task killers? Yay or nay?

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
I'd like to get you guys' thoughts on this. Are task killers a good thing?
 

dguy6789

Diamond Member
Dec 9, 2002
8,558
3
76
Depends on the OS.

For Android, they are useless. Android automatically makes processes give up memory if another application needs the memory. If you go around closing tasks for no reason, your phone just has to load the app back into memory whenever you access the application again.
 

Deeko

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
30,213
12
81
In theory you don't need them on Android.

In practice, you definitely do.

Do yourself a favor - download TasKiller Pro. Put the kill-all widgit on your home screen. Hit it whenever your phone feels sluggish - it will be IMMEDIATELY better.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
In theory you don't need them on Android.

In practice, you definitely do.

Do yourself a favor - download TasKiller Pro. Put the kill-all widgit on your home screen. Hit it whenever your phone feels sluggish - it will be IMMEDIATELY better.

I had more problems with the Task Killer apps personally. Caused all sorts of weirdness to happen. My Droid runs much better without them.
 

Deeko

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
30,213
12
81
I had more problems with the Task Killer apps personally. Caused all sorts of weirdness to happen. My Droid runs much better without them.

You have to set certain apps to "ignore". For example - a lot of the widgits. Specifically, Weather Widgits will die unless you set it to ignore.

I have mine set to ignore Weather Widgits, Handcent, and Better Keyboard. Never have any issues.
 

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
I had more problems with the Task Killer apps personally. Caused all sorts of weirdness to happen. My Droid runs much better without them.

98% of the time I agree with you but I get some random app that lags my phone and I end up rebooting.
 

Spoooon

Lifer
Mar 3, 2000
11,563
203
106
I kill the occasional app on occasion, but mostly I leave it to automatic task killer and minfree manager.
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,081
136
With Android 2.0 I never had an issue of too much stuff running and killing my performance. Android is smart enough to figure it all out. Although if you are worried that some apps might somehow use excessive battery power, you can kill them manually. But I've found the power toolbar does a great job for that.
 

boomhower

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2007
7,228
19
81
Some of the custom ROM's have more aggressive memory management and work very very well. I haven't used a task killer in months, it works better than every. It started with gumbo's kernal and has continued on with damages 2.1 ROM.
 

rudeguy

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
47,351
14
61
Some of the custom ROM's have more aggressive memory management and work very very well. I haven't used a task killer in months, it works better than every. It started with gumbo's kernal and has continued on with damages 2.1 ROM.

I'm running a custom mod and didn't have any issues until I downloaded a couple of bad apps. They worked fine before I rooted my phone but now the sometimes hang.