There are a lot of little quirks and tricks out there that will make your iPhone’s battery last a little bit longer. You can get rid of the Facebook app, and make sure your phone’s not using data without your knowledge. But one trick that just about everyone with an iPhone does to save battery life in fact does absolutely nothing.
Closing all the open apps on your iPhone won’t make its battery last longer, according to Apple’s head of software, Craig Federighi. According to 9to5Mac, an iPhone owner recently emailed Apple to ask:
Hey Tim,
Do you quit your iOS multitasking apps frequently and is this necessary for battery life? Just wanting you to put this controversy to rest!
Federighi’s answer was simple: “No and No.”
So there it is—swiping away open apps has no effect on your phone’s battery life. (Closing apps on your Mac, on the other hand, can actually have a positive effect on your computer’s battery life.)
As 9to5Mac points out, if you were meant to close lots of apps, Apple probably wouldn’t have made it so laborious to do so. Most apps don’t have a lot of background activity—closing apps using the swipe function is really only meant for when the app has frozen or needs to be reset for some reason.
Save your thumbs: Stop swiping for no reason.