Isn’t it annoying when you are unable to perform even routine tasks such as typing out a message or answering a phone call because your phone is slow?
Recently my (not much of a) smartphone started having such problems and so I scouted out some ways to boost performance. Here are five ways I found to improve the speed.
1. Clear your cached data
Cached data is information stored on your device so that it can quickly load it up when you use the app. Due to being stored on the phone, it does not need to be downloaded from the web every time you visit the app. However, there are apps that you may not use as often as you used to before and in such cases it makes sense to delete cache data.
If your device is extremely slow and you wish to delete cache data from all your apps, there is a simple way to do this on Android:
- Go to settings > Storage > Cached data
- When you click cached data you will see a pop up which will ask you to confirm the action and that will free some much-needed space.
2. Clear the clutter
I often take a lot of pictures when I’m out only to look back and see that at least half of them are unusable. It could be the same for you. Just head over to gallery and delete pictures and videos that you don’t like or need.
Similarly go to your downloads folder and check up the files, PDFs, mp3s and videos that you are no longer useful to you. Doing that will free up some useful space and make your device a better one.
3. Stop notifications
Nowadays almost every app pops up a notification and some of them are unnecessary. Take for example, Spotify bugging me to enroll for monthly subscriptions. These notifications take up memory space and drain your battery every time you connect to WiFi or mobile internet.
There is an easy way to stop them in Android.
- Go to settings > Apps > Specific app (In this case Spotify) > Uncheck the “show notifications” box.
4. Delete apps that you no longer require
You may have apps installed on your smartphone which you have not used for months and may not use in the near future either. Even though you do not use these apps, they use background services and generally slow down your device.
I realized I have several virtual reality apps which I downloaded when I was excited about the concept but no longer use. Simply delete all of those apps and free up some memory. So it’s goodbye for now, Village for Google VR.
5. Install a good startup manager and antivirus
A startup manager will help you choose which apps start on boot up and which ones don’t. That can decrease your device startup time drastically. In addition install a good antivirus so that your phone stays protected and doesn’t slow down due to malware or viruses.
Besides that, install an app which helps you move apps from internal storage to your SD card. That will help free up resources and make your phone faster than before.
6. Restart or factory reset your phone
Sometimes just restarting the phone can help refresh your phone and give it the boost that it needs. However, if nothing helps just factory reset your phone. Doing so will delete everything that is on your phone. This includes messages which are not backed up anywhere else and – sadly – even your progress in Angry Bird. Factory reset makes your phone as new as the day you received it from the store.
To do that go to:
- Settings > backup and reset > Factory data reset > reset phone.
