Google always aims to make Android phones as user-friendly as possible, but still, there are some settings lost into the far-flung array of settings scattered all over which are not easy to remember. The following article aims at optimizing an Android phone for best performance in terms of speed, battery life and saving memory by accessing these settings.
Every one of us has run into these problems, sometime or the other, while using our Android phones.
1. The phone goes sluggish and apps won't open quickly
2. The phone hangs up
3. The battery doesn't last for at least 8 hours
4. The memory depletes and the space is utilized quickly
5. Cluttered functioning, especially while using a browser
6. Browser takes a long time to load the webpage or crashes
7. Overheating
Try to implement the following settings. These are one time settings. This will enhance the performance of your Android and save you a lot of time and exasperation which often follows!
1. Battery Optimization
This setting doesn't seem to appear directly under the list of settings like notifications or brightness. Hopefully, Google will include this in the next versions. There is a way to access this: When you click open the Android settings, you will find a search box at the top. Type 'battery optimization' in the search box and you will get it instantly. You can also find it under special access menu, which in turn is listed under the Apps menu.
Battery optimization should be allowed for all apps except for Google Play Services, Google Services Framework and all other apps which, you think, should constantly run in the background in order to not miss any important notification like Google Pay etc. Google Play Services should be allowed to run in the background as it enhances the user's overall Android experience by coordinating and integrating various functionalities of the Android. Google Play Services won't consume your battery even if allowed to run 24/7 but services like GPS location or WiFi which are dependent upon Play Services.
2. Notifications
You have 50 apps on your Android but you probably do not need notifications for all. One needs notifications 'on' only for those apps which are related to email, messages, events and money matters related apps. The fewer the notifications, longer will run the battery. You can easily find 'Notifications' listed under the settings. Once you click on it, you will see the list of all apps in your mobile – preinstalled as well as downloaded. Disable all notifications except for those apps you think are necessary like WhatsApp, mail etc. Once you enable notifications for a particular app, that app will further display sub-menu which vary for different apps.
For example, you can see the notifications options of WhatsApp and Google Pay as shown in the following images:
3. Stopping Automatic Launching of Apps and Allowing Them to Run in the Background
This setting is different for different brands. For other brands like Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Asus, Lenovo, Oppo, Nokia etc. plaese visit this link: Take Control Over Automatic App Launching and Background Running of Apps These are the settings in Huwei:
There are apps like Gallery, YouTube or Amazon which you would like to remain open only as long as you need them. There are certain apps like messaging apps, battery monitoring apps, Android launchers, weather app, news widget which need to launch on start up and run 24/7 even when the phone is locked or in sleep mode. There is still another category of apps which you would desire to run in the background as long as you need those open after you have opened, like fitness monitoring apps, music players or online radio. There are smart selective settings in the Android to control this app behavior and thus save unnecessary loss of battery.
Go to the settings > battery > App launch. If you choose Manage automatically option, the smart Android algorithm will do it for you. But if you want to be one step smarter further, choose Manage manually. Here, you get another 3 smart sub-options: 1. Auto launch 2. Secondary launch and 3. Run in the background.
Configure as per your requirement. If you do not see these above mentioned settings in your Android, just download Hybernation Manager app from Google Playstore and configure it as per your taste.
4. Deleting Junk Files
You must have noticed that after a few days of using your mobile, it becomes sluggish. This may happen for one particular app which you use repeatedly on your mobile. For example, Pinterest app. If you open and close too many images, the app gets slow after a few days. (The same is true for Windows, too. Once the available RAM is filled up in Windows OS, the system will start swapping out currently unused memory areas to store the files. This will considerably slow down the system's performance. For normal hard disks the access time is counted in milliseconds, for SSDs in microseconds, in RAM it is down to nanoseconds. Unfortunately, we do not have such privileges in Android system.) Please note that this has nothing to do with your internal memory. Slowdown happens due to gradual accumulation of temporary files or system cache files. It is desirable to delete these files periodically, not daily. Cache files are important to recover frequently required webpages quickly.
Now, this can be done quickly using a third-party app like SD Maid. Download it from the Playstore. Click on Scan and then click on Run and you are done! I like to do it manually though, for some reasons. Under Settings, go to Storage Cleaner. There you will find a separate cleaning option for WhatsApp. By virtue of it, you can clean received files, sent images, audios, videos etc, which is capable of freeing considerable space in turn and recover some internal memory. Please note that you can delete 'received media items' from the Gallery but not 'sent items'. This requires special access like just described.
In Windows, you have to free up recycle bin and browser history separately. In Android, this takes place in a single click.
