When you first got your Android phone, it must be shiny with blazing speed. You could easily switch between apps and navigate without any kind of lag, however, as time passes you will start to see some lag. Apps will stop your breath for a second before starting and switching between apps may make you hammer your phone.
Well, if this is happening to you then don’t worry, sooner or later this happens to every smartphone user. As you use your phone and fill data in it, its performance is affected as it needs to search between more data to fulfill your command.
You can get rid of useless data and use some neat tricks to speed up your android phone. In this Tutorial, we will help you clean up your phone and use proper settings to gain some noticeable speed.
Remove Unused Apps
This is probably the most important of all. If you have the habit of testing apps and never remove them, this might be your #1 problem. Each app uses some resources, leaves some data and might get into a processing queue somewhere, even if you don’t use it. We noticed that perceived performance can fall off a cliff after installing too many apps (we try a lot of them!), and the best way to keep this from happening is to removes apps you don’t use.
Get Rid of Data
It is quite easy to get carried away with your android phone and download tons of apps or take photos and videos that you might never access again. Just go into Gallery and look for all the photos and Videos that you think are just taking space and you will never need them. Delete each and every one of them and if you have some photos and videos that are important, but not required immediately, you can copy them to your PC or make a backup of them and delete them from your phone.
For apps, just tap on Settings and from there tap on Application manager.
In Application Manager, you will see all your apps that you have downloaded under the heading “DOWNLOADED”. Just go through all of them and see which are the ones that you may never use again or don’t require right now and can be easily downloaded when required. Just tap on the one which you would like to delete and from next page tap on “Uninstall” to uninstall them. You can learn more about deleting apps from this article, “How To Delete Android Apps”..
There are also some apps that cannot be uninstalled, generally, apps loaded by manufacturer and your carrier, commonly addressed as “Bloatware”. However, you can still disable these app to stop eating resources by tapping on “Turn off” instead of uninstall in the same app details page. You can learn more about how to disable these apps from this article “How to Disable Android Apps”.
Stop Unused Background Apps
Some apps work in the background and are not visible to you. They use required resources (battery as well) while you don’t even know about it. However, not all of these apps are required all the time, there might be some apps that you would like to be turned off (they will start again once you tap on them to start again).
To stop these apps just go to Settings and in there, click on Application manager.
Now, swipe left until you see all the running apps under the heading “Running”. These are all the apps that are currently working in the background, just look for the one that you don’t want to run and tap on it. From next page, tap on “Stop” and they will stop immediately.
Clear all App cache
Cache stores temporary data that helps make the process faster when an app is accessed again. The app can access this data to load everything, instead of downloading data again and again. However, this data can be in huge amount and could also mess with app’s functioning and slow down your phone. That’s particularly true if the cached data is being stored for apps that aren’t being used anymore.
It is quite handy if you get rid of cache every now and then. To delete all cache from your phone, you can just go to Settings and tap on Storage.
There, tap on “Cached data” and from the prompt tap on “OK”.
All cache from your phone will be deleted and you may gain some space and speed. If you like to learn more about deleting cache and how to delete it via different means both individually and completely, then refer to this article “How To Clear Android Cache”.
Note: Once deleted, all the apps will download the cache again when you will use them, this means if you are on your mobile data plan instead of Wi-Fi, it will be used to download it again.
Get rid of all the fancy eye candy
Android comes with quite attractive feature like, widgets, live wallpapers and animations that can make you say “wow”. However, they also slow your phone down, if you prefer speed over these cool things and ease of access, then you should get rid of them.
You should get rid of all the widgets on your homescreen that you think are not very useful or can also be access easily from app drawer.
To delete widgets from homescreen, tap and hold the widget which you would like to remove. Once you manage to grab it, drag it across the top of the screen and leave on the area where it says “Remove”. As you will let go, the widget will be removed from your homescreen. You can do same with all widgets to remove them from homescreen.
Here is a Video showing how you can add and remove widgets:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-blAGcUaKA
If you change your mind, and want to add any widget back to homescreen again, then tap and hold over any “blank” area on your homescreen.
The homescreen will move back, and you will see two options below, Wallpapers and Widgets.
Tap on “Widgets” and all available widgets on your phone will be displayed.
To add them to your homescreen, tap and hold to grab the widget which you would like to add. Once grabbed, move it to the area where you would like to put the widget on homescreen and leave, the widget will be placed.
You should also avoid live wallpapers and instead use still wallpaper that don’t use much resources.
Disable Animations
Disabling animation will also speed up your android phone, as you won’t have to go through that fancy menu animation every time you tinker with stuff.
The process of disabling this feature is not straightforward and might not be suitable for some people.
For this purpose, you will first have to enable “Developer Options”. These are the options which are not made for average users and should only be accessed by developers who know what they are doing. Changing these options without proper knowledge can damage your phone and change the way how it works.
The problems is, these options cannot be hidden again and to hide them you will have to factory reset your phone. If you think your phone might get in hands of someone who doesn’t know how things work, then it is better to skip this step and don’t enable developer options.
To enable “Developer Options” go to Settings and scroll down until you see “About Device” or “About Phone” (depending on your phone). Tap on it and scroll down at bottom where “Build number” is located.
Now, tap 7 times on “Build number” and “Developer options” will be made available. You can see the “Developer options” in Settings, and tap on the option to access them. To make sure the “Developer options” are enabled see if the button on the top right corner of the screen is green or not. If it is gray just tap on it to enable “Developer options”.
If you don’t know what you are doing, then it is better to stay away from all options and scroll down where it says “Window animation scale”.
Tap on “Window animation scale” and choose “Animation is off” from the next menu. The animations will be turned off and now you will access everything faster.
Keep The Phone software Updated
If you think your phone is slow, then it is better to check if your phone’s software is updated or not. These updates provide some performance improvements and security as well, so it is better to keep your software updated.
To check if you phone’s software is updated or to updated it, go to Settings and click on “About Device”.
In there, tap on “Software update” and from there tap on “Update”. From the prompt tap on “OK” and make sure you are connected to a Wi-Fi network. The phone will check for updates and let you know if your phone is already updated or an update is available.
Factory Reset your Phone
It’s the nuclear option: if you want to have a new start, then Factory resetting your phone is a good option, although it is not recommended. This will delete everything on your phone and will make its software new just like it was when you first got the phone.
This process should speed up your phone, but you will have to start over again.
Note: Before using Factory Reset option, make sure all your important data is backed up, so you won’t lose any important data. If you would like to know how to Backup your Android phone,this article might help “How To Backup Android Phone”. Of course, if you restore it to the exact same state, there’s no point in resetting it to start with. Start fresh, and be more resource conservative this time.
Tap on Settings and from there click on “Backup and reset”.
In there, tap on “Factory data reset” and from the next page tap on “Reset phone”. Your phone will restart and reset, the process may take 5-10 minutes.
If you have any questions or know any other neat trick to speed up android phone, let us know in the comments below.