When you own an iPhone for a while, it can be really easy to forget just how many apps are on your phone, as well as how much storage they take up.
One of the many things that can cause an iPhone to slow down is when it’s getting too full storage-wise, and you’re running out of space on it. It can easily overheat, apps can crash, and more annoying things can happen throughout the day. You can start deleting pictures, texts, and other files, but it’s also a good idea to look into your apps, especially those you haven’t thought about in a while. We’ve spoken to tech experts about five iPhone apps worth deleting, as they can drain your storage and eventually slow down your device. Read more about them below.
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1. Netflix
Netflix is definitely one of today's most popular streaming services, and while it can be super enjoyable, keeping it on your iPhone isn't the greatest idea. This is especially true if you don't watch your Netflix shows and movies all the time, and mostly stick to other devices like your television.
"The worst offender I've seen is Netflix," says tech pro Ankush Chowdhurry. "For road trips or flights, people download shows, then completely forget about them. Those downloads can quickly consume 10–15 GB. Until you manually remove them—which most users never do—the app retains them. Those downloads just sit there because you can stream everything anyhow."
2. Unused Navigation Apps
When you drive or commute to work, or if you're traveling somewhere new, there's probably one navigation or GPS app that you rely on. It might be Waze, CityMapper, or the map built into your iPhone. Therefore, if you have another navigation app sitting on your phone unused, it's just taking up storage and should be deleted.
"People sometimes have multiple navigation apps downloaded, such as Waze and Google Maps, but these apps are such large storage hogs and slow users," says tech expert Steven Athwal. "They keep their maps in large files offline, and your location history and cached route data. So, even if you're not using them, they're still checking GPS, Bluetooth, and network data. Remove them, and you've already freed up a significant amount of storage and can reduce background sensor activity."
3. Voice Memo
A preinstalled app that oftentimes goes unnoticed is the voice memo app. Sometimes, it can be fun to use them when you first get an iPhone, or if you're in a very niche situation where you need to record the sounds around you. Other than that, the app tends to be forgotten, but it will still hold onto all of the recordings and files within it.
"People are surprised by voice memos because they appear to be innocuous," notes Chowdhurry. "However, I've come across phones that have hours of unintentional recordings from pocket dials or when users intended to use the camera. About 30 MB is needed for each hour of audio, and some customers had 20+ hours saved without realizing it."
4. Excess Browser Apps
When you download an iPhone, you're all set with its go-to internet browser, Safari, which can handle a lot of action, sites, and logins. However, sometimes, you might want to download a spare browser for a more personalized experience, like Google Chrome. If you're sticking to just one internet browser, it's suggested you delete the other for storage.
"The existence of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and other browsers leads to unnecessary storage capacity and accumulation of cache files among other apps," explains tech and software pro Paul DeMott. "Every browser has its own cache, cookies, and browsing history, which multiplies storage usage without any necessity. Use only one main web browser and delete the rest to make things simple when storing and to reduce the number of processes in the background."
5. Third-Party Weather Apps
Some people get an iPhone and then end up not trusting Apple's preinstalled weather app, subsequently going to the app store and getting another one. However, many have found the preinstalled app to be quite reliable, and if you don't want to use it, you could always look up weather reports on Safari instead of downloading more content.
"The 3rd party weather applications tend to have adverts, widgets, and running location tracking, which consume battery and data," notes DeMott. "Just a web search or a weather app that is installed on your phone gives you the same information, but has no overhead. Such apps usually update in a timely manner, that is, in a few minutes, and they use resources even when you are not glancing at the weather."
