Some beautiful new Android smartphones are hitting the market seemingly every day. That’s a good news from those wanting to break away from Apple and sell iPhones and switch. OLED screens, multiple cameras, and super-fast processors make it tempting to ditch your old phone at the first sign of trouble. The biggest reason people choose to upgrade their phone is that it feels like it keeps getting slower and slower. The fact is, it is getting slower. Every year, software is getting better and more complex. That means your older phone is slowing down while trying to keep up. The easiest solution is to upgrade. However, the newest smartphones are expensive, so it pays to get as much life out of your current phone as possible. Here are some tips to speed up your older Android phone and get some life out of it.
Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay
1. Disable Animations
When your Android phone is brand new, all of those animations that smooth out transitions and create cool effects when you interact with the screen are fun to look at. However, you don’t need them, and they may be slowing down your phone. It is a little tricky to disable them, but you only have to do it once.
Go to Settings > About phone > Software information, then tap several times where you see Build number to enable developer mode.
Once you do that, go to Settings > Developer options. Next, scroll down to the scale options for Window Animation, Transition Animation, and Animator duration and turn them off. Keep developer mode on or your changes will be undone.
2. Remove Unused Apps
If your phone is slowing down, a lack of memory may be the culprit. If you have had your phone for a while, you likely have a bunch apps you no longer use. Just go to Settings > Apps click on the apps you don’t use and hit uninstall.
3. Get Rid of Widgets
Widgets are a great feature on a new phone. They allow you to use some of the features of your apps without having to open them. However, since they are always running, they can slow down your phone. They are easy to remove. Just long press the widget and click remove.
4. Clear Cached Data
Another way to free up some memory is to clear out the cache each app uses to store data. In theory, the cache is supposed to speed up your phone, but with an older phone, some of those apps may be hogging resources. Unfortunately, you need to do this for each app on your phone. Just go to Settings > Apps click on the app then tap Storage > Clear cache.
5. Enable Chrome Lite Mode
If like 90% of Android users, you browse the web with Chrome, you can speed up your experience with Chrome’s Lite mode. With Lite mode on, Chrome uses Google’s servers to rewrite pages to make them load faster. Just open Chrome, tap the overflow menu in the upper right-hand corner, hit settings, and then Lite mode.
6. Factory Reset
If you have done everything else and your phone is still too sluggish to use, consider starting over. In theory, a factory reset will make your phone run like new again, especially if you don’t put too many apps back on. It is not a perfect fix, but it might give you a little more time before you need to give in and upgrade.
