Application management
View Patent ↗The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a method that includes executing one or more computer applications and ranking the applications according to one or more criteria that change in response to a user's interaction with the applications. State information for certain of the one or more applications is saved and one or more applications are terminated in response to a memory condition. Subsequently, one of the terminated applications is revived using the saved state information.
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
executing, by a computing system, multiple computer application programs;
determining, by the computing system, to terminate a particular application program that is one of the multiple computer application programs that are executing;
copying, by the computing system, a display by the particular application program that the computing system determined to terminate;
saving, by the computing system, state information for the particular application program before terminating the particular application program;
terminating, by the computing system, the particular application program in response to having determined to terminate the particular application program;
displaying, by the computing system, the copy of the display by the particular application program after the particular application program has been terminated; and
reviving, by the computing system, the particular application program after the particular application program has terminated and the copy of the display by the particular application program has been displayed.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein terminating the particular application program involves erasing memory of the particular application program from the computing system.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the computing system displays the copy of the display by the particular application program in a manner to prevent a user of the computing system from realizing that the particular application program has terminated.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising using, by the computing system, the saved state information in the reviving of the particular application program.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein reviving the particular application program includes presenting the particular application program as the particular application program existed before the particular application program terminated.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising detecting a user attempt to interact with or return to the particular application program after the particular application program has terminated, and in response performing the reviving of the particular application program.
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the detected user attempt to interact with or return to the particular application program involves user selection of an icon that represents the particular application program.
8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the display by the particular application program is a display of an application window for the particular application program.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying that a memory condition is present; wherein determining to terminate the particular application program is performed to alleviate the memory condition.
10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining to terminate the particular application program, from among the multiple computer application programs that are executing, is based on an amount of time since user input interacted with the particular application program.
11. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
executing, by a computing system, multiple computer application programs;
determining, by the computing system, to terminate a particular application that is one of the multiple computer application programs that are executing;
saving, by the computing system, state information for the particular application program;
copying, by the computing system, a display by the particular application program;
terminating, by the computing system and in response to having determined to terminate the particular application program and having saved the state information for the particular application program, the particular application program in order to erase memory associated with the particular application program from the computing system;
displaying, by the computing system, the copy of the display by the particular application program after the particular application program has been terminated;
detecting, by the computing system, a user attempt to interact with or return to the particular application program while the particular application program is terminated and the copy of the display by the particular application program is being displayed; and
using, by the computing system and as a result of having detected the user attempt to interact with or return to the particular application program, the saved state information to revive the particular application program so that the particular application program is presented as the particular application program existed before the particular application program was terminated.
12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause performance of operations that include:
executing, by a computing system, multiple computer application programs;
determining, by the computing system, to terminate a particular application program that is one of the multiple computer application programs that are executing;
copying, by the computing system, a display by the particular application program that the computing system determined to terminate;
saving, by the computing system, state information for the particular application program before terminating the particular application program;
terminating, by the computing system, the particular application program in response to the computing system having determined to terminate the particular application program;
displaying, by the computing system, the copy of the display by the particular application program after the particular application program has been terminated; and
reviving, by the computing system, the particular application program after the particular application program has terminated and the copy of the display by the particular application program has been displayed.
13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein terminating the particular application program involves erasing memory of the particular application program from the computing system.
14. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the computing system displays the copy of the display by the particular application program in a manner to prevent a user of the computing system from realizing that the particular application program has terminated.
15. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the operations further comprise:
using, by the computing system, the saved state information in the reviving of the particular application program.
16. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein reviving the particular application program includes presenting the particular application program as the particular application program existed before the particular application program terminated.
17. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the operations further comprise detecting a user attempt to interact with or return to the particular application program after the particular application program has terminated, and in response performing the reviving of the particular application program.
18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the detected user attempt to interact with or return to the particular application program involves user selection of an icon that represents the particular application program.
19. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the display by the particular application program is a display of an application window for the particular application program.
20. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 , further comprising identifying that a memory condition is present; wherein determining to terminate the particular application program is performed to alleviate the memory condition.