Your iPhone is slow and sluggish — and you’ve done everything you can to try and find solutions. You’re only charging it with Apple-certified accessories and maybe you’ve even kicked your overnight charging habit in favor or something less frequent but more effective. That’s all great, but the apps that you are using could still be doing a number on your device and dragging it to a snail’s pace.
The good news is that it’s simple to see which apps have been slowing down your iPhone the most so that you can take charge of the situation.
“Open the ‘Settings’ app, scroll down and click ‘Battery,’ scroll down and look for apps that say ‘Background activity,’” says Tech Expert Daniel Neale, founder of Gadget Faqs. “If an app says ‘Background Activity’ it means that the app has been using the CPU in the background. If that app has used up a lot of battery percentage, it means that the app has been using a lot of resources in the background. Apps can operate in the background to make requests to servers, continue playing music, allow you to continue talking to someone, download newsstand content and receive notifications, and update location.”
If you’re beyond frustrated with your device, Neale suggests removing these four apps that can slow down your iPhone.
Music/Podcast apps
“Music apps such as Spotify, Apple Music and Youtube Music, can run in the background to do things such as play music/podcasts of course, but also things such as download new content,” Neale says. “In my case Spotify was the app that was draining my iPhone the most in the background. Also, as these apps download more and more content, it will take up more storage space on the device. When the iPhone is low on spare storage, it can cause the iPhone to start to run slower.”
Location-based apps
Apps such as Google Maps, have permission to do a lot of CPU-intensive tasks in the background in order to keep your location, in the app, updated, according to Neale. “To prevent these apps from using power in the background when you do not want them to, it is important to make sure the permission is not set to ‘Always’ within the ‘Settings’ app,” Neale said. “I personally set it to ‘While Using The App.’ You can get here by opening the ‘settings’ app, scrolling down and clicking on the app, and clicking ‘Location.’”
Newsstand apps
“Newsstand apps are permitted to download content in the background,” Neale said. “They are also permitted to stay awake to receive notifications which can drain the battery on the iPhone as well as use up CPU power, causing the iPhone to run slower.”
Social Media Apps
And, finally, the app that you probably already suspected was slowing your phone down: social media apps like Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok. “Social Media apps can stay awake in the background in order to fetch new content so that it is there ready when you open the app, download new content, as well as use location services,” Neale said. “The location services on these apps can use up a lot of the CPU, so it is important to make sure that the location permission is set to ‘While Using’ in the ‘Settings’ app.”
You don’t have to live in frustration because your phone is super slow. Keep on top of the apps that you download and delete those that no longer serve you and that are known battery-drainers to help your phone run more efficiently.
