One of the worst feelings as an Android or iPhone owner is when you feel your phone starting to slow down.
When this happens to people, they tend to think there’s something wrong with their device automatically, either it’s too old or there’s something mechanically wrong with it. However, they oftentimes ignore that the slowdown could easily be caused by the apps they have installed on their phones. We spoke with tech experts about three smartphone apps that could be slowing down your phone, and you should consider deleting them to bring things back up to speed. Read more about them below.
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1. Facebook
"Facebook consumes a lot of resources in the background by looking for updates continuously, refreshing content, and pushing notifications even when it's not in use," explains tech expert Amy Mortlock with ShadowDragon. "The app collects a lot of cache data over time, sometimes reaching a gigabyte, filling your phone's memory, causing performance issues. It's heavy use of photos, reels, and advertisements needs high power to process and continuously drains your battery."
While Facebook is a super-popular social media app and was the 'blueprint' for many other apps, many are choosing not to use it anymore for various reasons, and if you feel like you can live without it, your phone might be faster.
2. Navigation Apps
If you have a smartphone, having some kind of map or GPS is essential, as you're likely not carrying a paper map on you at all times and will need directions every once in a while. However, using certain navigation apps or having too many can be the start of your device's downfall.
"Another one is navigation apps, like Google Maps and Waze," says expert and owner of The Big Phone Store, Steven Athwal. "They're constantly running processes in the background, such as checking GPS, Bluetooth, data, and your device's motion sensors. Navigation apps also store large offline map files, which consume your phone's storage. These background processes and large storage consumption are causing high CPU usage and battery degradation. To combat, I'd try disabling background access for these apps."
3. Free Gaming Apps
One of the glorious things about the app store on your devices is that you can download all sorts of free games that can be fun and entertaining. However, because they're free, this often means that they can be loaded with ads and pop-ups that slow down your phone more and more.
"Free apps that are loaded with extremely intrusive advertising are another culprit, like the free gaming or wallpaper apps," explains Athwal. "They're constantly loading ads and pop-ups, which is consuming your phone's processing power and data bandwidth. They cause random lagging and freezing. Essentially, these apps are trading your phone's speed for their ad revenue. I'd just avoid these apps and stick to verified, ad-free, trusted apps."