5. Stop Automatic Syncing of Google Services
Syncing is simply updating the received information in an app without actually opening it, for example, downloading an email in the mail app even without opening it. Do you really need it done every few minutes? Not really. Android is a Google product and Google runs a lot of services in any Android mobile and, by default, the syncing is enabled. The Google services are many, see the pic below and these services keep on awakening the processor and draining the battery. You can see, I have kept only Gmail syncing enabled (I don't even need it as Gmail or any app updates itself automatically when you open it). Enabling Gmail syncing means, if I open Gmail in my mobile, write some mail or save some drafts, all those changes will be automatically reflected in my iPad or tablet or laptop or desktop, provided the internet data is on in those gadgets.
Automatic syncing options can be changed as follows: Under Settings, click on the Accounts > Google. Select your account by clicking on the email address and disable the Google Services you wish to. (Just make it a point to keep notifications and sync Gmail enabled under the settings of your Gmail account in the Gmail app)
6. Disable Auto-update of Apps
Updates for individual apps keep coming every day from the Playstore but those are not mandatory. One may waste valuable time and data only updating apps! In my opinion, one should disable all auto-updates and choose updating manually, instead. Updating apps once every 3-4 months is enough except for those apps which perform monetary transactions like bank apps, Google Pay, PayTM etc. Such apps must be updated as and when updates are available as the updates may contain important security patches.
To disable auto-updates: Open Playstore app > open Settings > click on Auto-update apps and choose Don't auto-update.
7. Using the Browser Smartly
Clumsy use of browser is one of the most common reasons which makes your mobile tardy and lethargic. One must pay attention to some important factors while using a browser. These are some of the smart browser tips for best browser performance:
a. Do not keep too many tabs open: Often we open a webpage and forget to close it before hitting a back button or closing the browser. As a result, multiple tabs remain open when we close the browser and whenever we open it again, all those tabs are already up and running! Opening multiple tabs overloads the browser. It is stuffing your mouth with too many food items at once!
b. Turn on 'Lite mode' in browser settings: The most popular browser, Chrome, gives the option of using 'Lite mode' under its settings. Turn it on. Using lite mode enables the browser to scale down the page and load it faster.
c. Use lightweight or Mini browsers: If you open the Playstore and go to the list of browsers, you will be surprised to find how much browsers differ in their 'weights'. Conventional browsers are really very heavy e.g. Chrome is 64 MB and Microsoft's Edge is a hulking 81 MB in size while the newer or lightweight browsers are very light and fast e.g. Firefox Lite which is just 5.7 MB. Always go for lite browsers.
d. Opt for auto or medium quality media (image or video) in settings: Now this is applicable not only to browsers but to any app that opens images like Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr or videos like YouTube, Hotstar, Discovery, National Geographic etc. Always set the quality of image or video on medium or auto. This setting will enable to load the media to load faster and save data, time and battery drain.
8. Discard that HIGH MEGAPIXEL=GOOD QUALITY Notion
When should one use a high megapixel camera and high resolution setting while taking a photograph or video? The simple answer to this question is that when we want to project that image/video on big screens, projectors or when we want to take out big poster prints, only then do we need to keep high megapixel or high resolution setting before. For our routine use, a 2 MP (megapixel) or 1920 x 1080 resolution is more than enough. People think that high megapixel means the best quality of image and mobile companies reap profit out of this ignorance by launching newer and newer mobile models with higher and higher megapixel cameras!
If you take photographs with different resolutions, you will find that doubling the megapixel value increases the image size 1.5 times. Take shots with different resolutions and megapixel settings in a camera and you will realize that all the images look exactly the same as long as you see and share those images on your mobile or even on an 19" desktop.
By choosing a higher megapixel setting, in fact, you are fooling yourself and landing in unnecessary trouble like – If image taken is heavy due to such over-amplified settings, it will consume more space in the memory, it will consume more time and data if you send it in an email and if you are using cloud storage, your storage will exhaust at an alarming speed. The bottom line is, if one wants to take good photographs, one should not give in to the megapixel misconception but rather concentrate on picture mode, HDR, white balance, focus, brightness than on higher resolutions.
9. Use WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS Only When Necessary
Swipe down from above on your home screen. This will open quick settings panel. Switch on WiFi, Location and Bluetooth only when required. These apps go on consuming battery, more so, when the signals are weak. Another battery consumer is – Brightness. God knows why, but many people keep the brightness on 100. I prefer to keep it on 35 or on auto. Screen brightness always tops the list of services or apps that hog your battery.
Implement these settings as described above and you will find considerable improvement in the performance of your Android phone in terms of speed and battery life.
Are you using a Windows PC? Read this article and apply smart settings to your Windows OS as well: Tips, Tricks and Settings: Make life Easy with Windows 10
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