The Myth About Closing Your Apps To Save Battery Just Got Busted Wide Open

You've been swiping them all away for years. Here's the twist.

There's a certain satisfaction in swiping every app off the screen like you're tidying a messy desk. But the belief that this frees up battery and speeds things up is one of the stickiest tech myths going.

Phones are built to park unused apps in a frozen standby state that sips almost nothing. Fully closing them means the phone has to cold-start everything from scratch next time, which can actually use more power.

The apps worth checking are the handful running location or refreshing in the background. Your settings will show you exactly which ones are the real battery hogs.

So relax the swiping. Leave your recent apps alone, trim the background permissions instead, and you'll get more mileage with less effort.