How to Close iPhone Apps: What You Need to Know
Closing iPhone apps sounds simple — and mostly, it is. But there's more nuance to when and why you'd want to do it than most people realize. Whether you're dealing with a frozen app, trying to refresh something, or just tidying up your app switcher, here's exactly how it works.
How to Close Apps on iPhone (Step by Step)
The method depends on which iPhone model you're using.
iPhones with Face ID (iPhone X and Later)
- Swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause in the middle — this opens the App Switcher.
- You'll see cards representing your recently used apps.
- Swipe a card upward to close that app.
- You can swipe multiple cards at once using multiple fingers.
iPhones with a Home Button (iPhone 8 and Earlier)
- Double-press the Home button to open the App Switcher.
- Swipe through the app cards to find the one you want to close.
- Swipe the card upward to dismiss it.
That's the full mechanical process. But knowing how is only part of the picture.
Does Closing iPhone Apps Actually Help Performance? 🤔
This is where a lot of people have been operating on a myth for years.
iOS is designed to manage background apps automatically. When an app isn't in use, the system suspends it — meaning it sits in memory but uses virtually no CPU or battery. It's essentially frozen in place, ready to pick up where you left off.
Closing apps and reopening them from scratch actually requires more CPU effort than resuming a suspended one. So routinely swiping away every app in your switcher generally doesn't improve performance or extend battery life — and in some cases, it does the opposite.
Apple has publicly confirmed this behavior, and it's been consistent across iOS for years.
Where force-closing genuinely helps:
- An app has frozen or stopped responding
- An app is behaving unexpectedly and a fresh launch fixes it
- You want to force a fresh data refresh (e.g., a weather or news app)
- An app appears to be draining battery unusually in the background (you can verify this in Settings → Battery)
Background App Refresh: The Related Setting Worth Knowing
Even with apps technically suspended, some are allowed to refresh content in the background — fetching new emails, updating location data, syncing files. This feature is called Background App Refresh, and it does have a real effect on battery and data usage.
You can control it at: Settings → General → Background App Refresh
You can turn it off globally or selectively per app. This is a more targeted tool than force-closing apps if background activity is a genuine concern for you.
When Your iPhone Feels Slow: What's Actually Going On
If your iPhone feels sluggish, the cause is rarely too many apps sitting in the switcher. More likely culprits include:
| Potential Cause | Where to Check |
|---|---|
| Low available storage | Settings → General → iPhone Storage |
| Outdated iOS version | Settings → General → Software Update |
| Battery health degradation | Settings → Battery → Battery Health |
| A specific misbehaving app | Settings → Battery (per-app usage) |
| RAM pressure from heavy apps | Closing active heavy apps can help here |
Addressing these factors tends to have a more meaningful effect on day-to-day performance than app-closing habits.
Force-Closing vs. Quitting: They're the Same Thing
Some users wonder if there's a difference between "force closing" and just closing an app. On iPhone, swiping an app card away in the App Switcher is the only way to fully close an app — there's no separate "force quit" dialog like you'd find on a Mac or PC. Both terms refer to the same action.
If an app is completely unresponsive and you can't get to the App Switcher at all, a restart of the iPhone will close everything and clear memory:
- Face ID iPhones: Press and hold a volume button + the side button, then slide to power off.
- Home button iPhones: Press and hold the side (or top) button, then slide to power off.
The Variables That Make This Different for Different Users 📱
How much any of this matters to you depends on factors that vary from one person to the next:
iPhone model and iOS version — Newer hardware handles multitasking more efficiently. An iPhone 15 manages background apps very differently than an iPhone 8 with aging battery health.
Which apps you use — Navigation apps, video streaming, and certain fitness apps behave very differently in the background compared to a notes or calculator app. Some genuinely use resources; most don't.
Battery health — An iPhone with significantly degraded battery capacity is more sensitive to any kind of CPU or background activity. What's negligible on a healthy battery might matter more on an older device.
Your usage patterns — Someone who opens 30 apps a day and leaves them all in the switcher indefinitely has a different situation than someone using three apps repeatedly throughout the day.
Personal preference — Some people simply prefer a clean app switcher. That's a completely valid reason to close apps, even if the performance benefit is minimal.
Understanding how iOS actually manages apps puts you in a better position to decide what habits make sense — but the right answer for your device, your battery, and the apps you rely on most is something only your own setup can tell you.