How to Close Apps on the Samsung Galaxy Note 5

This easy guide will explain how to close or clear running apps on the new Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus. Samsung’s two new phones are among the best smartphones released in 2015, and come with big stunning 5.7-inch Quad-HD screens and tons of features. The Note 5 is actually one of the most powerful phones available today with an 8-core processor and 4GB of RAM. You can even run two apps on the screen at the same time.

Doing something as easy as closing unused apps may seem so general and simple for average users, but if the fancy aluminum design of the new Note 5 has Windows Phone or iPhone people switching to Android, users will need to know how to perform such a task on their Note 5 device.

Read: How to Reset a Frozen Galaxy Note 5

Now that millions of buyers are getting the Note 5 after it launched last week, we’ve been getting a lot of question, and this is one of them. Closing and clearing apps on the Galaxy Note 5 to improve performance and battery life is easier than you’d think, and right in plain sight. Read on for the quick instructions.

In general, or what we’d call the “rule of thumb” when it comes to Android is to let the operating system manage your memory, rather than users cleaning and closing apps manually themselves. The Note 5 has 4GB of fast RAM too, so multi-tasking shouldn’t be an issue even with tons of apps open. That said, there are still times a user may want to clear apps from memory that aren’t being used.

Android 5.1.1 Lollipop does an excellent job managing apps and multi-tasking unlike any other operating system by putting apps in a low-power state in the recent apps menu, ready to be opened when needed, and saving battery the rest of the time. Users can swap between apps with ease using the touch of a button, and it works great. If you still want to close apps yourself, here’s how.

Instructions

Removing or closing apps out of memory or the recent apps menu on the Galaxy Note 5 is actually extremely easy, but may be different from a Galaxy S3 or older devices if you went to iPhone and now came back to Android. Older Samsung devices required a long press of the dedicated home button to bring up this menu, but that’s no longer how it’s done. Now there’s a dedicated multi-tasking capacitive button to the left of your main home key, and this is where you start.

Simply tap the overlapping rectangle-like button to the left of the dedicated hardware home button. This is the multi-tasking menu key that brings up all currently open or running apps. For those that didn’t know, switching from Gmail to YouTube, then to the browser, and back to Gmail is extremely fast and efficient with this button. However, this is also where a quick swipe will close and kill apps.

The image above shows the slightly redesigned look of this menu on Samsung devices. There’s no more options or task manages of old. Simply a Rolodex-style card view of all currently running apps, and one big “Close All” button on the bottom. You have two choices here.

A simple swipe of your finger on each box will swipe them away, and instantly close the app. Any saved progress or website you may be on will have to reload next time you use that specific application. Or start-over completely and lose wherever you were. The image above shows the menu, and me swiping to clear something (right side). That’s it, you’re all done. It is that simple to clear and close apps on the Galaxy Note 5.

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It’s a good idea to leave things like phone, messages, or even the browser in here, especially if you use these often. Clearing the SMS text app only means it will need to restart on your next incoming message, wasting battery and CPU cycles. This same rule applies to all apps, so only close the ones you won’t be needing anymore. Big intensive apps like Maps, Navigation, or games.

As we said above, users have a second option which is very clear, and that is the “Close All” button on the bottom of the display. This will completely close all open, running, or apps waiting to be re-opened. This means websites will be lost, a text will be erased, that video in YouTube you were on and more will all wipe away. There’s nothing wrong with that, it just needs to be said.

Typically we don’t recommend hitting the close all button for the reasons described above, as your device will just have to restart them for the next message or app you open, wasting more time and battery life. That said, if a user is at work and won’t be using the Note 5, headed to bed, or just wants a clean slate go ahead and hit Close All and you’ll see a nice animation as they all disappear, and a “No recently used apps” message will appear next time you tap this button.

Again, only close what’s necessary, which is why we’d recommend users just swipe away single apps one at a time they won’t be needing anymore, and leave everything else running in the background. Android 5.1 Lollipop will do the rest of the work, and keep the Galaxy Note 5 operating as smoothly and fast as possible.