If you're like us, you've trained yourself to quit or close all of your phone's apps that aren't in use in order to conserve your phone's battery life. Well, it turns out, you're actually draining your battery by doing this. Here's why:
The act of closing the app is using up a considerable amount of your battery life, according to former Apple technician and Martiancraft CEO Kyle Richter.
"Force-quitting suspended apps will under most circumstances drain your battery faster than simply waiting for the user to return," Richter explained in this blog post.
The iPhone was designed to put apps not in use in a "suspended" state so that they don't use the battery, processor, or network time when you're not actively using them.
And quitting the apps that you use all the time is even harder on your battery. "The very process of quitting an app will use up a measurable amount of battery life. This is doubly true for any app that you are frequently launching and using," Richter explained.
Even Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, stated that he doesn't exit out of apps to save battery life, according to this email exchange he had with an Apple fan.
There are only a few circumstances where it's actually beneficial to close apps. One: When an app plays audio, and two: when an app uses your location in the background. This will preserve your phone's battery life, but most apps don't perform these tasks, Richter said. And of course, you should always quit an app when it's frozen or misbehaving.
