Few tech challenges are more annoying than having a slow smartphone. After you’ve owned your phone for a while, chances are it will slow down like any other technology. How can you tell? You may notice that your texts aren’t appearing as fast, it takes longer for your apps to open, or there’s a delay when you key in information. Whether it happens suddenly or gradually over time, a slow smartphone can be detrimental to your workflow.
 
But don’t panic, as there are a few simple fixes that can help speed up your smartphone without resorting to sending it in for a repair or replacement. 

Here are helpful tips to speed up a slow smartphone.

Restart your smartphone

Sometimes, the simplest solution when you have a technology problem is to reboot. Using multiple apps on your smartphone that run in the background takes up random access memory (RAM), making your phone slower to respond. As available RAM gets used up, you may notice your smartphone lags or has issues with connecting to Wi-Fi, even if connected perfectly before. Restarting your smartphone may help you clear out its RAM, and that can increase its speed.

How to restart your smartphone depends on the type you have. iPhone users should press and hold the side and volume buttons simultaneously until the “slide to power off” message appears. Then, slide the power switch right as you press and hold the side button until the Apple logo appears.

For Android owners, press and hold the power and volume buttons simultaneously and release them when you see the boot-up animation on the screen.

As a last resort, you can do a factory reset on your phone, but make sure you have your data and contacts backed up so you don’t lose anything.

Manage your smartphone apps

If an app on your Android or iPhone is freezing up or not functioning normally, it could mean your app is out of date. App updates provide bug fixes that can be directly related to the performance issue.

Next, check to see how much storage your phone has available. Both Androids and iPhones can become problematic when less than 10% of your storage is available. Transferring large data hogs on your phone — like photos and videos — to the cloud or a computer is the fastest way to free up a lot of data. Another way to free up space on your phone is to remove unused apps. And if you are not going to use them again in the future, when you delete an app, that also prompts you to delete additional data files associated with that app. Go ahead and delete those too.
One myth that’s important to dispel: Don’t worry about having too many apps open in the background. Google and Apple both explain that open apps not in use shouldn’t hamper your smartphone’s performance. This is because these operating systems on a smartphone are designed differently than your computer’s operating system. When an app on your phone is open and not displayed, they are in effect “frozen” and not taking up any RAM. In addition, you will do your battery life a favor by leaving them open because more energy is consumed when reopening an app fresh than opening one that’s been in the background.

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Want to see the other two tips for speeding up a slow smartphone? Continue reading this article online at www.techhelpline.com/smartphone-running-slower-what-you-can-do.

This article is from the Tech Helpline at www.techhelpline.com and has been reprinted with permission.