Improving the performance and optimizing your smartphone is something that can help you to make this stay in good shape for a longer time, and can also make it have a longer lifespan. It is no secret that, with the simple use of our mobile device for a relatively long period of time, the user experience can get worse and worse. If on top of that we make inappropriate use of it and do not take action, we are likely to end up in a dead end.
During the last ten years I have come across situations that might seem incredible to you, but that in the end illustrate the wrongdoing of many users with their mobile devices. One of the most recent ones I remember was with a top-of-the-line device of its generation, a Galaxy S21+. The user was a 60 year old friend of a family member who complained that his device was malfunctioning, so much so that he thought it was broken and that he had to take it to a service center.
When I took a look at it to try to help him I noticed that it was running very slowly, but I also saw where the problem was, his smartphone was full of junk apps and malware. The malware had gotten on his phone by misusing it, visiting inappropriate sites and downloading content that was not what it seemed. Restoring the handset to factory settings would have been the quickest and most effective solution, but he had photos he didn’t want to lose, so I ended up explaining to him in a simple way what to do and he decided to take it to a store to “get the job done”.
The misuse of the smartphone is undoubtedly, one of the most serious problems that affect users of this type of devices today. Not only can we find what I have told you in the previous example, there are also milder cases that demonstrate a total apathy on the part of users to keep in good condition that gadget they carry everywhere, and use for several hours a day. It is curious, because many do not realize how important it is to give a minimum of care to their smartphone until they have to spend a day or two without it.
In the end, make good use of the smartphone is essential for it to work properly, but it is also necessary to give basic maintenance and actively take measures that will ultimately not only allow us to improve performance, but also make us enjoy our smartphone for longer.
I could give you many examples, but I am going to opt for a very personal one, my iPhone 8 Plus. I have used this smartphone for almost five years (it turns five this year, in September), and it still works as well as the first day I have never had any serious problemsi have never had any serious problems, apart from a couple of spontaneous game crashes due to problems with the application itself, I have never run out of free space and the battery health is at 79%. Yes, it has only degraded 21% in almost five years, and I have made a fairly intensive use of it, especially on vacation, as I use it to take pictures and videos, and there are days that it has been charged several times at the wrong time and with external batteries.
It is clear that time passes, and that smartphones are not immune to it no matter how much we take care of them, but with proper use and care we can make the impact of time less, improve performance and keep it optimized for years. Do you want to know how to achieve this? Well, read on, in this guide we are going to give you eight tricks that will help you If you’re still hungry for more, don’t miss this other guide, where we looked at ten tips for using your smartphone efficiently.
1.-Updating your smartphone can improve performance
Although unfortunately it can also do the opposite. I distinctly remember what happened to my iPhone 4 when I upgraded to iOS 8, i noticed a considerable loss of performanceso much so that in the end I decided to buy a new smartphone, since I could no longer go back to a previous version of the operating system.
I wanted to show you  “the two sides of the coin” because, at the end of the day, that’s the reality we have in the smartphone industry, and it’s the only way we can really help you. If you have a relatively old smartphone, upgrading to the latest version of its operating system can end up being counterproductive. On the other hand, if you have a smartphone that is in a relatively new generation, upgrading will almost always be a good idea.
New versions of Android and iOS usually include enhancements and optimizations that are intended to so that the latest hardware can realize its full potentialbut they do not bring important new features in this regard for those models that were already properly “squeezed” in previous versions. If you are in doubt about whether or not to upgrade, it is best to seek performance tests from reputable sources.
2.-Beware of the applications you install
And I am not just referring to the classic issue of the malware camouflaged in malicious applicationsi am also referring to those that are “harmless” but that can be left behind in the backgroundin the background consuming resources valuable resources. Not all applications work in the same way when they are in the background, this is true, but even in the mildest cases they will end up taking up storage space and RAM, and also other resources if they make connections to the Internet at specific times (automatic updates, for example).
With respect to malicious applications I think there is little to say that we don’t already know. It is not always easy to differentiate them, but there is a very effective technique that will help us to avoid them: do not install anything in which we do not have total confidence, and avoid those applications with “inappropriate” content that promise things that are too good to be true. If in doubt, it is always better to ask or seek information before you risk installing the application.
Do not install malicious applications or applications that consume resources in the background will not help us to improve the performance of our smartphone, but it will allow us to prevent it from being affected, and will help us to keep it in an optimal state. Removing those applications will help us to improve the performance of the smartphone, and it is something that we should do do as soon as possible if we suspect that we may have installed applications with malware.
3.-A reboot can be a godsend
It may seem incredible, but a simple reboot can work miracles with electronic devices, and smartphones are no exception, in fact they are rather the opposite for a very simple reason, and that is that these mobile terminals are usually always on, and it may be weeks or even months before they get to turn off just once.
That is a direct consequence of the use for which they were designed, of that there is no doubt, but all this can end up being counterproductive. The simple use of the smartphone can produce small problems or errors that, a priori, we believe have been overcome at the time, but that in reality are still present and will accumulate over time. If we never turn off the terminal, the effects of these accumulated errors can be quite varied.
