How to speed up a slow Android phone or tablet

Mobile phones and tablets slow down over time and they become increasingly sluggish as they grow older. Why is this and what can you do about it? Tweak, tune and avoid updates for speed.

Anyone that has an old phone or tablet will be familiar with the problem. The menus become slow to navigate, starting apps and switching between them takes a long time and the screen becomes unresponsive to touch and refreshes slowly. There is nothing worse than staring at the screen waiting for something to happen. This makes old devices frustrating to use after a time.

Why do phones slow down?

There are many reasons and one is operating system updates and newer versions of an OS often, but not always, runs more slowly than the previous one. This is because operating systems always grow and become more complex with each generation.

As extra features and functions are added to the OS, the device requires an increasing amount of processing power and memory. The cleverer devices become, the greater the hardware requirements.

One of the criticisms of Android phones and tablets is that many do not receive operating system updates. On the one hand, this means that it will receive no new features, but on the other hand it will not be slowed down by new OS updates.

Many years ago I got a Google Nexus 7 Android tablet and being a Google device, it received the latest version of Android soon after it was released. This was great for a while, but after a couple of updates the device almost stopped working because the hardware could not cope with the latest operating system. The tablet became unusable and was ruined by OS updates.

I got an Amazon Kindle tablet around the same time and under the Amazon interface was Android. This tablet never received any OS updates and 5 years later it is still as fast and responsive as it was when it was new. The lack of updates in some ways is a positive and avoids OS bloat.

Android users often wish for the latest OS updates for their devices, but be careful what you wish for because they could make your device very slow and possibly unusable. Bug and security patches can be installed, but unless you absolutely have to, avoid updating the operating system. It may or may not slow your device. You won't know until you try it and if it does, there is no way to undo it.

The problem with Android notifications

Notifications can have an impact on the memory, performance and battery life of Android devices. Notifications do not magically appear on their own and code must run to access the internet, check for events and messages, add text or images to the notifications panel and so on, and display them on the screen.

A notification might be for a new email, an instant message from someone, a breaking news story, an update to a website, service or app, and so on.

Every app has notifications turned on by default in Android and this means that the device is constantly running this or that bit of code so that apps can check for, process and display notifications. Some people have 50 or even 100 apps on their phone or tablet if you include the base Android apps and extra apps bundled by the manufacturer.

Social media apps can generate a lot of notifications and with a few social apps on the phone, there may be a notification every few minutes.

Android has to constantly service notifications for apps and this means processing power and memory are being used to run the code. Stop notifications and the device has more memory and less work to do. The result is a faster and smoother running device. It will probably extend the life of the battery too.

Disable unnecessary notifications

Go to Settings on your Android phone or tablet. The quickest way to do this is to pull down from the top of the screen and tap the gear icon.

Menus vary with different Android devices and versions of the OS, but on my phone go to Settings > Apps. This displays a list of apps that are installed on the device, including Android system apps and those you have downloaded yourself. Tap each app in turn and then tap Notifications. Turn off the switch Allow notifications.

Alternatively, go to Settings > Notifications and use the switches next to apps to enable or disable notifications.

Some notifications are essential and you want to know when calendar events occur, when emails arrive and when people send you messages. With each app on the device, decide whether the notifications it displays are really important to you and if you think you can live without them, turn it off.

If you disable notifications except for essential apps, you will see performance and battery benefits.

Don't update apps

Apps grow in size over time and they often start out small and simple, with a few key features. Over time, some receive many feature updates and each one increases the size of the app. More memory and more processing power is required to run them.

App updates provide new features in the short term, but grow in size and complexity and this may cause them to become slower in the long term. If you are happy with an app the way it is, then stick with it and don't update it.

This is the best way to maintain the speed of your Android phone or tablet, but the desire to have the latest version of apps and the thought of missing out of new features is hard to live with.

Go to Google Play Store > menu > Settings > Auto-update apps > Don't auto-update apps.

Go to Google Play Store > menu > My apps & games to see updates and manually update only those that are important to you. It's not hard and you just have to tap a button. The benefit is that you can choose which apps are updated.

Stop background apps

Some apps require a lot of processing power and memory when they are running and there isn't much that can be done about it. However, you can stop them running in the background to save processing power (and battery life), which will help to keep the phone or tablet speedy.

There are many versions of Android in use and phone manufacturers customise menus, so you might need to look for this feature. On my phone I go to Settings > Device Maintenance > Battery > Always sleeping apps.

You can select apps which will not be allowed to run in the background. If they are not running, they won't be using the CPU (or battery), which means more processing power for apps you are actually using.

Avoid power-saving mode

Your phone may have a power-saving mode that can extend battery life. One of the ways it can do this is by limiting the speed of the CPU. The advantage of power-saving is longer battery life, but the disadvantage is a less responsive phone with limited processing power.

It is a tough choosing between battery life and processing power, but you cannot have both.

Restart the phone

Close all running apps and then restart the phone. It is a simple thing but one that many people forget when their phone is acting up and not running as it should.

Reset the phone

Resetting the phone is a great way to boost the speed because it clears everything out and removes all but the built in apps. It is a fresh start without the junk and that enables the phone to run at maximum speed.

The downside is that it clears out everything you had on the phone. However, music, photos, videos, emails and even messages can be stored online these days, so you will not lose anything important. Make sure you have a backup or that anything important is stored online before proceeding though.

Go to Settings > General management > Reset > Factory data reset.