Unresponsive or frozen iPhone app? Learn how to close a frozen app on iPhone with the built-in App Switcher. You can force quit apps open on iPhone with a few swipes.

Why You'll Love This Tip:

Learn how to force close an app on iPhone to quickly fix a frozen iPhone app.
Restart an app that is not behaving to fix bugs.

How to Force Close an App on iPhone

System Requirements

This tip was performed on an iPhone 16 running iOS 18.3.1. Find out how to update to the latest version of iOS.

Want to know how to close a frozen app on iPhone? We'll teach you how to close apps on an iPhone with the App Switcher. Here’s how to close apps on an iPhone and how to restart an app.

Pro tip: if you're having trouble pulling up the App Switcher, try swiping up to the center of your screen, and then continue moving your finger to the right edge.

Open the App Switcher by swiping up from the bottom of the screen to just below the center, holding for a second, and letting go.
You'll see your open apps displayed as a row of screens overlapping each other. Swipe right or left through your apps to find the app you want to close.
Swipe up on the app you want to close. When it disappears at the top of the screen, the app is closed.
Alternatively, you can tap on an app to open it.
Tap anywhere outside the apps to return to the Home Screen.

That's how to close apps on iPhone. Now that you've closed one or more apps on your iPhone, you may be wondering, "How do I restart an app?" That's easy! Just tap the app on your Home screen or in your App Library to open the app again.

Keep in mind that, according to Apple, closing your apps isn't really necessary unless the app is frozen or unresponsive. In those cases, closing an app allows you to quickly restart it so that it can resume functioning correctly.

You may see many apps appear when you open the App Switcher, but the apps farther back in the Switcher aren't using data or slowing your phone down; your iPhone has simply suspended these apps on its own. You've probably seen this process in action if you've ever been scrolling through Facebook, switched over to another app, and switched back to Facebook later only to find the app has scrolled back to the top of your feed like it was just opened for the first time. That was your iPhone putting the app in a sort of "standby mode" until you were ready to use it again.

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