This Fall, Apple will release iOS 7. iOS 7 is a completely redesigned operating system for iPhone, iPad (Mini), and iPod Touch. It is packed full of a bunch of new features that continue to get improved with each beta release.

One of the biggest pains in iOS 6 was force quitting apps. Sometimes you need to force quit an app if it keeps crashing or if there is not enough available memory (see this article for more on: How to fix a crashing app). The old process to force quit apps was activating the App Switcher tray by double pressing the home button. Then, you would need to tap and hold on one of the apps till all the apps in the tray started wiggling, and finally, tap on each of the little minus signs that appeared on the wiggling apps to force quit them. It was quite a process.

Close 3 Apps at once in the App Switcher on iOS 7 by swiping up with 3 fingers

iOS 7 has greatly improved the process of force quitting and closing apps. If you have an app that is crashing or if you need to force quit the app for some other reason, simply double press the home button to activate the App Switcher. You now see a total of 3 apps at a time with a snapshot of each of the apps above the app icon. To close an app, all you need to do is swipe up on the app snapshot and the app closes. In addition, you can close up to 3 apps at a time by placing 3 fingers on the 3 visible apps in the App Switcher and swiping up at the same time. This makes the process go really fast if you need to close all of your apps.

One of the reasons it is important to force quit all of your apps on a regular basis is that it frees up the memory. This helps to maintain your device at its optimal speed. Every time I close all the apps on my device and then restart the device, I am amazed at how much faster everything works. So, I try to do this procedure at least once per week to maintain the speed of my iPhone and iPad Mini.