6 Simple Tips To Speed Up Your Android Phone Or Tablet

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We all love our mobile devices, since they help us to stay in touch with others, kill time and they’re overall good entertainment devices. But it becomes frustrating when the same device starts lagging. Even simple tasks like launching apps or using multitasking proves troublesome. Maybe sometimes even letters appear a few seconds later after you type them. So the once speedier mean machine now runs slow, but fortunately there are some simple tips which you can follow right now to speed up your Android device. And yes, anyone can do it—they are not just for the tech-savvies out there.

Use less widgets and live wallpapers on your Android

Now this is the part that many people would not love to follow. The benefit of using widgets is that they help us to quickly do a certain task, without launching that app or performing any additional action. For example, the Drive widget lets you directly open starred folders, the camera app or create a new document or folder right from the home screen. The problem is that if you have many widgets active on your home screen, they can reduce battery life as well as slow down your device.

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To remove widgets from the home screen, simply long tap the one which you want to remove and then drag it to the top of the screen.

Just like widgets, live wallpaper too will slow down your device and drain your battery faster. That’s why, if possible, use a normal wallpaper, and not any kind of live wallpaper.

Uninstall unused apps

Every device has a limited amount of storage space, and on some devices, the storage can be expanded with a microSD card. Here’s a rule – the less free space you have on your device, the slower it will perform. If you’re not using those apps, then now is the right time to uninstall them. If you have a lot of media—photos, videos and songs—then either delete some of them or move them to a cloud storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive. You can always install these cloud storage apps from Google Play Store.

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If you want to uninstall an app, then head over to Settings > Apps and select the app that you want to uninstall. Note that if your carrier has pre-installed some apps then those bloatwares cannot be removed by this method, but they can at least be disabled using this method.

If your Android device has an expandable storage, then you can also move those apps to the MicroSD card. To do that, you need to visit the same Apps section that we’ve looked above.

Clear app cache files

We’ve previously learned how to remove cache files on Android. For doing this, you can use Clean Master, an app that can free up a lot of space on your device by removing cached files, or you can also remove individual cache files from the Settings > Apps menu.

Get the latest software updates

If yours is a Nexus device then you don’t need to worry, as you’ll be the first one to receive updates. Other manufacturers and carriers also continually push latest software updates to their devices so that you get the latest firmware for your device, with bugs and security issues fixed and performance improved.

system-update

To check for OS update, go to Settings > About Phone and tap on System updates option. On this screen, tap on “Check now.”

Rooting and installing a custom ROM

If you’re into this Android world then you must know about rooting and why should you root your Android device. Rooting means gaining access to system level which opens door to new possibilities that were not possible before. Once rooted, you can overclock your device, install custom ROM and do much more. But read this loudly – rooting voids your device’s warranty. That’s why you should do this only if you know what you’re doing.

Install a new app launcher

If you’re on a Nexus device then you’re already running a plain vanilla version of Android, which means you can skip this step. But for others, let’s say if you’re using a Samsung device, then it comes pre-loaded with TouchWiz UI and its custom launcher and apps. A launcher controls many areas of your device such as homescreen, lock screen, and other critical areas. A third party launcher will change most of the UI and give your device a new look, and sometimes it also speeds up your Android device.

Enter Lightning Launcher Home, an app that claims to be a fast, light and extremely customizable launcher. Well, if it claims to be fast then it’s worth trying out, at least once. If you’re not comfortable with it, then there’s nothing preventing you from uninstalling it.

So that’s it. Follow these tips and speed up your Android mobile or tablet right now. If you enjoyed this post, then also check out 10 time saving tips for Nexus 4.

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