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How to Close Apps on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3

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The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 smartphone is one of Samsung’s most powerful devices. One that is capable of providing some of the best game and app experiences on Android, truly impressive multi-tasking with two apps on the screen at a time, drawing with the S-Pen and more.

However, even with 3GB of RAM and a blazing fast quad-core processor, there’s still moments when closing unused or unnecessary apps from wasting space, power, and battery are useful. While this may sound like a simple task for the majority of Android owners, many newcomers to that beautiful 5.7-inch display and the Note 3 may not know. Surprisingly we get asked this question a lot, so below is how to close running apps on the Galaxy Note 3.

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By default the Android operating system does an excellent job at multi-tasking, and preserving battery life while keeping apps open. Although the general Android rule of thumb is to let the operating system manage your memory, not to mention Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 has 3GB of RAM, there’s still times a user may want to clear open apps from running.

Closing apps manually on the Galaxy Note 3 is extremely simple. So easy in fact, that many users may not even realize the feature was right in front of them. Unlike the iPhone you don’t need to tap “exit” or “close app” and instead just manage them when needed.

Read: 25 Hidden Galaxy Note 3 Features

Whether you want to close Google Maps from wasting battery or data with navigation, or other apps like a graphics intensive game, below are the few steps you’ll need to take.

Instructions

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has a dedicated rectangle home button on the bottom front of the device, and you’ll want to long press that home key. From here the multi-tasking and running apps menu popup will appear. This is a great way to go from YouTube to Facebook and back with ease, but this is also where you kill and close running apps.

The set of buttons on the bottom of the display actually slightly varies from carrier to carrier in the US, but they all do the same thing. After long-pressing home you’ll see either icons, or Task Manager, Google (Now), and Close all apps. Most carriers just have icons, but some will actually say each thing above. The “X” symbol on the far left is close all, and one tap will kill every current app that’s running.

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That’s all there is to it. You simply tap the X buttons shown above and all the apps running on the Galaxy Note 3 will close. However, this isn’t the recommended or best route, as things like SMS or the Browser, if used often, will have to take more battery to restart the next time you check a message or open a webpage.

So, instead of killing everything, it’s in your best interest to only close apps you won’t be using for the foreseeable future in the day. Closing one app you won’t use again for the day like Google Maps, Netflix, Google Music after a day of streaming music at work, or whatever else, is just the slide of your finger away.

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After long-pressing the home button as detailed above, the image and tile preview of all the apps is ready to be interacted with. Rather than tapping close all simply slide away the tile for each app you’d like to close. A neat fading animation will fade the app away as you swipe to remove each one. This fully closes the app, and you’re done.

Again, Android handles multitasking extremely well and efficiently, so only close apps you’re truly worried about. Something like your banking app, Netflix, or navigation. Some users opt to close all before heading to bed, or if they’ll be at work all day without using the device, but it’s all up to you.

Go ahead and give it a try now, but remember to use this wisely otherwise the phone will only waste battery opening apps you’ve probably closed moments earlier.

Read: How to Use Galaxy Note 3 as a Personal Hotspot

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. lenni

    10/23/2014 at 12:56 pm

    Wow that was easy, thanks a bunch for the clear instructions on closing some windows, I am new to the samsung note 3 and I’m not quite clear on all the great stuff that this note has to offer, I have not mastered how to do a printout yet, and I do not think that I need all the perks. However I will keep working on improving my knowledge, my great-grandchildren thinks its great that i have the note 3

  2. Alexander Kowalczyk

    07/21/2016 at 6:32 am

    Why the heck does the author say, “Unlike the iPhone you don’t need to tap “exit” or “close app” and instead just manage them when needed?” There is no “exit” button or “close app” button on the iPhone. Apps are managed by memory and most users should go about their day opening apps and then pushing the home button to suspend the app in memory until it is called upon again. As the phone runs out of memory, it automatically closes apps that were least used. The only time an app needs to be force closed is if it’s misbehaving or you want to relaunch it from scratch. This is accomplished by double tapping the home button, and swiping up on the app. I was looking up how to close apps for an Android user and your article referencing iPhone’s is just BS.

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