Managing apps - lesson
Managing apps
What's coming up?
In this activity, you will explore some tips on how to manage your apps, including closing an app, and deleting it from your device. You’ll also learn about why it’s important to keep your apps up to date, and how to go about doing this.
Start activityApps can be controlled
An app is a program that runs on your device, but unlike a computer program, it’s not always easy to tell when an app is still running. It’s important to know how to close apps when you don’t want to use them, and how to delete them when you don’t want them anymore.
Pressing Home may not close an app
When you press your smartphone’s Home button or swipe up to see the Home screen, it’s most likely that the app you are using will not close. Instead, it goes to sleep or keeps running in the background.
Viewing apps in the background: Android phone
On an Android phone, you can see which apps are in sleep mode or still running by pressing the Apps button at the bottom of your screen. It might look like a rectangle, three lines, or overlapping rectangles. If your smartphone doesn’t have this button, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause in the middle.
You will see some cards that show the apps that are running, and you can swipe left and right to see more.
Viewing apps in the background: iPhone
To see which apps are in sleep mode or still running on an iPhone, swipe up from the bottom of the screen then pause in the centre of the screen. If your iPhone has a Home button, double-click it to see the open apps.
The apps that are running will display as cards, and you can swipe left and right to see more.
How to close a running app
To be sure an app on your Android phone or iPhone has closed, swipe so its card appears in the middle of the screen. Then put your finger on the bottom of the card and swipe up.
When the card disappears, the app is fully shut down and closed.
eSafety tip
Apps are supposed to go to sleep when you go back to the Home screen but some stay awake and keep gathering data or even track your location. This is usually safe, but to be extra sure, you can close the app entirely and it will not be able to do anything until you open it again by tapping its icon.
Updating apps
Because apps are used on millions of devices, sometimes problems (also known as bugs) can occur. The makers of these apps can find out about these problems, fix the issues and release a new version of the app. This is called an update, and updates usually make apps better and more secure.
How to update apps
Each kind of smartphone updates apps in a slightly different way, depending on how the manufacturer designs it. However, you can usually find options for updates in the Settings app on your device.
Well done!
This is the end of the Managing apps activity. You’ve learned how to properly close a running app, and all about updating apps.
Up next is the Organising apps activity, where you can find out how to group apps, and how to stop apps sending you notifications.
