How to Quit Apps in iOS 8 & iOS 7

Quitting out of running apps in modern versions of iOS is a bit different than it was before, but once you get the hang of using the new multitasking screen, you’ll find the change is for the better. Not only can you use this to close out of a single app, but with a simple multitouch gesture you can also quit out of multiple apps at the same time.

Regular readers will recall that included this trick as one of the four essential tips for learning some of the major changes made in iOS 7 and iOS 8, but we still get so many questions about it that we think it’s worthy of it’s own post. Let’s get right to it:

Quit a Single App in iOS 7 & iOS 8

• Double-tap the Home button on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to summon the multitasking screen
• Swipe up on an apps preview panel to push it off of the screen to quit an app
• Repeat as necessary for closing other apps

Quitting apps in modern iOS looks like this:

A slight variation allows you to close out of more than one app at a time with the same swipe movement.

Close Multiple Apps at Once in iOS 8 and iOS 7

• Double-tap the Home button to bring up the app switcher as usual
• Place your fingers onto multiple app preview panels and swipe up on them together, pushing them off screen to quit
• Repeat to quit all running apps on an iOS device

The multitouch gesture works with all iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices that are running iOS 7, iOS 8, or iOS 9. You can quit up to three apps at a time this way, or just two at a time if you find that easier, makign this the fastest way to quickly cycle through and close out of all running apps on any iOS device.

Meanwhile, the iOS 9 app switcher looks slightly different, but quitting apps is the same in iOS 9 as it is in the other versions; just enter the app switcher and swipe up as usual:

The video below demonstrates quitting both single apps using the normal swipe up, and closing out of multiple apps at a time using the multitouch trick with iOS 7 and iOS 8:

This trick will quit out of any running app, but it’s worth mentioning that it is not the same as using the traditional “force quit” trick, which has been baked into iOS since the beginning and which remains the same post iOS 7. For most use cases, using the standard method mentioned above is more than enough to exit out of apps if it’s needed, and the true force quit method should only be used when an app is frozen on screen thereby rendering the entire device unusable.

Older versions of iOS did include multitouch support for closing multiple apps as well, but the touch targets were much smaller making it a lot harder to accomplish.