I’m new to the iPhone 15 and can’t figure out how to close apps running in the background. Could someone explain the steps?
Alright, rookie move—I get it, iPhone 15 is all shiny and new. Closing apps? Pfffff. It’s ridiculously simple, but also unnecessarily overdramatized by Apple users everywhere. Here’s the deal:
- Swipe up from the bottom of your screen and pause in the middle. Yeah, pause like you’re dramatically staring into the abyss for meaning.
- Boom, the App Switcher appears like magic, showing all those apps sucking your battery life and slowing your phone down for zero reason.
- Got an app you hate right now? Swipe it up and off the screen with just enough aggression to make yourself feel better. It’s gone, poof, deleted from your current view—well, not really, it’s just shut off.
Why Apple makes this a swipe-and-pause dance I’ll never understand. Also, don’t believe the myths about closing apps saving battery life. Mythbusters, tech nerds, your grandma—everyone’s proven it’s sorta pointless most of the time. You’re welcome.
You don’t need to close apps on the iPhone 15 all the time—let’s just get that straight. Apple’s iOS actually manages background apps pretty efficiently, so unless an app’s frozen or acting weird, you can usually leave them be. But hey, if you must swipe them into oblivion, here’s another perspective (since @mike34 already nailed the play-by-play):
While swiping up and pausing in the middle of the screen does bring up your App Switcher to manually flick apps off into the void, it’s worth noting that Apple intentionally designed this whole thing to discourage obsessive app-closing. Why? Because repeatedly clearing and reopening apps can sometimes use more battery than leaving them “paused” in the background. Yeah, I know—completely backwards from what you’d assume.
So unless your phone’s overheating because Candy Crush decided to throw a tantrum, maybe reconsider the need to perform this swipe-clearing ritual every 10 minutes. Still, the process is oddly satisfying, isn’t it? Like Marie Kondo-ing your digital life—“This app doesn’t spark joy!” Swipe!
Oh, and a small caveat: apps like navigation or music do keep running, but they’re the rare exceptions. If you suspect something’s off: 1. Try force-closing that one culprit (by flicking it away in the App Switcher as noted) and 2. Just breathe. Phone drama doesn’t always need dramatic gestures.
Alright, look, while both @himmelsjager and @mike34 made fair points (with a dash of sass, let’s be real), let’s bring some clarity to the table. Sure, you’ve got the swipe-up-and-pause routine for accessing the App Switcher—it’s not rocket science. But if we’re going to nitpick here, there’s one thing these guys didn’t emphasize enough: the why behind closing apps.
The Pros of Closing Apps
- Fix buggy apps – Sometimes, apps freeze or act weird. Closing them forces a reset when you reopen, which is a classic “turn it off and back on” trick at its core.
- Free up some system resources – If you’re running performance-heavy apps like video editors or 3D games, you might actually feel an improvement by ditching idle apps clogging up the memory.
…and the Cons
- More battery drain – Like @himmelsjager said, constantly reopening apps instead of leaving them paused in the background can use more juice. Why? Apple’s iOS freezes inactive apps in the background, consuming minimal power. Your phone’s better at managing this than you are.
- It’s pointless for most cases – Realistically, unless something’s drastically wrong, you don’t need to go full app-purge mode every few hours. You’re likely wasting your time hunting for “phantom battery suckers.”
What They Didn’t Say
Here’s a trick: if you’re experiencing lag but don’t want to physically swipe apps away one by one, just restart your iPhone 15 altogether. Long-press the power and volume-up button > Slide to power off > Wait a few seconds > Turn it back on. Bingo! All apps refreshed, and you didn’t even have to open the App Switcher.
Oh, and force-closing apps? That’s a different game. If swiping does nothing, you might need to hold down on the app in App Switcher to trigger the full force-close. That’s the big guns you can save for uncooperative apps like a crashing Instagram or Spotify meltdown mid-playlist.
Alternatives to iOS Management: What’s the Competition Got?
You ever used Android before? Their background app management philosophy leans pretty hard into “let us handle it” as well. But the layout and app-closing interface often vary depending on the skin. Samsung’s One UI, for instance, makes it super streamlined to find and shut down your apps—but even there, over-closing isn’t really necessary.
In conclusion, swipe up on your iPhone 15 if it makes you happy, but leave the drama behind. It’s a smartphone, not an ordeal. And hey, if Candy Crush does spark joy after all, maybe just stop playing mid-round instead of banishing it to app limbo.