Guide: Apple iPhone X gestures and how to kill running apps

Here’s your quick guide to kill or force quit apps on Apple’s latest iPhone X.

For Apple users upgrading to the new iPhone X, there is prospect of having to live without the Home button. The Home button on earlier iPhones used to do everything from house the fingerprint scanner to summon Siri. But users depended on the ring more from accessing the home screen from other apps and also figuring our which apps were running in the background to move to another or to swipe and kill them. However, all that are just distant memories on the iPhone.

Apple iPhone X gestures, Siri and screenshot

On the iPhone X you have to swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen to minimise and app and access the home screen in the process. Pause in the middle of the screen during this upward swipe and you can see the apps running in the background. Swipe down from the right corner to bring up the Control Centre which is no longer available on the upward swipe as this is what you have to use to access the home screen. For Siri, you now need to long press the power button on the left. And for screenshots, you have to click the power button on the right along with the volume up button on the left simultaneously.

How to kill apps on Apple iPhone X

Now, this is something which had me dumbfounded for a few days as I could not figure out how to kill the app running on the background. While I could get to the app running in the background using the swipe up, I could not swipe the apps away. Swiping on the app screens just minimised them and did not kill them like you are used to.

To kill apps running in the background, you long press on the app icon on top of one of the screens after you have swiped up to open the running apps.

This is where Apple has introduced something new. To kill apps running in the background, you long press on the app icon on top of one of the screens after you have swiped up to open the running apps. At this point, you will see a red minus sign come up on the side of the app screens. You can click here, to kill the app.

While it does not take long to get used to the iPhone X’s home button-less design, the struggle for long-time Apple users will be to get of the muscle memory of the Home button.