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hi i have only just got the hero and was wondering how to close apps properly. i have noticed that when you hold the home key for a while a window pops up showing some apps ...is this how you close them? or is simply pressing the home key shutting them .
The long press on home just brings up a list of apps that have been recently run. It's almost a task switcher, but not quite!
Many apps will exit if you "back" out of them - i.e. when in the app keep pressing back until you get back to the home screen. However, this isn't the case for all applications. Some may have an explicit exit or close button, whereas others may have nothing at all.
However, Android is pretty good at managing its own applications, and will kill/exit them as necessary. In my experience, there's little to be gained from explicitly killing applications using a task killer, but some people swear by it.
Regards,
Dave
foxmeister said:
The long press on home just brings up a list of apps that have been recently run. It's almost a task switcher, but not quite!
Many apps will exit if you "back" out of them - i.e. when in the app keep pressing back until you get back to the home screen. However, this isn't the case for all applications. Some may have an explicit exit or close button, whereas others may have nothing at all.
However, Android is pretty good at managing its own applications, and will kill/exit them as necessary. In my experience, there's little to be gained from explicitly killing applications using a task killer, but some people swear by it.
Regards,
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most Task Killers free up memory thats used by background apps.
so basicly back out of the app and let android do the rest of the worring. thanks for advise
risterdid said:
Most Task Killers free up memory thats used by background apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but the point is that Android itself will start killing applications if it starts to run low on resources. (see http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals.html)
Regards,
Dave
I'll attempt to sum it up once and for all, to try and set the record straight.
In Android's virtual machine, there is no functional differentiation between "closing" an app and "switching away from" an app. They are the same (the exception is things like music players which need to keep playing after you switch away from them, but even then only the 'service' part needs to keep running).
Whenever you switch away from an app, its current state is remembered so that even if it is effectively "killed" it can be returned to in just that state next time it's opened. Then Android either kills the process or it keeps it open, killing it when it needs the memory. You won't notice any difference between either scenario, except maybe that an app loads a little bit faster if it was kept in memory. At any rate, "closed" apps do not "run", and they do not take RAM or CPU cycles from other apps.
In terms of process/memory management, Android's VM has more in common with a web browser than a desktop OS - sure it can remember your state when you switch apps (like switching tabs, going back/forward/home in a browser) but whether behind the scenes it loads it all into and out of memory when you switch back and forth, or it all stays in memory is irrelevant to the user. Nobody worries that a long forum page on another tab or in their back button history is occupying 80 megs in the background or not, the browser takes care of loading/unloading it from RAM as needed, and that's just like how Android's VM works when switching between various pages of various apps.
Once you understand this you understand that all these 'task killer' apps are really unnecessary - all they'll do is make it slower to restart an app once closed. They don't reclaim RAM that was previously unavailable to other apps.
To cut a long story short, pressing "home" is a great way to close an app, whether you want to return to it later or not.
MercuryStar said:
Nobody worries that a long forum page on another tab or in their back button history is occupying 80 megs in the background or not, the browser takes care of loading/unloading it from RAM as needed, and that's just like how Android's VM works when switching between various pages of various apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is not true for me, my firefox can eat a lot of resources as long as it is open. and i can see a performance difference when having a lot of apps open on my hero. not that it would be a problem, but you can see the menus scrolling more "fluid" after killing all bg apps, for example.
kendong2 said:
you can see the menus scrolling more "fluid" after killing all bg apps, for example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would wager that's the placebo effect. It feels faster because you believe it should. If you understand how the OS works you realise that apps you've switched away from do nothing to slow down or take memory from any other app (see my exception above about apps that launch background services such as music player).
kendong2 said:
that is not true for me, my firefox can eat a lot of resources as long as it is open. and i can see a performance difference when having a lot of apps open on my hero. not that it would be a problem, but you can see the menus scrolling more "fluid" after killing all bg apps, for example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do notice this too. There is a general 'sluggishness' with my Hero when there are lots of app sleeping/running/hibernating/whatever in the background. As soon as I kill off a few unwanted ones, all the menus scroll faster and home screens change quicker.
