Speed up your Device – Latest Phone Tips and Tricks (Android/iOS)

It has been proven that the latest smartphones are not designed to last an eternity. They slow down with time, and that’s why several tips and tricks can be used to speed up the phone, whether it is Android or iOS. The reason behind this is fast-paced technological advancement. Every six months, Samsung and Apple launch a new smartphone that outplays the older model in terms of features, speed, and functionality. Moreover, the company also upgrades the Apps and the firmware as per the features introduced in the new model.

When the user installs the new upgrade on the older model, the device often experiences a lag. Another reason is the bloatware apps that come with the new update. Such apps run in the background and slow down the system speed.

However, firmware updates are not the only culprit. Even if you don’t upgrade the firmware, the apps on your device are automatically updated when their new version arrives. When a new smartphone is launched, the developers optimize the apps according to the new hardware, which in turn, performs worse on previous models.

Apart from the updates, the apps you install on your smartphone store plenty of cached data and other junk files. It’s important to clean such files because they use your device’s storage and contribute to the slow performance of your device.

Let’s look at some phone tips and tricks that can speed up your Android or iPhone’s performance.

11 Ways You Can Use to Boost Your Mobile Phone’s Performance

1- Organize Home Screen and Keep fewer Widgets

Just as being organized at work in real-life improves your performance, organizing apps on your phone lowers the burden on its processor. Try to keep the home screen clean; do not clutter the apps on multiple pages. The best way to organize your home screen is to create folders. You will have less screen space to swipe through, but finding your desired app will also be easier.

Creating app folders is almost the same on iPhone and Android devices. Tap on any app and drag it over to another app on the home screen. Releasing the app will automatically create a folder. You can also rename the folder, whatever you want. Similarly, you can create multiple folders by gathering the apps of the same niche. For example, a folder for games, another folder for social media apps, and another for online shopping apps.

Besides organizing, keeping fewer widgets on the home screen can also help boost the phone’s performance. Unlike apps, widgets don’t only run when you open them; they are always active and running in the background. You will find a lot of unnecessary widgets like Google News, Notes, Stocks, etc. Keeping too many of them on your home screen can cause your device to slow down over time.

2- Cut Off Battery Draining and Background Data Eating Apps

There are certain apps that keep running even if we are not using them actively. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat are famous for dragging down our phones to substantial background activity. Not only does it affect the phone’s performance, but it also consumes a hefty chunk of internet data.

However, you can still control the abusive background activities of such apps. Firstly, head to your phone’s settings and open the battery section. There you should see the battery consumption of every app installed on your device. We recommend performing this step before bedtime, as your phone will show you the stats for the whole day.

Secondly, tap on any app whose background activity seems much higher than the time you spent using that app. Open the app’s settings and check if they allow restrictions on their background activities. The latest Android phones offer their own background restriction options within the battery settings to shut down app activities when not in use.

Another way to improve your phone’s performance is to restrict background internet data usage. Select the apps whose background data transferring is high for no apparent reason. Open the app’s settings and turn off “background data usage.” You can restrict the data usage on both Wi-Fi and mobile data. Restricting background data will also help improve the battery life of your device. You can restrict the data depending on your data usage need.

3- Get Rid of Apps you haven’t Used for a Long Time

If you haven’t used an app for more than two months, it’s probably good for nothing. Before scrolling through other mobile phone tips and tricks, it’s better to get rid of these unwanted apps in the first place. It may seem unnecessary to some, but allowing unnecessary apps to stay on your device can affect your phone in three ways: taking up useful storage, collecting personal data (if permitted), and draining the battery.

To delete the unwanted apps, you need to open settings and head to the “Apps” section. Here you should see a list of all the apps installed on your device. Find the apps you haven’t used for a long time and simply uninstall them. If you don’t see an uninstall button, you can disable the app.

4- Wipe the Internal Memory and Cached Data

Wiping your device’s internal memory and storing all the data in cloud storage is a simple trick to maintain your phone’s optimal performance. It also helps access all your data on multiple devices simultaneously. Moreover, you can protect your valuable data even if you lose your phone. On the other hand, you can use your phone’s internal memory for other useful apps.

Apps that use cached data load quicker because the data is pulled from the cache memory. There are, however, certain apps that you don’t often. The easy solution to making your smartphones faster is to uninstall them. Not only will it free up a lot of space, but it will improve device efficiency too. Deleting old caches will also allow the app to download updated cache files.

Here’s how you can clear the cache files on iPhone and Android devices.

Clearing App Cache on iPhone

• Open iPhone’s settings, tap General, and then tap on iPhone storage
• From the list, select the app whose cache you want to clear and tap “Offload App.”
• iPhone will clear all the cache memory

Clearing App Cache on Android

• Open settings and tap on the Apps section
• Select the app and tap the storage section from the app info screen
• Tap Clear Cache

5- Use Digital Wellbeing Feature to Monitor your Screen Time

Google launched the Digital Wellbeing feature in 2018 to help Android users maintain a balance between their real and digital lives. The app monitors the time users spend on their smartphones and which apps they use frequently. It also tells the number of notifications a user receives throughout the day and how many times the user unlocked their device.

