6 swift steps for a faster Android experience

Well, I’ll be: It’s a new year! Already. Somehow. I think. (For full disclosure, I’m still at least 77% asleep from my traditional end-of-year hibernation/hiatus. Kindly forgive any mid-sentence snores or nonsensical outbursts.)

While most of the world is obsessing over Shiny New Stuff™ for 2025, though — with the avalanche of awkwardly overlapping announcements known as the annual Consumer Electronics Show, along with all the never-ending crowing over almost-functional AI flummery — personally, I like to think of the new year as a perfect opportunity to take stock of stuff you already have, give it all a good old-fashioned tune-up, and get it ready to work even better for you in the months ahead.

Especially with Android devices now being supported with current software for longer than ever, you’ve got every reason to think about your phone(s) and tablet(s) the same way you do your car(s). In both those arenas, a teensy touch of easy occasional maintenance goes an impressively long way in keeping your tech in tip-top shape.

And with Android, you really don’t need much. In fact, so long as your device hasn’t been involved in a metaphorical fender-bender, you don’t even need a mechanic — just about 20 minutes of time and the willingness to get your fingers a little greasy (metaphorically speaking) with some simple cobweb-clearing spruce-ups.

So pop open your hood, pull on the nearest pair of oil-stained coveralls, and get ready to get your hands (metaphorically) dirty: It’s time to step into the garage and get your mobile device back in fighting form for the coming year.

Make your way through the following six steps — and if you’re hungry for even more advanced Android awesomeness after that, check out my free Android Shortcut Supercourse to uncover tons of new time-saving tricks.

Step #1: Uninstall unnecessary apps

⏱ Time required: 3 minutes

This first step may sound silly, but believe you me, it can make a mountain of difference: Whether they’re apps that came preinstalled or programs you downloaded once upon a moon, there’s a decent chance you’ve got at least some unused items lurking in the mustier corners of your favorite Android gizmo. And guess what? Those forgotten icons do more than just collect virtual dust. They actively work against your need for Android-oriented speed.

First, superfluous apps take up space — both in the physical sense of your phone’s internal storage and in the sense of clutter that makes it tougher to find what you actually want at any given moment. But beyond that, abandoned apps often take a toll on a phone’s performance and stamina by needlessly eating up resources. And beyond that, they also open the door to some easily avoidable privacy compromises.

You can probably scan through your app drawer pretty quickly and figure out which programs you haven’t opened in the past month or two. If you see something you aren’t using — or something you really don’t need — touch and hold its icon and then look for the “Uninstall” option that appears around or above it. Remember, you can always reinstall it later if the need ever comes up.

And if an app can’t be uninstalled, it probably came preinstalled on your device and is baked into the system courtesy of your phone’s manufacturer and/or carrier. You should still be able to disable it, though: Either long-press it and then touch the “i” icon that appears or find and tap its title within the Apps section of your system settings. Then, look for the “Disable” command, tap it with gusto, and send the thing off to app hell — precisely where it belongs.

⭐ Bonus tip: Want a helping hand in identifying your unused apps? Grab Google’s standalone Files app (which notably may not be the same as the Files app that came preinstalled on your phone). Open it once, then set yourself a reminder to check back on it in a month. By then, Files will have built up enough data to be able to tell you which apps you aren’t actually ever using — and to give you a super-simple way to get rid of all of ’em with a few quick taps.

The Files app by Google makes it easy to identify and then uninstall apps you aren’t actively using.JR Raphael, IDG

Just be sure to think through its recommendations carefully before uninstalling anything. Sometimes, the Files app will flag an app as “unused” if you haven’t explicitly opened it in a number of weeks — even if it’s something you actually do rely on as a background utility. But it’s a helpful starting point for this part of the process and a great way to get your tech-tinged tune-up going.

And speaking of stuff that runs in the background…

Step #2: Lock down resource hogs

⏱ Time required: 5 minutes

Maybe there’s an app you genuinely do use but that drags your phone down with over-the-top background activity — in other words, doing stuff you don’t need it to do while you aren’t actively looking at it. Facebook and Instagram are both notorious for this sort of obnoxious behavior, and they’re anything but the only offenders.

