An application management method and a terminal, where the method includes acquiring a list of applications needing to retain background data in a terminal and suspending a first timer corresponding to a first application running in the terminal when the first application running in the terminal is not in the list of the applications needing to retain the background data. Further, timers of applications that do not need to retain background data in the terminal can be suspended. Because the timers stop to be run temporarily, the timers do not wake up the terminal from a dormant state, and correspondingly, the applications do not need to interact with a server end to update the background data, thereby reducing the number of times of waking up the terminal from a dormant state, saving electricity consumption and data traffic of the terminal.