The Digital wellbeing feature serves best if you want to track your usage information and limit the time you spend on your smartphone. You can do this by setting a time limit for each app. Whenever the app finds you going over the set limit, it will send you an alert.

This feature helps significantly enhance the overall performance of the device and improves battery health. The lesser your screen time, the more time your device gets to cool itself. Apart from improving the battery life, the app also works great to reduce your smartphone addiction.

6- Limit App Permissions

It’s important to audit apps every now and then to make sure they’re not overreaching their access. Certain applications on your smartphone may collect more data about you and have more influence over your device than you’d want.

It’s not a mistake to provide permissions; in most cases, reputable developers will not request anything that isn’t required for the app to work. Facebook Messenger, for example, requests permission to use the device’s microphone not because it wants to listen in on you secretly but because it has a voice memo feature.

For Android

Go to your device’s settings and open the “Apps and Notifications” section. From the list, select the app you want to check and tap “Permissions.” You should now see all access this app has – microphone access, location access, contacts access, etc. To turn off any access, uncheck the box of that specific permission.

For iPhone

Head to your iPhone’s settings and tap Privacy to view all the categories of permissions. Tap any category, for example, location, calendar, contacts, and reminders. You can now view the apps that include access to the selected category. Select the app whose access you want to turn on or off.

iPhone allows users to view privacy reports for the apps installed on the device. This feature is available on iOS 15.2 or later. The report shows how the Apps utilize the access you’ve granted them. You can view the privacy report by opening settings > privacy and then tapping on App Privacy Report.

7- Remove Bloatware

Bloatware or PUP (Potentially unwanted programs) is preinstalled software on your device that wastes plenty of resources and space on your device regardless of being helpful. While some of the bloatware may be beneficial, the vast majority just take up storage space and ultimately slow down the performance.

Most manufacturers collaborate with famous brands to preinstall their apps on the devices. However, here’s how to remove them.

• Open the menu to view all the apps on your device.
• Find a preinstalled bloatware you wish to remove
• Tap and hold your thumb on the app’s icon, and tap Uninstall or Remove App.
• Some android devices don’t show the uninstall button, but you will find the bin icon if you drag the app to the top right or left corner of the screen.

You might notice some apps that don’t have the uninstall button. It means that you can’t remove them completely. However, you will find the “Disable App” button to stop their functions if you want.

8- Update Your Device’s Firmware

Over time, software developers improve and upgrade the operating system (OS) to improve the device’s performance. This includes bug fixes and updating the security patches. In Android devices, such updates come under the responsibility of “Google Play Services”, which must be timely updated through the Google Play Store. In iPhones, all the regular updates are received at the App Store.

Most smartphones automatically check for upcoming updates unless you’ve turned the option off. If you wish to check the updates manually, simply go to the device’s settings, then tap on About Device. After that, tap on Software Update and then tap Check for Updates.

Interesting read: 15 Cool iPhone Hacks You Never Knew About

9- Adjust Automatic Sync

Apps like Facebook, Instagram, Gmail, and Twitter are regularly updated to provide the most up-to-date information and notifications. This is necessary if you can’t afford to miss critical information, but it reduces the battery life. Moreover, your device could also be consuming plenty of internet data. Therefore, it is useful to adjust automatic syncing to optimize the battery life and save your internet data.

To turn off auto-sync, go to the Accounts section in the settings to get a list of all the accounts configured on the device. Here, you should see an auto-sync option, locate it, and disable it.

10- Avoid Live Wallpapers

Android’s live wallpaper feature must be one of your favourites. However, you should be aware that poorly designed live wallpapers may consume more CPU cycles, exhausting the battery and processing power quickly. Therefore, static wallpapers will be a wise choice if you want your phone to perform better in the long run.

Using dark wallpapers is another lesser-known trick to extend your phone’s battery life. It is because most modern-day smartphones have AMOLED displays. Such screens work on the phenomenon of electroluminescence – emission of light when current passes. It means that when a colorful wallpaper is set, the current passes through the screen, and the colors are displayed. But, when a black wallpaper is set, the organic particles do not light up. Resultantly, a significant amount of battery power is saved.

11- Factory Reset Your Device

If the previously mentioned phone tips and tricks didn’t bring any notable change in your device’s performance, performing a factory reset may help. Resetting your smartphone to its factory settings freshens up the firmware. However, you must know that factory resetting the device will delete all the data and apps on your phone. So, you must back up the data before performing the factory reset.

Although reinstalling all the apps is a very demanding task, it will bring your device to its previous glory. This is because deleting the apps will also remove all the residual files that were bogging down your smartphone.

You might like: Mobile Phone Recycling – Get Rid of Your Old Phone Today

Conclusion

Even if your phone is ageing, trying these tweaks will bring a significant difference in the overall performance of your device. If you have any other performance-boosting phone tips and tricks that could be used in 2022, let us know in the comments.