How to Close Apps on the Galaxy S9

Here’s how to force close apps on the Galaxy S9 or the Galaxy S9+. This is helpful if your phone is running slow, an app is frozen, or you’re just having other problems.

There are a lot of different reasons you might want to close running apps on your Galaxy S9. And while you don’t need to close apps to save battery life, it can help if something is draining your battery. Most users simply close apps to improve performance, out of habit, or to save battery.

Read: 20 Best Galaxy S9 Cases

It’s really easy to close apps on the Galaxy S9, and you can do it two different ways. This beginners guide will show you both. Check out our quick hands-on video below, or continue reading for the full instructions.

How to Close Apps on the Galaxy S9

• Tap the Recent Apps key, which is left of the home button on your screen (shown above)
• Scroll up or down to see what’s running and open
• Swipe from the left or right to close apps
• Swipe it off the screen to close it
• This will clear the app

Before we continue, we want to mention that most of the time you shouldn’t have to do this. If you have a habit of closing all running apps multiple times throughout the day, you’re probably causing more harm than good.

That said, it is a good idea to close bigger apps like Facebook, Google Maps or battery intensive games. If you’re playing PUBG, close it when you’re done. Some apps like web browsers will resume where you left off the next time it’s opened, even if you force close them.

How to Force Close ALL Running Apps on Galaxy S9

Additionally, you can force shut down or close all running apps at the same time. This is good to do right before bed, when walking into work, or to improve performance for a fresh start to the day.

Simply follow the same instructions as above. You tap the recent apps button, but instead of swiping on an app, select the big “Close All” button at the bottom of your screen. You’ll see an animation as all the apps disappear from your device.

That’s it and we’re all done. In closing, we recommend leaving apps like Phone, Messages (or text apps) and the browser open. Anything you use frequently throughout the day. Otherwise, the phone has to re-open those apps each time you get a message or interact with them, which actually hurts battery life.

Just know that you shouldn’t have to close apps often, if at all, on the Galaxy S9. Then, if you have the bigger Galaxy S9+ you have 6GB of RAM so the phone can multitask even better. Meaning it can have plenty of apps open in the background without performance taking a hit. Before you go, take a peek at these 9 best Galaxy S9+ screen protectors.