And this is not the placebo effect either. The menu's DO scroll more fluidly after I have killed a few apps, regardless of how you describe the RAM management...
Micksta said:
And this is not the placebo effect either. The menu's DO scroll more fluidly after I have killed a few apps, regardless of how you describe the RAM management...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly, you can tell easily if it is one motion or looks like it is "skipping frames". even it is only because it takes the device some cpu cycles to kill other apps, it does make a difference. like i said a rather cosmetic one, since it doesn't really effect the general usage. nevertheless i like to know what is running and what's not, and so far im running good with advanced task manager free.
WOW i didnt expect a massive response for my question but i thank you all for your responses
MercuryStar said:
I would wager that's the placebo effect. It feels faster because you believe it should. If you understand how the OS works you realise that apps you've switched away from do nothing to slow down or take memory from any other app (see my exception above about apps that launch background services such as music player).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's not true, my phone gets so sluggish sometimes that i can't answer a phone call, the phone doesn't register that i press the answer button. and when that happends i usually have like 20 mb of free ram.
Daniehabazin said:
that's not true, my phone gets so sluggish sometimes that i can't answer a phone call, the phone doesn't register that i press the answer button. and when that happends i usually have like 20 mb of free ram.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just as a matter of interest, do you use swapper or AppsToSD?
My phone never gets into the situation you've described, but even though I do have the full version of TasKiller, I almost never use it, and I don't see a need at present to use AppsToSD.
In addition, I'd imagine that having a swap partition would cause an issue with Androids own memory management, since I guess it can't distinguish between real and "virtual" memory. So where a "non-swap" device would start killing processes, a "swap" device would just continue on regardless because it thinks it still has physical memory available.
Regards,
Dave
Yesterday I downloaded "Advanced Task Killer Free"... anyone who has experiences with this? Is is better than just "Task Killer" or is it just an updated version of "Task Killer" ?
thanks!
have been using atk free for a while (lol 2 weeks since i got the hero) now, i really like it. its advantage over all other task managers IMHO: it has an ignore list, things you ignore are not shown in the running tasks list. in the list you have check boxes, where you can select the tasks that will be killed, and this list is remembered. for example "htc sense" is on my ignore list, but "music" is only checked, so i can uncheck it when i don't want to kill it while listening to music. next time i want to kill music i just have to tap the checkbox, no dealing with the ignore list here...
Daniehabazin said:
that's not true, my phone gets so sluggish sometimes that i can't answer a phone call, the phone doesn't register that i press the answer button. and when that happends i usually have like 20 mb of free ram.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get this problem a lot, and in answer to fox meister, I don't have AppsToSD.
I don't know if the problem is RAM or CPU related, but the CPU often jumps to 100% when things are really slow.
Is the issue likely to be background apps, or widgets even?
Sausageman said:
I get this problem a lot, and in answer to fox meister, I don't have AppsToSD.
I don't know if the problem is RAM or CPU related, but the CPU often jumps to 100% when things are really slow.
Is the issue likely to be background apps, or widgets even?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me with the processor.
When i reboot my phone i usually have 90 mb of free ram, after starting a few applications, like browser and phonebook, it plummets down to 20 mb.
I do have some extra applications that starts as services, like systray monitor and 3g watchdog.
when i open atk after a fresh reboot i see that some applications that i don't even use is started, like footprints, settings and calendar, even my webrowser is started, whats up with that, can it be disabled?
I think the issue is that we have some applications that autostart withous us using them, and also programs that we download that autostarts as services and maybe having memory leaks...
I came to chime in with my experiences of the CDMA hero and sluggishness.
I watch memory like a hawk (thanks Mogul) and I too have around 80-90mb free ram on start, but it can get down to around 30 rather quickly. Once it gets down here, I notice that screen transitions and random lag occurs in apps. If I go into Advanced Task Killer and kill many of the stragglers, my menus are as smooth as can be.
It is most certainly NOT a placebo effect.
One thing I really like about Advanced Task Killer (pay version) is that it has the "Auto End" feature, where it will kill all apps not chosen to be excluded at the interval that you choose. For example, I have determined the system applications that need to be on all the time, and I've excluded those. Every hour, ATK kills everything else. For the most part, my Hero hovers around 70MB now at all times, although it can get down there to around 30-40MB if I'm right around the 1 hour mark.
