We’ll do anything to get a little extra battery life out of our beloved iPhones, especially since they seem to drain so darn fast when we need them most. One of the most common battery-saving legends that has been circulating for years is that closing apps on your iPhone will preserve its battery power. There may be something satisfying about double-tapping the home button on your phone and going to town swiping away days’ worth of open apps, but if battery preservation is your goal, closing apps is not the answer.
Apple has confirmed that quitting your apps in multitasking is not going to save you a second of battery life. Nada. In fact, most of the apps that you’re swiping away, including social media apps, are either frozen in RAM or not even running — think of them as pretty pictures and (yet another) reminder you don’t need that you’re spending too much time on Facebook.
There are a few apps that do drain your iPhone battery — the ones that affect background operations. Apps like GPS navigation and background music playback should be turned off as soon as you’re finished using them. Otherwise, the only reason Apple CEO Tim Cook says you’ll need to force quit apps is if they become frozen or stuck.