Apple says quitting multitasking apps doesn’t save battery life

Killing apps in the multitasking view will not save iPhones’ battery life. This isn’t exactly a new discovery, but an Apple official recently debunked the longstanding myth about quitting multitasking iOS apps and improving battery life.

9to5mac has obtained copy of the email sent by an enquiring customer to Apple big boss Tim Cook. Caleb wanted to know if the rumour was true, adding a p.s. to give his support to the tech giant.

“Hey Tim, Do you quit your iOS multitasking apps frequently and is this necessary for battery life? Just wanting you to put this controversy to rest!” Caleb wrong, adding, “P.S. I’m rooting for Apple in the FBI case.”

Cook didn’t answer, but iOS chief Craig Federighi was able to help. He replied a day later, on March 7, with three simple words: “No and No.”

He softened his short answer with a smiling emoji and with: “Thanks for being an Apple customer!”

As 9to5mac explained, apps in the multitasking view are either frozen in RAM or not running at all. They are just displayed as history. So even if they are swiped off, it doesn’t matter to the phone’s battery life.

Apps that are performing background operations, however, do affect battery life. These apps include GPS navigation and music playback. Nevertheless, there are apps that are notorious in draining the iPhone’s battery, like Facebook. Facebook engineering manager Ari Grant confirmed in October that the social media app could drain the battery life in iOS9. He blamed the “CPU spin” in the network code and the audio playback of the app.

As for Android phones, minimised apps may still be consuming battery power. Mashable listed ways on how to consume battery life in Android smartphones last year, and one of the tips it gave was to close suspended apps, or those that are minimised but not closed, because these still use battery power.