When your phone was very new, it appears very fast and snappy. It gives you joy and you are just happy with its operations. But over time, or a couple of months, you started noticing some hanging or dragging, and it started pissing you off. Interestingly you are not alone, this is a common thing amongst many phone users. So How do you speed up your phone? To start with why does your phone get slower over time? This might be your fault though…
Why do phones get slower over time?
It is a fact that phones —both Android devices and iPhones— get slower as they age. There are various factors that contribute to this, some of which are absolutely outside your control, while others are influenced by your activities.
First and foremost, the software on your phone changes. It came pre-installed with an Android or iOS version that was optimised for the device. The device’s software updates may not be as well optimised. Updates may also include new apps or other items that take up additional space. Your device’s apps and games are also updated on a regular basis. Developers will occasionally start targeting newer devices with hardware and features that you do not have. Apps become increasingly complex as time goes on, and older devices struggle to keep up.
If you have an iPhone, it’s possible that it’s been deliberately slowed down. Apple admitted in 2017 that it deliberately slowed down some older iPhones to “prolong the life” of the devices. In essence, it lowered performance in order to make the batteries age more slowly.
When its Your Fault
Many believe that slower phones are a result of ageing and as we’ve discussed above there is some truth to that, however, your activities sometimes make things worse or even speed things up.
Consider how your phone looked on the first day. When you first turned it on and signed in, you discovered a few apps already installed. After that, you began to download your favourite apps and games. Maybe you also downloaded some backed-up images and movies.
You immediately start loading the gadget with new content. And your list of apps will continue to grow over time. You’re also shooting more photos and videos, downloading more files, and the browser is storing more information.
It takes longer to scroll through your apps, there are more notifications, finding things in the file manager is more difficult, and some apps that weren’t present on day one are utilising resources in the background. Not only is the device becoming slower in terms of performance, but it’s also taking you longer to navigate about. We keep asking our devices to do more and more, and we keep adding things that get in our way. You can’t just point the finger at your phone.
How to Speed Up your Phone
There are a number of things you can do to improve your phone’s performance.
To begin, uninstall any apps that you are no longer using. These apps may not appear to be harmful, but they do take up storage space and may do tasks in the background on occasion. It’s a good idea to browse over your device’s apps and games every now and then. Some Android phones ship with launchers filled with bloatware, simply change this to a better one and you will even get a new look and feel for your device
Second, clean out your phone’s files. The Downloads and Screenshots folders, in particular, can become clogged with files you no longer require. You might also delete the local files on your device if you’re backing up images and videos to a cloud storage provider.
And if it all fails, you can perform a factory reset to start over from the beginning. This will clear everything out and restore the phone to its original state. You can’t stop devices from growing slower, but you can go back in time now and then.
