser. That’s all, you’re done. It’s that simple to clear and close apps on Galaxy S5.

But sometimes users may want to clear everything at once. Again, this is not recommended as the OS does a great job keeping most apps in a low power state. However, the X button with lines on the bottom right will “clear all” and will delete every app currently in system memory. A good time for this would be at work and not using the phone, while driving or even before going to bed.

Otherwise, we recommend cleaning only apps you don’t need or system-intensive apps. Something like YouTube, Google Maps (or navigation is a big one), or even Netflix. As they can be killed to protect the battery. In general, there is rarely a need to clear apps on Android devices, especially those as powerful and efficient as the Galaxy S5, but each user has their own unique needs.

Closing all your apps can cause the phone to slow down as it will need to restart some apps as they are called and eventually the battery life will be reduced. Again, clear only what is necessary, and often this menu is not as necessary as most people think. For some reason Samsung removed the menu key in favor of it, but for those who want better control, it’s yours now.

In the end, only close the apps you won’t be using in the near future. Users demand all sorts of different results for cleaning apps and using the task manager throughout the day, but use it wisely and feel free to try it yourself today.