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# iOS Multitasking And Not Needing to Kill Applications
- URL: https://chrisenns.com/2012/01/ios-multitasking-and-not-needing-to-kill-applications/
- Published: 2012-01-06T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2024-04-08T23:52:15.000Z
- Author: Chris Enns
- Tags: Uncategorized, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-04-08 17:47, #ichris

I wasn't going to post anything about this because I figured it wasn't really worth sharing. But then as I had loaded up the video posted below to watch I actually had someone come in to my office and tell me how they had been told by a Genius [1](#fn-19956:1) at an Apple Store that they should shut down/kill applications on their iPad in order to improve performance.

The bottom line is this, quoting from [Fraiser Speirs article that accompanies the video posted below](https://speirs.org/blog/2012/1/6/ios-multitasking-in-detail.html?ref=chrisenns.com):

> ...killing apps manually is fine as a troubleshooting step but it shouldn't be part of your daily routine.

That post and the video are a follow up to Fraiser's earlier post titled [Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking](https://speirs.org/blog/2012/1/2/misconceptions-about-ios-multitasking.html?ref=chrisenns.com) where Fraiser goes into great technical detail to explain why you don't have to kill apps to improve performance on your iPad/iPhone.

It's not to say that you should never do it. It's just that there's no reason to do it on a regular basis. There are certainly some apps [2](#fn-19956:2) that don't manage their memory very well or situations where an app is stuck/frozen that it makes sense to manually kill it. But it's not something you need to do on a daily/weekly basis to improve performance.

I recognize that since this is the internet, there's anecdotal evidence for anything so, as [John Gruber said in his post about it](https://daringfireball.net/2012/01/ios%5Fmultitasking?ref=chrisenns.com),

> Like with any voodoo, there are die-hard believers. I’m quite certain that I am going to receive email from people who will swear up-and-down that emptying this list of used applications every hour or so keeps their iPhone running better than it would otherwise. Nonsense.

### Fraiser's Video Demoing How iOS Takes Care of Memory Management For You

[Direct link to video](https://vimeo.com/34660348?ref=chrisenns.com)

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1. A Genius at an Apple Store is a position or title for the employees who help fix people's problems. It's not just a really smart person who happened to be at the Apple Store. [↩](#fnref-19956:1)
2. I'd guess that most of these kinds of apps fall into the free with in-app purchase variety that are really after a quick buck and very loosely follow Apple's recommended programming and code guidelines for iOS apps. [↩](#fnref-19956:2)