A simple reboot performs a complete emptying of the smartphone’s memorythis makes most of those errors disappear, and can also free us from unruly processes that would have remained active even after closing the application they were associated with. It is one of the simplest and most effective ways to solve problems, and can improve smartphone performance.
4.-Reducing animations and effects also helps to improve performance
Operating system effects have always had a considerable impact on performance, it’s something I’ve been very clear about for years and an issue I had to deal with at the time with my iPhone 4s Disabling effects and transparencies helped me improve performance of my iOS 8 handset, and made the wait a little more bearable until I could buy a new handset.
Today this hasn’t changed, disabling effects and animations is a very effective way to get a relatively old smartphone to show a working smoother with more current operating systems. At the same time, it is a very easy adjustment to make, and is available on both iOS and Android.
On iOS we can reduce the effects of transparencies in  “Settings > Accessibility” and then entering “Display and Text Size”, and we can also limit the animations following the same route but entering, at the end, “Motion”. We can also modify other options that will be very useful, such as the automatic effects in messages and the preview of videos.
If you have an Android terminal you must first activate the developer mode. To do this, you have to go to the settings menu of your smartphone and follow the route  “System > Device Information ”. Once there, you must make several clicks (between 6 and 8) to activate this mode. When you are done, you will be able to access the developer options from “System”, and through them you will be able to disable the animations.
5.-Free up storage space and don’t fill up your smartphone
It is one of the easiest ways to improve the performance of a smartphone, and also allows us to improve its useful life and keep it optimized. With the passage of time and the use of our smartphone we tend to install applications that we then do not use, but that are still there, taking up space. It is also common to accumulate photos and videos that we do not need for anything, or to leave large amounts of photos that are already some time old and that can eventually leave us without space.
The storage capacity of a smartphone is finite, and exhausting it is very easy, especially if we are of that type of users who forget about regular wipes of content on our smartphone. Here I can give another very personal example, my partner has not had space problems in two years because I gave him a smartphone with 128 GB, but a few days ago I wanted to take a look out of curiosity and he already had almost 90 GB occupied, mostly in photos and videos of WhatsApp groups that he had been accumulating and had not deleted.
Running out of space is a problem because we will not be able to take photos or record videos. We will also not be able to use certain applications, and we may experience cispontaneous errs, performance problems and errors. Google itself said at the time that if we have less than 10% of free space on our smartphone we will begin to notice a degradation of the performance of our terminal, so I think the thing is very clear: delete applications, photos, videos and content you do not need, and move those that do to an external storage unit, the cloud or your PC to always have free space on your smartphone.
6.-Do not close all apps in the background
I know it may sound strange because, in the end, an application in the background consumes resources, but this has an explanation, and it is that this can be useful and help us to improve performance. It is very easy to understand, when we open an application for the first time, this stays open in the background if we do not force it to close. When that happens, it consumes a small amount of RAM.
If we force close the application we will free that portion of RAM memory, but if we want to use it again our smartphone will have to reload it, i.e. the CPU and GPU will work again for the application to start. This would not have happened if the application had been in the background, in RAM, as the system would only have had to bring it to the foreground.
This is very easy to check. Open an application, jump and open a couple more. Now reopen the first application, you will see that it is active again almost instantly. Well, force close that application, open a couple of applications and then reopen the one you closed. You notice the difference, don’t you? Still, keep in mind that it can be good to close background applications that you are not going to use. On the other hand, keep in mind that if you don’t have enough RAM the older apps that were left in the background will have to be reloaded.
7.-Beware of the battery: A change can be essential
Smartphones use components manufactured in very advanced processes. This allows to improve efficiency and reduce consumption, but in the end, when we perform demanding tasks, the CPU and GPU of our terminal need a constant power supply If the battery is deeply worn outit may not be able to maintain that stability, and the consequences could range from a simple loss of performance to a spontaneous shutdown.
Apple is one of the companies that has taken this most seriously, and also one of those that generated the most controversy at the time for the ⠓silent” activation of the low power mode in terminals with batteries that were very deteriorated. That scandal gave way to the tool that allows us to see if it is still able to provide normal peak performance. If this is not the case, our terminal may spontaneously shut down on more than one occasion if we do not activate the low power mode. The user has a choice, but in the end there is no room for maneuver.
Such a mode reduces performance, as is evident, so much so that changing the battery of our smartphone will not only help us to improve performance, it will also allow us to give it a second life. On Android we can also visualize the battery status, although not all manufacturers offer a tool complete enough to make it “dispensable” to resort to third-party solutions, so keep this in mind.
8.-Forget about widgets and dynamic themes
In the end they represent a significant consumption of resources, so much so that in certain terminals can make the difference between a good user experience and quite the opposite. Freeing your smartphone from widgets and dynamic wallpapers will help you to improve performance substantially, even if we have a fairly powerful model, but that’s not the only advantage.
Both widgets and dynamic themes consume battery power continuouslyso by getting rid of them you will also be giving a boost to your device�s battery life. As you know, a clean operating system is almost always the best option, especially when performance is a priority.
In addition to this, you can also disable the applications that come at startup with your smartphone, i.e. those that you can’t delete but don’t need. Another option for improving performance is to use a lighter launcher ( “launcher”) than the one that comes with your phone configured by default.