Lucky for us, though, even when an app is poorly designed in this way — with abusive background activity and no easy option to stop it — you can still reclaim control. Start by opening up the Battery section of your system settings and finding the app-by-app battery usage breakdown. (On some devices, you may have to tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner of the Battery settings to uncover that option.) This’ll work best if you do it toward the end of a day, when your phone has plenty of activity to analyze.

Tap any app with high battery usage and then see how much of its activity is happening in the background — while you aren’t actively using it. For any programs with high amounts of background activity, ask yourself: Is this app doing something in the background that actually matters? For instance, do you really need Facebook or any other social media and news tools to be refreshing their feeds while you aren’t looking at ’em? Probably not. But lots of apps like those do that by default and end up draining your device’s battery and monopolizing its horsepower as a result.

For any such items you come across, you’ve got two options: Look in the app’s own settings to see if there’s a way to turn off its background activity — or, provided your phone is running 2017’s Android 8 release or higher (which, by golly, it’d better be!), use Android’s own background restriction option within your phone’s Battery settings or Apps settings to shut it down at the system level.

Disabling an app’s background usage can cut down on unnecessary resource use and make your entire phone feel faster.JR Raphael, IDG

Let’s check one more place, just to round things out: Head over to the Network & Internet section of your system settings (or the Connections section, if you’re on a Samsung phone) and tap the line labeled “Data usage” — or, if don’t see that line, tap either “Internet” or “Mobile network” and then tap the gear icon next to your carrier’s name followed by “App data usage.” (On some devices, you might see “App data usage” or possibly “Mobile data usage” right on that initial screen.)

However you get there, you should find a list of how much data different apps have been using as of late. Select any apps with high amounts and see how much of their data transferring is going on in the background. If an app is using a significant amount of background data for no apparent reason, take away its ability to do so by deactivating the “Background data” toggle on that same screen — which will in turn free up precious processing power and battery juice in addition to stopping the needless drain on your mobile data plan.

With both parts of this step, just be sure to use common sense and avoid disabling background permissions for any system-level tools — things like your Phone app or “Android OS” — as well as for any apps that genuinely need such capabilities in order to operate (like a messaging app, for instance, which wouldn’t be able to look for new incoming messages if it didn’t have background data and battery access).

Step #3: Nuke annoying notifications

⏱ Time required: 4 minutes

This next step is less about system performance and more about your own sanity and ability to get stuff done. Notifications are distractions, after all — and odds are, your phone’s giving you plenty of attention-demanding alerts that are ultimately slowing you down.

Think about all the notifications that show up on your Android device — and then think carefully about how many of ’em provide you with truly pertinent info that warrants the interruption. Do you need to know about every breaking news story the second it happens instead of finding that info when you actively seek it out on your own? What about social media mentions or incoming emails? Only you can decide what makes sense for you, but I’d be willing to wager you have at least a couple (and more likely a coupon dozen) types of notifications you’d be better off without.

If you think of any such examples, march into the Notifications section of your system settings and tap “App notifications.” You can then select any app you’ve got and either turn off all of its alerts, at the system level, or disable only certain types of alerts it’s able to generate — for instance, leaving on notifications for direct messages in LinkedIn but shutting off all the other types of interruptions that service loves to send your way.

You can also get even more nuanced and change the way certain types of alerts appear — maybe setting an app’s less important notifications to show up silently so you’ll see ’em eventually but won’t be bothered when they arrive.

⭐ Bonus tip: Provided your phone is running Android 9 or higher, there’s a quick ‘n’ easy way to find your worst notification offenders: Head into that same Notifications section of your system settings, tap “App notifications,” and then look for the “Most recent” bar or the “All” dropdown at the top of the screen.

Tap that, then tap the selector at the top of the screen and change it to “Most frequent” — and then, you’ll see an ordered list of exactly which apps are interrupting you the most. You can tap on any app’s name from that list to jump directly to its notification controls and tell it to kindly hush its virtual beak.

Your Android notification panel doesn’t have to be an inefficient, clutter-filled source of stress.JR Raphael, IDG