With Android 5.0 Lollipop's release, the recents view (multitask button) became overview, and instead of showing you only actually running apps, it also shows you apps that have ran in the past. Over time, this screen ends up listing pretty much every app you have ever run, becomes completely useless, and wastes a perfectly good (soft-)button.
Recently aims to restore sanity, by limiting which apps are shown. In its aggressive 'running tasks only' configuration, it will show you only apps that are actually running right now. Because Android can be fairly aggressive itself with killing off apps, apps you have used just a minute ago may disappear from the list in this setup, and configuring Recently to remove entries that have not actually run the past few days may be the better option.
Aside from listing only running apps or apps that have run in a certain timeframe, Recently also allows you to limit by number of entries shown. Note that actually running apps will always be shown, regardless of this setting - only entries from apps that aren't actually running are ever removed.
Advanced
A number of more advanced options are available as well, such as showing a 'Clear All' button in the recents view (doesn't work on all devices), limiting the number of Google Searches that show up (originating from the Google search bar and Google Now), and hiding the Settings app.
Additionally, you can force remove tasks and documents that are running but have not been accessed longer than the configured age limit. This is a rather extreme measure that will result in tasks being killed, do not use it lightly.
Pro
Purchasing the Pro version supports my developments and will allow you to start Recently automatically at boot.
Future
This app is built specifically for Android 5.0 and 5.1, and is working on early versions of 6.0 as well. Future versions may work differently, the recents/overview screen may be fixed, etc. In a year this app may no longer be relevant.
WHAT'S NEW
v1.30:
- Basic M compatibility - SuperSU or permissive SELinux required
- Made the clear all button FABulous
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