Apple confirms killing your apps doesn't really save battery life

If you're still painstakingly killing all your apps in the hopes of squeezing out some extra battery life from your iPhone, you can officially stop.

Apple's iOS chief Craig Federighi has dispelled the myth that force closing your iPhone apps will help save your battery. The executive confirmed that killing apps isn't necessary for your battery and said that he is not in the habit of closing his apps.

Federighi, who oversees iOS and OS X, was responding to an email sent by an Apple customer to CEO Tim Cook when he made the comments. In the email, which was first published by 9to5Mac, the customer asked Cook, "do you quit your iOS multitasking apps frequently and is this necessary of battery life?"

Though the note, dated March 6, was sent to Cook, Federighi weighed in the next day with a simple answer. "No and no," he wrote. (You can see the full email exchange here.)

This is far from the first time this particular myth has been debunked. Apple's own support page even states that "generally, there's no need to force an app to close unless it's unresponsive."

That's because, as 9to5Mac and others have pointed out, most of the apps that appear in the multitasking view when you double press the home button aren't actually running in the background. From Apple:

Of course, it's always a good idea to check your app settings every once in awhile to make sure that the apps that are using your location actually need it — as location services tend to use up the most battery. Also, disabling background refresh on apps you don't use very much is a good idea. Some apps, like Facebook's, may be worse offenders at sucking your battery dry than others.