5 Ways to speed up your Android Phone
Your Android phone was probably fast when you first bought it, right? Then over time it began running more slowly. This is a common problem and nothing to worry about. Below is our guide to getting your phone fast again. Read on for our best tips to speed up your phone.
1. Free up some Memory / Clear cache
All those photos you've taken and all of those apps you’ve installed can take their toll on your phone. It needs a little breathing room to run smoothly and if it's running low on space, it can start to slow down. You can check how much space you have left by heading to the Storage section of Settings. One of the easiest ways to free up space is to tap Applications and see which apps you can uninstall.
You can check how much space you have left by heading to the Storage section of Settings. One of the easiest ways to free up space is to tap Applications and see which apps you can uninstall. If you've had your phone for a while, there are probably several apps you can remove. Tap the entry for an app you no longer need and then tap Uninstall. You can repeat this process as many times as necessary for any apps you feel you can live without.
There are other ways you can free up space. The files you have downloaded are probably still sitting in storage wasting space and can be removed. In Storage, tap Downloads, select the files you want to remove and then tap the Bin button.
Downloads and app caches occupy valuable space that could be put to better use.
Free up as much space as possible.
More files ripe for deletion can be found in the Miscellaneous files section. Tick the boxes next to any types of file you'd like to remove – backups, files received via Bluetooth, playlist files, and so on – and then tap the bin button. You can keep an eye on how much space you have freed up when you look at the Available space section.
You can also disable any apps that came pre-loaded on your phone but you don’t use. If you have rooted your Android, you can actually get rid of these apps, but if not, you can go to the app properties and disable it to prevent it from running and using up your phone’s resources.
2. Remove Widgets from everywhere
All those widgets you have running on your home screen may be useful, but they also take up their fair share of resources.
Widgets can be a waste of resources, so kill any you don't really need.
If you have any widgets running that you don’t really need, consider disabling them. There's no harm in having some active, but you will notice an element of slow-down if you have too many running at the same time, so just be a little selective.
3. Close down apps and free up RAM
Multi-tasking several apps makes it easy to switch between different tools, but there can also be an impact on performance. You can quickly close down any apps you are no longer using by calling up the running apps list – press and hold the home key and then swipe away any apps you want to exit.
Terminating unused apps and freeing up RAM will help the speed of your device.
While you are at this screen, tap the pie chart button to the lower right of the screen and then move to the RAM section. Tap the Clear memory button and any background processes that are running unnecessarily will be closed down.
4. Restart your device
A quick and simple fix for a slow device is to simply restart it. This can clear out the cache, stop unnecessary tasks from running, and get things running smoothly again.
Just hold down the power button, select the Restart option, and then tap OK to confirm.
5. Look More Deeper
You can also keep tabs on the apps that are using lots of battery by going to Settings > Battery. You can also monitor RAM usage in Settings > Apps (or App Manager, depending on your brand of phone) and there's even more nerdy goodies in Process Stats in Developer Options – if you don't have this setting enabled, go to Settings > About Phone and tap Build Number seven times until a notification pops up.
You can also keep tabs on the apps that are using lots of battery by going to Settings > Battery. You can also monitor RAM usage in Settings > Apps (or App Manager, depending on your brand of phone) and there's even more nerdy goodies in Process Stats in Developer Options – if you don't have this setting enabled, go to Settings > About Phone and tap Build Number seven times until a notification pops up.
