Fix your slow and sluggish phone in seconds with these five easy tips
These quick changes can instantly boost the speed of your phone.
Does your smartphone take ages to complete simple tasks like loading apps or searching online? Many of us face this infuriating issue when our phones are no longer brand new, but your device's sluggishness could be easy enough to fix.
A tech expert has explained that there could be a simple culprit that's slowing down your phone, and it isn't ageing hardware or planned obsolescence. The real reason for your phone's buffering is a constant, invisible drain on its resources, which is caused by the 'free' apps you use every day- particularly social media apps, the tech pro explained.
But don't worry, this is easily fixed. James Clarke, Director at Cacti PCs, highlights that the "free app drain" could be slowing down your phone.
He explained: "When you download a free app, you grant it permission to run rampant in the background. Apps like social media and retail platforms constantly ping servers to harvest data and serve ads.
"It’s a massive, unnecessary tax on your phone’s performance, making an overloaded device feel ancient. Disabling this function for unnecessary apps is the easiest, free performance upgrade you can get."
Luckily, James has shared some quick and easy ways to immediately speed up the function of your smartphone.
Here's everything you need to know.
5 ways to immediately speed up your phone
1. Audit your background refresh
Turning off your Background App Refresh stops your apps from being able to automatically update their content in the background, which can slow down the function of your phone.
To turn it off, go to Settings > Background App Refresh (on iOS devices) or Background Activity (on Android devices).
Switch this off for all non-essential apps like shopping, news and social media.
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2. Target apps that use the most battery
Your battery usage can indicate which apps are the main culprits of draining your phone's power and slowing it down.
To find out, check your phone's Battery Usage page on your settings.
Any app consistently showing high activity that isn't essential (like your email or calendar) should have its background permissions heavily restricted.
3. The 'deep sleep' setting (only on Android)
Those with Android phones have a built-in battery optimisation to send unused apps to 'Deep Sleep'.
This automatically prevents the apps from running in the background until you manually open them, allowing your phone to function faster.
4. Curb location services
Constantly having your location turned on can severely drain the battery in your phone, causing it to slow down.
To turn this off, go to to Location/Privacy Settings and change permission from 'Always' to 'While Using' for almost all apps, including most weather and shopping tools.
5. Clear the cache
Apps like Chrome and Facebook accumulate large temporary files.
Regularly clearing the app's cache in its settings can free up precious internal resources, giving your phone instant relief.