Task Manager

[#1]

Hi,

I have seen in almost all android phones (Samsung, HTC), the task manager is included by default.

However, in my Xperia Mini, there is no task manager provided (In Gingerbread as well as in Ice-Cream Sandwich).

I would like to know from Super Users/Experienced Users the following:

• Is it necessary to have a task manager in an android phone? Or the OS can take care of the memory by itself.
• If you people use third party task manager, which software do you use? Is it recommended to use the task manager?

Thanks.

[FrontierGate]

Those task managers, from Samsung, HTC, are basically task killer app.

There is no consensus on this topic.  It is up to you ...

[m4dj]

Using task manager to kill applications and freeing RAM is useless as the Android OS know how to manage thoose resources. So you dont have to free any RAM. As the data resides in RAM , phone response and application usage will be faster. If come to RAM shortage, system know what process to kill (the processes that are not in use).  there is also an option to set how many background processes you allow (this is in the developer menu) but I tested it and its better to leave the default value.

I had task manager but its not so usefull and my phone was nothing faster with killing some applications ....

[Glorifyday]

If you use ICS, you have a task manager.

Just press and hold the "home" button until you see the list of active processes. Then you can kill processes by tapping them and swiping left or right.

Similarily as m4dj, I am not sure, however, if this is more effective than letting the system decide (I used task killers under Android 2.1 on LG GT540 and it did help sometimes). Just try for yourself.