That feature alone makes it much better than Taskiller IMO. Totally worth 99 cents
This definition would imply that android works exactly like the iphone osx? I mean saving "screenshots" of the last state of an app. But NOT having real multitasking?
Because it's not possible to have multitasking and at the same time "inactive" background apps everytime you hit the home button...
MercuryStar said:
I'll attempt to sum it up once and for all, to try and set the record straight.
In Android's virtual machine, there is no functional differentiation between "closing" an app and "switching away from" an app. They are the same (the exception is things like music players which need to keep playing after you switch away from them, but even then only the 'service' part needs to keep running).
Whenever you switch away from an app, its current state is remembered so that even if it is effectively "killed" it can be returned to in just that state next time it's opened. Then Android either kills the process or it keeps it open, killing it when it needs the memory. You won't notice any difference between either scenario, except maybe that an app loads a little bit faster if it was kept in memory. At any rate, "closed" apps do not "run", and they do not take RAM or CPU cycles from other apps.
In terms of process/memory management, Android's VM has more in common with a web browser than a desktop OS - sure it can remember your state when you switch apps (like switching tabs, going back/forward/home in a browser) but whether behind the scenes it loads it all into and out of memory when you switch back and forth, or it all stays in memory is irrelevant to the user. Nobody worries that a long forum page on another tab or in their back button history is occupying 80 megs in the background or not, the browser takes care of loading/unloading it from RAM as needed, and that's just like how Android's VM works when switching between various pages of various apps.
Once you understand this you understand that all these 'task killer' apps are really unnecessary - all they'll do is make it slower to restart an app once closed. They don't reclaim RAM that was previously unavailable to other apps.
To cut a long story short, pressing "home" is a great way to close an app, whether you want to return to it later or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Shahpur.Azizpour said:
This definition would imply that android works exactly like the iphone osx? I mean saving "screenshots" of the last state of an app. But NOT having real multitasking?
Because it's not possible to have multitasking and at the same time "inactive" background apps everytime you hit the home button...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, you've not understood the explanation.
The iPhone will always* terminate an application that isn't on its list of "approved" multi-tasking apps once it isn't active any more (i.e. you've switched tasks).
Android will try to keep whatever it can in memory, but eventually will start killing processes in order to keep the system running.
So, if you're on an iPhone listening to something on Spotify and you want to browse something on the web, the iPhone will "kill" Spotify when you switch to the web browser. On Android this won't occur except in the most critical of resource low situations, but then again, I'd imagine other apps would get killed before Spotify.
Read this article, specifically the section from "Component Lifecycles" onwards specifically "Activity Lifecycle", "Saving activity state" and "Processes and lifecycles".
Regards,
Dave
* Unless it has been jailbroken!
hi all, im an owner of a sam.charge. I use the app called "System" and it lists about a dozen apps that are stored in my cache or that are using memory when I have not innitiaited the service or app...
I'm most familiar with computers so I'll relate it to that; is there some type of command line that I can use to stop some of these apps from auto start and being stored. For instance on windows you can 'msconfig' what programs are allowed to start on boot up.
Here is a list of apps that I want to stop: AccuWeather.com, Android Booster, Google Voice, HeyTell, Amazon's Appstore, Market, Music, etc.
Most are cached/ inactive but none the less in my task manager when freeing up memory when I notice things to be lagging I'd imagine these to be guilty. Android Booster always lists these as killed apps as well when optimizing...
Im familiar somewhat with how android works being that it often fills a large portion of your memory with what it wants to and frees space as it is needed but these apps for me are rarely used...
Im big on battery life being Im in and out of Sales accounts and rely on my phone heavily so I dont want these things running in the background sucking up resources. Not to mention I like a snappy phone...
