Google Android phones will show you a list of recently opened apps if you press and hold the Home button. But if you want to see a list of currently running or recently closed apps, you’re out of luck — unless you install a third party app.

Scan to download

MultiTask Manager will show you both, as well as give you the option of killing any task with a long-press. As an added bonus (if you consider this a bonus), it works a lot like the new task manager in Apple’s iPhone OS 4.0.

Once MultiTask Manager is installed, you can pull up a list of running apps by pressing and holding the Search button on your phone. You can scroll to the left and right to see more apps. And you can switch to any app by pressing on the icon. You can also change the background, choose the maximum number of apps to display, and select frequently used apps that will always show up in the tray whether they’re currently running or not.

MultiTask Manager is available as a free download from the Android Market. You can also grab the source code from the project page if you’re into that sort of thing.

Brad Linder

Brad Linder is editor of Liliputing and Mobiputing. He's been tinkering with mobile tech for decades and writing about it since...

2 replies on “MultiTask Manager gives Android an iPhone OS 4-esque task manager”

  1. Just installed it on a Mytouch and works great. Really like the way it was done. Combines the best of both worlds, auto-kill and true multi-tasking.

    Actually makes for a very handy launcher.

Comments are closed.