Task killers and RAM boosters are a scam

Let’s talk about why task killers and RAM boosters are a scam and why you ought to delete them immediately.

Task killers and RAM boosters are apps that promise to manage and free up RAM space. This could be on your phone or computer. Now they go by many fancy and sometimes obscure names, but they all promise the same thing… killing tasks and boosting your RAM.

Reasons why people use Task killers and RAM boosters (personal story)

At any point between 2015 and 2018, you would always find them on my device. I never joked with them. They were top 10 on my list of most used apps, if not the top 2, second only to pocketbooks.

This is because I started out using an Android with 512MB RAM and boy, there was never any space to do anything.

I also learned quite early that running apps were saved to RAM so it made sense to me to keep the RAM free if I wanted to use my favorite apps.

That was when I learned about task killers and RAM boosters. Their job was simple. Wipe out every task in the RAM to create RAM space. They could also by extension, restrict background app usage.

I won’t lie, they did serve their purpose albeit slightly, but they did.

While games like Dream League or NOVA Legacy were coded to use a decent amount of memory, PUBG and PES (now eFootball) were memory hogs. Another deceptive memory consumer is Sim City. I love Sim City but that game consumes a lot of system resources.

So, if you have used or are currently using a 2GB RAM phone, you would understand how slow and unresponsive it becomes when the RAM gets filled up.

The painful part is when apps suddenly get forced closed and the phone sends you back to the home screen or worse. It just reboots and restarts.

I cannot count how many PES matches I lost due to this low-memory problem. PUBG was kinder because if I logged back in quickly enough, I would be able to resume from where I left off.

At times, the RAM would be so occupied that I’ll have to power the phone off to wipe the RAM and then use my RAM boosters to sweep it clean before I can start a game.

Low memory issues are a big pain. I know that money is hard right now but I’ll never advise anyone to get a 2GB RAM device. Just get 3GB or 4GB if you can.

So yeah, I’m sure that I was not the only one who used RAM boosters. Lots of people did and still do.

I had to recently, forcefully uninstall RAM boosters from a friend’s phone. She upgraded from Tecno Spark 2 to RN9S and still kept it 😂😂😂.

I was like Aunty, your phone is 6GB RAM. You will not run out of memory. Please let me uninstall this thing.

Lots of people have been traumatized by low space. It’s no joke.

Why task killers and RAM boosters are a scam

But I’m here to tell you that task killers and RAM boosters are useless and may even be harmful to your smartphone.

Yes. I’ll explain.

Now the reason I gave that sermon was to let you know that I have used RAM boosters myself and I can understand why people think that they work.

In reality, they don’t. They are just a placebo.

When you activate a RAM booster, does it clear all your apps from RAM? Yes. It does.

Does the RAM stay free? No it doesn’t. The OS simply pre-loads the apps back into the RAM again and we’re back to zero. Right back where we started.

No matter how much you clear your RAM with a RAM booster/task killer, the space won’t stay free.

Android most of the time, considers a lot of free ram as wasted RAM so it will preload apps into it. This is where it gets worse.

The more you clear your RAM, the more the system reloads the cleared apps. This process isn’t free. It costs CPU bandwidth and battery. These are two very important system resources.

See: What are system resources?

This will cause your battery to drain faster, making you charge it more and ultimately causing it to age quicker.

Instead of freeing up RAM, RAM boosters themselves occupy RAM space and persist in RAM. This serves to make the low memory problem even worse.

Another danger is that since the CPUs/OS have to preload apps, you’ll be forcing the CPU to go and read the inbuilt storage to fetch apps and keep them in the RAM.

This increased number of reads and writes from storage to RAM could shorten the life of both hardware.

RAM boosters may sometimes kick important system tasks out of RAM which may cause the system to crash or fail, sending your phone into a series of boot loops.

I’ll never forget my first boot loop. I almost cried mehn. 😭😭😭

Anyway, we move lol. 😂😂😂

So while RAM boosters/task killers may carve out a small space for you momentarily, the OS will soon reclaim them wasting very precious system resources.

RAM boosters are not only useless in the long term but sometimes, they can be dangerous.

What should you do?

Today, you should not have to worry about managing your RAM because Android is designed to do it for you. I have been preaching RAM management here for the last two months I think.

See: What is RAM management?

Android can manage RAM well so that you don’t have to worry about it.

See: How does Android manage RAM?

Also as a user, know yourself.

I cannot go and buy a 3GB RAM device because I’ll be punishing myself. Why? I am a heavy user and multitasker. I do not currently have a laptop so I shoot and edit videos out of my phone.

In addition, I manage this blog and telegram, Facebook, Reddit, and Quora out of this phone. I type blog posts on it. Anything less may not support my use.

I see people who game looking for 2GB phones and trying to carve memory out to play. Please don’t do that to yourself. People who multitask like me are also on this table.

Your CPU needs a lot of RAM space to store big apps. It also needs a lot of space to multitask. Check yourself and make better smartphone decisions.

Please leave a comment if you have any difficulty and remember to:

• Subscribe to our YouTube channel
• Follow on Facebook
• Join our Telegram community
• Participate on Reddit
• Find us on Quora
• Follow us on Instagram
• Check out the Clubhouse as well