If anyone could educate me on this topic Id really appreciate it... I may be mistaken on a few things so call me out on it, since im sure I am... Also, I know their are app freezers and applications you can program to kill apps at a set interval but again I would like the least amount of garbage running as I can
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk
Some of the basic services are must to be initiated/running all the time such as launcher, keyboard, google voice, market, etc.. so as to run your phone smoothly . This is the default setting of android os. And anyway why do you want to close/stop the services case restarting services uses more battery than kepping them running on the memory ....
mlm2588 said:
hi all, im an owner of a sam.charge. I use the app called "System" and it lists about a dozen apps that are stored in my cache or that are using memory when I have not innitiaited the service or app...
I'm most familiar with computers so I'll relate it to that; is there some type of command line that I can use to stop some of these apps from auto start and being stored. For instance on windows you can 'msconfig' what programs are allowed to start on boot up.
Here is a list of apps that I want to stop: AccuWeather.com, Android Booster, Google Voice, HeyTell, Amazon's Appstore, Market, Music, etc.
Most are cached/ inactive but none the less in my task manager when freeing up memory when I notice things to be lagging I'd imagine these to be guilty. Android Booster always lists these as killed apps as well when optimizing...
Im familiar somewhat with how android works being that it often fills a large portion of your memory with what it wants to and frees space as it is needed but these apps for me are rarely used...
Im big on battery life being Im in and out of Sales accounts and rely on my phone heavily so I dont want these things running in the background sucking up resources. Not to mention I like a snappy phone...
If anyone could educate me on this topic Id really appreciate it... I may be mistaken on a few things so call me out on it, since im sure I am... Also, I know their are app freezers and applications you can program to kill apps at a set interval but again I would like the least amount of garbage running as I can
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you find apps that you don't use, you can use a program to freeze them. Just search for freeze in the market. I personally use a free app called System Tuner. Freezing prevent them from starting up and therefore you cannot use them, but later on you can un-freeze them if you need to.
Optimize toolbox
I use this one, had a bunch of other features.https://market.android.com/details?id=cn.opda.a.phonoalbumshoushou&feature=search_result
Thanks all for the feedback...
To reply to the first response; I have read that about battery life. That, the more you kill apps and reopen them that it takes longer for the app to start up and thus sucking up battery life... I probably should not have mentioned battery life in my post being that I have a car charger and that it contradicts what im trying to accomplish (going over my post, it was stupid of me given what you just mentioned). Also, I'm not so much concerned with market apps or google voice as I am about the apps I installed myself. Those ones are the ones that bother me.
To the other posts thanks for the recommendations I will like into those options. I'm just trying to prevent extra apps from running in the background so freezing them is a last resort.
I'm looking for something that I can type in terminal possibly on program into the OS or app itself to keep it from auto starting... possibly a command line?!
Any developers input? Can this even be done. I'm still very much a beginner but its not beyond my comprehension to do something like this... I know its different but I play around with linux, web design, c++ stuff so if you post directions I can follow smoothly our atleast figure it out if you point me in the right direction
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It's not exactly what your asking for but have you tried Gemini App Manager:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.seasmind.android.gmappmgr
You can use it to disable/re-enable an app's autorun settings. When you first open it it will list all user apps currently in memory. Clicking menu then expert mode will give you a list of all apps. Long press an app then click configure autorun.
Just be careful with changing the autorun settings of system apps like market.
"preventing apps from autostarting"
I like this topic a lot!
I think the question(s) and "assumptions" the OP holds are all valid. So I'd really like to hear the answer to the actual question, not a spew of why the question isn't valid.
How do you stop apps from starting up on their own? (like microsofts msconfig)
Pretty simple question and I cannot find the answer! I've been in software for many year and I'm rather stunned by the responses people are giving - which basically say "who cares, android O/S handles it for you".
Well, lets face it:
*If* the user didn't call for the app, and had no desire to use it, then the "system" loading it even ONCE, is one too many.
*If* the app is a DESIRED app, (OR device required), *BUT* uses data - then if the user didn't want to use it; "yet" - then thats DATA & BATTERY life --> **WASTED**
If the user suspects the APP is misbehaving; one sure fire way would be to SEE it running, when they didn't ask it to!
If you are pure paranoid, or simply want extreme app control....
