I was perusing Androidforums.com today for some software tips and stumbled on a few threads that maintained there was no reason to use a task killer with Android. These posters maintained that the OS was efficient enough to shut down programs that weren’t necessary and manage memory without a 3rd party intervention.
When I bought my Droid, every Verizon employee told me to install “Advanced Task Killer”, so I’ve been running it since I bought the phone. I’ve also been incredibly frustrated with my non-Gmail email, as the built-in email program simply wasn’t notifying me of messages. It got to the point where I downloaded K9 Mail, another mail app, but it was awfully buggy. The default app was more stable, and looked better in my opinion; it just wouldn’t check my mail at preset intervals!
Apparently, my downloading “Advanced Task killer” and the email issue were related. As per a post in the Droid forums, I uninstalled ATK, and now my emails are flowing in from the default program with no issues. Also, my “window shade” notification menu flows a lot smoother. Otherwise, I haven’t noticed a difference in performance, and I’ve had the usual complement of GTalk messages, emails, texts, music playing, etc all running.
I don’t pretend to be an expert in the Linux underpinnings of Android, and I still think I am quite the newbie at the Android OS. But this tip has saved me some serious email related frustration, and I’m starting to realize this is probably why Astrid (a to-do program) was also flaky at notifying me of missed tasks. I plan to track my battery over the next few days, and if anything seems unusual or out of the ordinary I will definitely update here!
Do you use a task killer on your Android phone? Is it really necessary, or is it a holdover from those of us who have used Windows Mobile? Share your thoughts below!