When perusing the Android Market, Advanced Task Killer is an app that is consistently one of the top downloaded. There’s a reason for that.

If you’re an app fiend, you may notice your Android phone can easily get slowed down. The Motorola Cliq gets bogged down very easily, especially if there’s a lot coming in on the Happenings widget. There’s no easy way to accomplish app killing by using the phone settings. (On the Moto Cliq – Settings –> Applications –> Manage Applications –> Filter –> Running then each individual task and Force Close)

Advanced Task Killer does just as the title suggests: it allows the user to “shut down” various tasks that are running in the background. It’s very simple to install and use, and sits up in the notification bar for easy access. It provides a checklist of all the apps that are running (and others that aren’t) and you can de-select apps you’d like to kill with a single touch. I’ve found this especially useful for closing apps that don’t have an “exit” feature. There is an ignore feature for applications you don’t want to kill (i.e. email, voicemail).

It runs very well, and has never force closed or bogged down the usage of the phone.

Like most apps, the settings are a little bare, but you can choose to set it to auto-start when the phone is turned on, to show on the notification bar, set item height (by pixel), create an ignore list, and set default actions for a short press and long press.

It weighs in at 168kb, it’s free, and it comes highly recommended.

Advanced Task Killer is available in the Android Market, or it can be downloaded by scanning the QR code below (must have Barcode Scanner on your Android phone). Developed by ReChild.