The kinds of answers people are giving is truly along the the lines of "we dont know, but you're silly for caring"
SOYLENT GREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:cyclops:
jr67 said:
It's not exactly what your asking for but have you tried Gemini App Manager:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.seasmind.android.gmappmgr
You can use it to disable/re-enable an app's autorun settings. When you first open it it will list all user apps currently in memory. Clicking menu then expert mode will give you a list of all apps. Long press an app then click configure autorun.
Just be careful with changing the autorun settings of system apps like market.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm going to test this out too! And I'll post success if it does well!!!
Hi,
I notice in the Developer Options there is a box that says "Do not keep activities - destroy every activity as soon as the user leaves it"
Does that mean if I open an app and as soon as I leave it, it actually closes that app and I wouldn't see it in the task manager to manually kill it? If so, isn't this a good thing to keep the RAM usuage low?
Also, should we clear RAM every now and then? Where is the place to clear RAM anyway?
Bump
Depends if it kills system processes or not, you wouldn't want it to kill the SMS client after you send a text message, or kill the clock after you set an alarm, etc.
No it's not a good thing.
Keeping the RAM _free_ is never a good thing since it means the caching system cannot help you accelerate usage.
Low memory usage NEVER means faster phone or more available memory. It only means the owner doesn't understand how Caching works.
Do you want to see a loading screen every time you push the home button?
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Text messages will operate in a background process.
This option might be useful against apps that use lots of activities. Or apps that don't handle their activities really well.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
This option is useful only for developers who want to test how their applications handle low memory situations. Don't enable it on your daily driver phone.
Hi there ! Today my simple question is how to increase battery life of android mobile ! Please tell me some tips cause I'm tired ?
use a taskkiller to Close unused apps!
mflapp said:
use a taskkiller to Close unused apps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never use a task killer
Hit Thanks if that was helpful
- Turn off all unnecessary connections. That includes GPS, NFC, Locationservices, Sync, etc. That alone will save you days.
- Turn off WiFi when you're not using it.
- Greenify all apps before you turn the screen off. Android keeps apps running in the background for quick access, but it eats battery. Yes, greenifying them will mean they take a second longer to open, but it'll save battery life.
- Turn down the brightness. Use LUX to go below 0%. (Which doesn't actually mean the screen turns off.)
- Disable or delete all bloatware, or as much as you can.
- Using a MicroSD? Drop a .nomedia file in every folder that doesn't need to show up in a mediaplayer. (pdf's, comics, etc). You can still open the files through a filemanager, but MediaScanner/Indexingservice won't freeze on them.
- Turn off all unnecessary sensors. Especially if you're using a Samsung, those have quite a lot of sensors.
Is there a way to get NOTHING running in the background?
Maybe you should remove bloatwares using titanium backup im doing this on my galaxy note before. Even on my s2
Sent from my GT-N7000 using XDA Free mobile app
You should download du battery saver from playstore
X3RATH said:
Is there a way to get NOTHING running in the background?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Developers options > Limit Background Processes > "No Background Processes".
Remember that this means that if you're writing an email, and you open the browser, the email is gone. If you're listening to music, that's it, you can't do anything else or the music app shuts down.
There is absolutely no need to use task killers or anything like that on an Android. Android is designed to run with apps cached for quick opening of them. And designed to run on little free memory.
As long as apps "behave", it will not affect your battery having them running in background. If the odd app does seem to cause trouble, try using Greenify to hibernate such apps.
Having no apps running will definitely cause more drain for you, as it takes more cpu power to initialize them every time you open them, or the system does. Hence why task killers do more harm than good. :good:
If you have battery issues, it's likely poor reception on data, an inefficient setup or app wakelocks. Use GSAM to see about that.
My background apps are killed way too often. Is it possible to change that behaviour? Even music apps are killed while I'm playing music.
I have tried several custom roms and kernels but nothing seems to change the settings. Is either able to change RAM management settings?
I have also tried several apps that claim to be able to change RAM management settings without success.
Disabling battery optimisation doesn't help.
I have uninstalled unused apps and disabled autostart (boot completed receiver) for non-essential apps to reduce RAM usage.
When I use a RAM monitor it will show RAM usage at ~75% when apps are killed.
