An application start method, the method comprising: responsive to a trigger for performing a terminal operation, wherein the terminal operation is starting a new application or performing a new operation for a first application running in the terminal, determining, by a terminal, a memory size required to perform the terminal operation, when the required memory size is greater than a free memory size, successively releasing, by the terminal, all or a part of memory occupied by one or more second applications running in the terminal in an ascending order of priority assigned to the second applications until the sum of the released memory size and the free memory size is greater than the required memory size, wherein the second applications are different from the first application; characterized in that the method further comprises: storing, by the terminal, in a target application list, a corresponding identifier for each second application of which all or part of memory is released; when the free memory size is greater than a preset threshold, obtaining, by the terminal, the target application list; and starting, in a background by the terminal, a process of at least one second application corresponding to an identifier stored in the target application list, wherein when started, a size of memory occupied by the process of the at least one second application is not greater than the size of the free memory before the process of the at least one second application is started and wherein the process is a running instance of a computer program of the at least one second application. responsive to a trigger for performing a terminal operation, wherein the terminal operation is starting a new application or performing a new operation for a first application running in the terminal, determining, by a terminal, a memory size required to perform the terminal operation, when the required memory size is greater than a free memory size, successively releasing, by the terminal, all or a part of memory occupied by one or more second applications running in the terminal in an ascending order of priority assigned to the second applications until the sum of the released memory size and the free memory size is greater than the required memory size, wherein the second applications are different from the first application; characterized in that the method further comprises: storing, by the terminal, in a target application list, a corresponding identifier for each second application of which all or part of memory is released; when the free memory size is greater than a preset threshold, obtaining, by the terminal, the target application list; and starting, in a background by the terminal, a process of at least one second application corresponding to an identifier stored in the target application list, wherein when started, a size of memory occupied by the process of the at least one second application is not greater than the size of the free memory before the process of the at least one second application is started and wherein the process is a running instance of a computer program of the at least one second application. storing, by the terminal, in a target application list, a corresponding identifier for each second application of which all or part of memory is released; when the free memory size is greater than a preset threshold, obtaining, by the terminal, the target application list; and starting, in a background by the terminal, a process of at least one second application corresponding to an identifier stored in the target application list, wherein when started, a size of memory occupied by the process of the at least one second application is not greater than the size of the free memory before the process of the at least one second application is started and wherein the process is a running instance of a computer program of the at least one second application.