Speed Up Your Android Phone
If you’ve had your Android device for a while, you’ve probably started
to notice some lag that wasn’t there before. Apps load a bit slower, menus take
a bit longer to show up. This is actually (and unfortunately) normal—here’s
why.
This problem isn’t unique to Android, either—try using an older iPad with a new version of iOS and feel how slow it’s become. But the solutions are slightly different for each platform, so let’s talk about why this happens on Android—and how to fix it.
Clear your Cached Data
Your apps are constantly caching small pieces of data, which typically will speed up the performance of your phone. But if your device is running low on storage, cached data will start hurting more than it helps. Here’s how to clear it out and start fresh.
Settings > Storage > Select each App one by one > Storage > Clear Cache
Disable Animations
Animations make all of the transitions and interactions with your operating system appear more fluid — right up until your phone starts slowing down and those animations start looking like stop motion video. If the animations aren’t flowing so well anymore, turning them off completely will both look better and free up a little processing power.
Settings > About Phone > Tap the build Number 7 times (You will see a message that you have enabled Developer option) >
> Return to Settings and Tap Developer options.
> Tap Windows animation scale and select “Animation off”
> Repeat Step 5 with Transition animation scale and Animator duration scale.
Remove/Disable Bloatware and Unused Apps
It’s even more likely that over months or years, you’ve added some unused apps of your own that are still taking up precious space on your phone. If things are slowing down on your device, a lack of available storage might just be the culprit. Here’s how to free up space.
Settings > Apps > Find an app you wish to uninstall and tap on it > Uninstall > Ok
> Repeat Step 4 as needed until all unwanted apps are removed.
Remove or Reduce Widgets
Navigate to the widget you wish to remove > Long press on the widget( Remove and App Info will appear at the top of the screen) > Drag the widget to Remove and release.
Optimize Chrome Browser
Data Saver mode in Chrome for Android allows Google to compress the pages you are viewing by around 30 percent and up to 50 percent for video, meaning less data usage and faster browsing.
Navigate to the Chrome Browser > Tap the overflow menu button in the upper-right corner > Tap Settings > Tap Data Saver > Toggle the switch in the upper-right corner.
Background Processes Can
Slow Things Down
You’ve probably installed more apps as you continue to use your device, some of which open at startup and run in the background. If you’ve installed a lot of apps that run in the background, they can consume CPU resources, fill up RAM, and slow down your device.
How to Fix It: Disable live wallpapers, remove widgets from your home screen, and uninstall or disable apps you don’t use. To check what apps are using background processes, visit the Running Services menu in Developer Settings (on Marshmallow and above). If you don’t use an app that’s running in the background, uninstall it. If you can’t uninstall it because it came with your device, disable it.