How to Make Your Android Phone Run Smoother Without Rooting
Is your Android phone slow, laggy, and unresponsive? Apps clutter, background processes, and storage issues can cause devices to slow down over time. The good news is, rooting your phone isn’t the only way to speed it up. Here’s how to make your Android phone faster and smoother with some simple tweaks.
In the following guide, we'll discuss how to optimize your Android phone without root.
Restart Your Phone Regularly
A quick restart can clear your phone’s memory and help close background apps that could be slowing it down. Restarting your phone once in few days, your phone will run more smoothly and faster.
How to Shut Down and Restart Android Phone:
Hold the power button down.
Tap Restart or Power Off, then turn it back on.
Clear Cache and Junk Files
Applications save temporary files called cache, which can pile up and slow down your phone. Clearing cache might help you clear some space and speed things up.
How To Clear Android Cache:Cache — how to clear it?
Go to Settings > Storage.
Tap Cached data, then select Clear cache.
For individual apps, head to Settings > Apps, choose an app, and hit Clear cache.
Specialized apps like Files by Google can help clear junk files faster as well.
Uninstall Unused Apps
Most apps continue to run in the background, hogging RAM and processing resources. Uninstalling those you don’t use requires disk space and resources.
How to Uninstall Apps:
Go to Settings > Apps.
Choose the app you want to remove.
Tap Uninstall and confirm.
For built-in apps that you can’t uninstall, you can disable them:
Go to Settings > Apps.
Tap the app and then tap Disable.
Disable or Reduce Animations
Sometimes animations added to transitions give them a smoother look, but they reduce performance. Cutting down—or shutting them off—may help make your phone feel snappier.
How to Reduce Animations:
Go to Settings > About Phone.
Enable Developer Options by tapping Build number 7 times.
Once all the necessary files are extracted go back to Settings > Developer Options.
For the animation scale, you can find Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale.
Set them to 0.5x or Off.
It will make navigation faster and reduce lag due to navigation.
Free Up Internal Storage
Having a nearly full storage could create lag and slow your phone down. Ensure that at least 20% of your storage is free for optimal performance.
Ways to Free Up Storage:
Remove unused files, delete old photos and videos.
Delete less-used apps and move files to an SD card or cloud storage like Google Drive.
Remove duplicate files using Files by Google
Use Lite Versions of Apps
There are Lite versions of many apps for low-performance phones. These apps require less RAM and storage and make your phone run smoothly.
Examples of Lite Apps:
Amazon shopping in your browser instead of the app.
Messenger lite instead of Messenger
YouTube Go instead of YouTube
Resource use can also be conserved through web apps, as opposed to entire apps. Use a browser to access Facebook instead of the app, for instance.
Stopping Background Apps and Services from Running
Certain applications continue to function in the background, utilizing RAM and battery life. You can limit background activity to speed things up.
How to Limit Background Apps:
Navigate to Settings > Apps > See all apps.
Choose the app, and tap Battery.
Select Restricted to prevent background activity.
You can improve speed by disabling auto-sync, particularly for apps you do not need synced.
Keep Your Software Updated
Updates for Android usually arrive along with various bug fixes and performance enhancements. Always keeping your phone up to date will also keep it running smoothly.
How to Update Android and Apps:
Android OS Update:
Head to Settings > System > Software Update.
Select Check for updates and install if necessary.
App Updates:
Open the Google Play Store.
Tap your profile icon, and then select Manage apps & device.
Tap Update all.
Avoid Live Wallpapers and Use Static Backgrounds
Do you really need all the lagging (and battery) that live wallpapers means? Speed can also be improved by using a static wallpaper.
How to Change Wallpaper:
Head to Settings > Display > Wallpaper.
Keep it a still image, not a live wallpaper.
Minimize Widgets and Home Screen Icons
Widgets and excessive home screen icons slow down your phone. Removing unused widgets will free some resources.
How to Remove Widgets:
Press and hold the widget on your home screen.
Then drag it to Remove or Delete.
Reboot into Safe Mode to Troubleshoot
Third-party apps are temporarily disabled in safe mode. If your phone operates faster in safe mode, an app might be causing slowdowns.
How to Restart in Safe Mode:
Long press the power button.
Press and hold Power off until Safe mode appears.
Click OK to restart in safe mode.
If the phone is known to be slow, uninstall recently-installed applications that it's possible running slowly.
Turn Off Auto-Start for Apps
Some apps launch themselves automatically when you start your phone and slow down performance. You can turn this off for a faster experience.
How to Disable Auto-Start:
Access Settings — Apps — Auto-start (if device supports it).
Disable Unnecessary App Auto-starts.
On some devices, you can also manage startup apps in Battery Settings.
Use a Lightweight Launcher
Some of the third-party lightweight launchers are much faster than the default launcher.
Recommended Launchers:
Nova Launcher (fast and flexible)
Microsoft Launcher (fast experience)
Smart Launcher (lightweight and speedy)
If you install a launcher, you’ll need to set it to default in Settings > Apps > Default Apps.
Go To Developer Options To Improve Performance
In addition to lowering your animations, Developer Options has settings to help improve performance as well.
Enable Force GPU Rendering:
Head to Settings > Developer Options.
Force GPU Rendering would make the graphics work more effectively.
Do Not Use Task Killers and RAM Booster Apps
So-called task killer apps promise to make your phone faster, but often do just the opposite. Of course, Android handles RAM itself perfectly, and closing apps manually is unnecessary.
Instead, use this guide to optimize your performance without additional third-party boosters.
Final Thoughts
You don’t have to root your Android phone to boost its performance. By keeping these things in mind when using [insert software or platform], you can prevent a lot of hassle and maintain ease of use without making your interface less user-friendly than it needs to be. Proper maintenance, cleaning storage and adjusting settings can help your phone to run more smoothly.
Follow these tips today and have a snappier, more responsive Android device! 🚀
