How to Close Apps on the LG G5

The LG G5 is one of the newest Android smartphones on the market and has plenty to offer. Now that the April 1st release date has passed and users are buying it, we’re getting a lot of questions. Here we’ll be explaining how to close running apps on the LG G5.

LG’s new smartphone has everything from a big and bright 5.3-inch display, three cameras, a powerful quad-core processor, and is made out of aluminum. It’s a powerful phone that can run two apps at the same time, take 4k video and more. Eventually though, users may want to close some of the running apps.

Read: How to Take a Screenshot on the LG G5

A task as simple as closing unused apps may seem normal and a daily operation for many, but the first time smartphone owner or iPhone converts will want to learn how and when to do this on the LG G5.. Below are a few screenshots and the easy instructions for those curious.

Drop a finger on the scanner around back, turn on the LG G5 and start using some of the latest apps and games with that powerful Snapdragon 820 processor and 4GB of RAM. It can multi-task as good as any smartphone on the planet, and eventually some users will have a lot of apps running in the background, which could hurt battery life.

Typically, on Android, the idea is to let the operating system manage apps itself, not the user. Add in 4GB of RAM and the phone shouldn’t have any problems running any and all apps. That said, there are still occasional moments when a user may want to clear apps from memory that aren’t being used.

Google’s Android OS does an excellent job managing apps and multi-tasking by putting apps in a low-power sleep state ready to be called into action when needed, and saving battery the rest of the time. It does this even more aggressively on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with a feature called Doze. So usually, we won’t need to clear anything. However, here’s how to do it anyways.

Instructions

Clearing apps out of memory or the multi-tasking menu on the LG G5 is very fast and easy. Here’s how.

Owners can start by tapping the square on-screen button on the bottom right of the display. This is the multi-tasking menu key that brings up all currently used and running apps. As an example, switching from Gmail to YouTube, then to the browser, and back to Gmail is extremely fast and efficient with this button. This is also where we can swipe and clear apps, and even all apps, but we wouldn’t recommend doing the latter.

When you tap the key it will show all running apps, as previewed above. Clearing the SMS text app only means it will need to restart on your next incoming our outgoing message, wasting battery and CPU cycles, and the same applies to the Phone or Browser. So typically don’t clear those, and don’t hit “Clear All”. Users who clear all will have a lot of apps re-opening next time they’re needed, draining battery life.

Letting Android 6.0 Marshmallow keep these all in a deep sleep state is the best route, and only close large apps.

So how do we close apps? In the photo above you’ll notice the Google Play Store off to the side. A simple swipe will close and clear it, and any app the user chooses to swipe away and close. Any saved progress or website you may be on will have to reload next time you use that specific application.

LG has a “clear all” button on the bottom which will wipe out every app currently in the system memory. A good time for this may be while at work, or at night. Any other time it isn’t worth it and will likely cause lower battery life in the end.

Again, with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow the operating system does a great job sleeping apps that are running. Not to mention Android N, which is coming this summer, will put apps to sleep even faster, for even better battery life and improved performance.

Read: 13 Official LG G5 Accessories

All said and done, only close big apps you won’t be needing for a while, or battery hogs. Something like YouTube, Google Maps (navigation) or even Netflix. As they can be killed to preserve battery life. Other than that, let Google’s operating system do all the heavy lifting and managing. While you’re here, check out these Top 10 Settings to Change on the LG G5.