How to Close Apps on iPhone 13: What You Need to Know
Closing apps on iPhone 13 is one of those tasks that looks simple on the surface but has more nuance than most people realize. Whether you're troubleshooting a frozen app, trying to free up resources, or just tidying up your app switcher, understanding how and when to close apps makes a real difference in how you use your phone.
How to Close Apps on iPhone 13: The Basic Steps
The iPhone 13 uses Face ID and gesture-based navigation — there's no Home button like older models. Here's how to close apps:
- Swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen and pause slightly in the middle. This opens the App Switcher, which shows all your recently used apps as cards.
- Swipe left or right to browse through the open app cards.
- Swipe up on any app card to close it. The card will fly off the top of the screen, indicating it's been dismissed.
That's the core gesture. You can close multiple apps at once by using multiple fingers to swipe up several cards simultaneously.
What "Closing" an App Actually Does on iOS
Here's where things get interesting — and where a lot of iPhone users have misconceptions. 📱
When you close an app on iPhone 13, you're removing it from the App Switcher, but iOS had likely already suspended that app in the background anyway. Apple's iOS uses a sophisticated memory management system that automatically pauses background apps when they're not actively in use and prioritizes resources for whatever you're currently doing.
What this means practically:
- A suspended app is not using your CPU or draining your battery
- iOS can "snapshot" an app's state so it reopens exactly where you left it
- Closing and reopening an app can sometimes increase battery usage temporarily, because the app has to fully reload rather than resume from memory
This is fundamentally different from how desktop computers or even Android handles multitasking in some configurations, so habits from other devices don't always translate directly.
When Closing Apps on iPhone 13 Actually Makes Sense
Given the above, there are specific scenarios where manually closing apps is genuinely useful:
App is frozen or unresponsive If an app stops responding to taps, swipe it away in the App Switcher and relaunch it. This forces a fresh start and clears whatever process got stuck.
App is behaving incorrectly If an app is showing outdated information, displaying a bug, or not functioning as expected, a force-close and relaunch can fix it.
Privacy or security reasons If you were using a banking app, a work app, or anything sensitive and you're handing your phone to someone else, closing the app removes it from the visual App Switcher.
Background refresh issues A small number of apps continue active background processes even in a suspended state — navigation apps, music players, and apps using Background App Refresh may still consume resources. In these cases, closing them manually gives you direct control.
Variables That Affect Whether You Should Close Apps Regularly
The right approach depends on several factors unique to your setup:
| Variable | How It Affects the Decision |
|---|---|
| iPhone 13 model | Mini, standard, Pro, and Pro Max have different RAM capacities, affecting how many apps stay in memory comfortably |
| iOS version | Apple updates memory management behavior across OS versions; newer updates may handle background apps differently |
| App type | Navigation, streaming, and VoIP apps behave very differently in the background than static apps |
| Battery health | An iPhone with degraded battery capacity may benefit from stricter app management to extend battery life |
| Usage patterns | Power users jumping between many apps frequently may prefer leaving apps open; casual users may not notice a difference either way |
Background App Refresh: The Setting Worth Knowing
One often-overlooked control is Background App Refresh, found in: Settings → General → Background App Refresh
This setting controls whether apps can fetch new content and data while you're not using them. Turning it off for specific apps — or entirely — can reduce background activity without requiring you to manually close apps. It gives you more granular control than force-closing does.
Some users find this a more efficient approach than routinely clearing the App Switcher, because it targets the actual behavior (background data use) rather than removing the app from memory.
Common Questions About Closing Apps on iPhone 13
Does closing apps speed up the iPhone 13? Not in most cases. iOS is designed to manage app memory automatically. Forcefully closing apps can sometimes slow things down slightly if iOS has to fully reload them on relaunch.
Does the iPhone 13 have a limit on open apps? There's no hard user-facing limit, but iOS will automatically purge older suspended apps from memory when resources are needed. You'll see fewer cards in your App Switcher over time as the system manages this.
Can you close all apps at once? 🤔 iOS doesn't include a native "close all apps" button. You can use multiple fingers to dismiss several app cards at once, but there's no single-tap option to wipe the entire App Switcher.
What if the gesture isn't working? Make sure you're swiping up from the very bottom edge of the screen — not the middle or top. The gesture needs to originate from the gesture bar area. Pausing briefly mid-swipe is what triggers the App Switcher rather than going straight to the Home Screen.
The Bigger Picture: iOS App Management Is Not One-Size-Fits-All
iOS gives you the tools to manage apps manually, but it's also doing significant work behind the scenes. Whether manual app closing is a habit worth building depends heavily on which specific apps you use, how you use your iPhone 13 day-to-day, what iOS version you're running, and what problem — if any — you're actually trying to solve. The gesture itself is easy to master; the more important question is understanding your own usage and whether the behavior you're seeing actually warrants the habit.