My old phone (Note 4) only had 3 GB ram but could still keep more apps in memory.
I don't have that problem.
Have you tried Greenify or similar app to hibernate unwanted apps running in the background? They will only open then when being used and will automatically hibernate again when closed.
ChazzMatt said:
I don't have that problem.
Have you tried Greenify or similar app to hibernate unwanted apps running in the background? They will only open then when being used and will automatically hibernate again when closed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the reverse of what I'm looking for. I want the apps in the background to keep running.
Telorast said:
That's the reverse of what I'm looking for. I want the apps in the background to keep running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you misunderstood what I wrote. Read it again.
It's exactly what you want, because then apps you don't want running won't take up your RAM and kick off the apps that you do want running. Like your flashlight app should NOT be running the background all the time. One example. Lots of devs think their apps are most important and should always run in the background, so when you "launch" them they are there instantly.
Like I said, I don't have your issue. My apps I WANT running stay running.
If you hibernate the UN-wanted apps, that will give more freedom to apps you DO want running in the background.
There are other apps besides Greenify which may do that task even better, it's just the most well known. It shows you complete list if apps running in the background and you can choose which you WANT to run and which you want to stay killed until you choose to activate them. Those apps will be forced hibernated from then on -- until you manually activate them. When you close them, they will STAY closed and not run in the background sucking up your RAM. It also allows you to go through your entire inventory and decide yes/no. For instance, weather widget, email, yes. Benchmarking app, NO.
Worth a try. Installed Greenify and added most apps with ignore background-free.
Telorast said:
Worth a try. Installed Greenify and added most apps with ignore background-free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I even hibernate alleged background free apps, just in case.
ChazzMatt said:
Lots of devs think their apps are most important and should always run in the background, so when you "launch" them they are there instantly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VERY TRUE!
This always infuriated me, not just on phones, PCs too, all the way back to the DOS days. An obsession with running in the background, as if it's particularly clever. :cyclops:
I've also found that turning off battery optimization for apps I don't want killed helps. I've had the same experience with music and podcast apps getting killed in the background and turning off their battery optimization usually fixes it.
There are some simple things to try that do not require any special apk's. One is to look in the apps section of the "Developer options" sub-menu. The default settings work well in most instances. Perhaps you accidently enabled closing of apps when a background limit has been reached or have ticked force closure of apps on exit.
Another place to look is in the "Power saving exclusions" sub-menu in the Battery settings. Music makes some boring forms of exercise less tiresome and provides additional motivation for activities that are challenging but fun (mountain biking). The music should not stop, but it might for default settings. Enabling a power saving exclusion for your music app will keep it running.
ChazzMatt said:
Then you misunderstood what I wrote. Read it again.
It's exactly what you want, because then apps you don't want running won't take up your RAM and kick off the apps that you do want running. Like your flashlight app should NOT be running the background all the time. One example. Lots of devs think their apps are most important and should always run in the background, so when you "launch" them they are there instantly.
Like I said, I don't have your issue. My apps I WANT running stay running.
If you hibernate the UN-wanted apps, that will give more freedom to apps you DO want running in the background.
There are other apps besides Greenify which may do that task even better, it's just the most well known. It shows you complete list if apps running in the background and you can choose which you WANT to run and which you want to stay killed until you choose to activate them. Those apps will be forced hibernated from then on -- until you manually activate them. When you close them, they will STAY closed and not run in the background sucking up your RAM. It also allows you to go through your entire inventory and decide yes/no. For instance, weather widget, email, yes. Benchmarking app, NO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been using Greenify for a bit now and doesn't seem to help much. It shows a bunch of hibernated apps but multitasking is still nearly impossible.
I had assumed the problem was related to the Mem Free settings rather than actual free memory but no one here has mentioned it. Is that because no one else thinks it's the problem or maybe I have misunderstood what those settings do?
I thought apps were free to use as much memory as they want until certain thresholds on total memory usage were met, then the system would ask or force apps to release memory.
Apps that let you edit those settings usually shows several thresholds where the system gets progressively more aggressive at freeing memory as memory is running out. But they all look hopelessly out of date so maybe it works completely differently today?