Delete These Resource-Hungry Apps From Your Phone Now to Free Up Memory and Stop Lag
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - The memory of a smartphone that fills up quickly is often not just due to lots of photos or videos. Unbeknownst to you, a string of rarely used apps can also be the culprits behind a slow phone and reduced performance.
If you check the current contents of your smartphone, chances are there are several apps that have not been used for a long time. Yet these apps remain sitting on the device and quietly consume storage.
Not only do they occupy internal memory, but some apps also continue to run in the background. This condition makes the phone’s system work harder, drains the battery faster, and slows device performance.
To keep the phone running optimally, users are advised to start sorting out the apps that are truly important and immediately delete apps that are not needed. In this way, storage space becomes more spacious and smartphone performance can return to speed.
Here is the list of apps that should be deleted from the phone:
- Pre-installed Apps (Bloatware)
Android users often complain about the abundance of pre-installed apps or bloatware that are automatically installed since the device was first purchased. Some apps do have specific functions, but not a few are never used at all. Unfortunately, some pre-installed apps are locked by the system so they cannot be deleted. However if there is an uninstall option, you should delete unimportant pre-installed apps so the phone’s memory is freed up.
- Apps to Improve Phone Performance
Battery saver apps, RAM cleaners, and game boosters are often downloaded because they claim to improve phone performance. In fact, such apps often become an additional burden for the device. Many of them continue to run in the background and consume RAM and storage. Rather than making the phone faster, these apps can slow down the system. Therefore, users are advised to remove performance-enhancing apps that are not truly needed.
- Apps with Similar Functions
Not a few users store several apps with the same function on one device. For example, having more than two browsers, photo editors, or music players. In reality, these apps offer similar features and only fill the storage. To save space, choose the one app that is most frequently used and delete the rest.
Google Reminds of Memory-Hungry Files
In addition to apps, phone memory fills up quickly due to piles of old files such as photos, videos, movies, and documents downloaded. Google even reminds that a full memory condition can drastically reduce system performance and cause the battery to drain faster.
According to The Sun, Google advises Android users to routinely clean up several types of files:
Old Photos and Videos
Photo and video files are a major cause of storage filling up quickly. Users are advised to curate and delete files that are not important. Before deleting, important files can be backed up to cloud services like Google Photos.
Here is how to delete photos via Google Photos:
Open the Google Photos app
Sign in to your Google account
Tap and hold the photo or video you want to delete
Tap the Delete or Trash icon at the top of the screen
Offline Movies and Music
Offline downloaded entertainment content also consumes a lot of memory, especially high-resolution films. Users can go to the relevant app’s settings and delete downloads of films or songs that are no longer watched or listened to.
Enable Auto-Archive
If there are apps that are rarely used but you still want to keep, you can use the Android auto-archive feature. This feature allows apps to be archived automatically without deleting the user’s important data. How to:
Open Google Play Store
Open the Settings menu
Select General
Enable Auto-Archive
Delete Accumulated Downloads
The Downloads folder is often filled with PDFs, documents, or attachments that haven’t been used for a long time. Because they are often forgotten, these files quietly consume storage. Users are advised to regularly check the Downloads folder and delete obsolete files to keep phone memory free.