Memory management

Since Android devices are usually battery-
powered, Android is designed to manage
memory ( RAM) to keep power consumption at
a minimum, in contrast to desktop operating
systems which generally assume they are
connected to unlimited mains electricity .
When an Android app is no longer in use, the
system will automatically suspend it in
memory – while the app is still technically
"open," suspended apps consume no
resources (e.g. battery power or processing
power) and sit idly in the background until
needed again. This has the dual benefit of
increasing the general responsiveness of
Android devices, since apps don't need to be
closed and reopened from scratch each time,
but also ensuring background apps don't
consume power needlessly. [65]
Android manages the apps stored in memory
automatically: when memory is low, the
system will begin killing apps and processes
that have been inactive for a while, in
reverse order since they were last used (i.e.
oldest first). This process is designed to be
invisible to the user, such that users do not
need to manage memory or the killing of
apps themselves. [66] However, confusion
over Android memory management has
resulted in third-party task killers becoming
popular on the Google Play store; these third-
party task killers are generally regarded as
doing more harm than good.