How to increase and boost the speed of our phone?

Your Android phone was pretty fast when you first bought it, right? Then over time it began running more slowly. This is a common problem and nothing to worry about. Below is our guide to getting your phone to run fast again. Read on for our best tips to speed up your phone.

1. Identify the problem

The first thing to do is find out what is causing the problem: an app, multiple apps, the system itself? Trepn Profiler by Qualcomm will show you the real-time CPU load for individual cores, an overview of network traffic for both data and Wi-Fi, GPU loads and RAM usage and more.

AndroidPIT Trepn Profiler main menu overlay — The first thing to do is identify the problem. / © ANDROIDPIT

Trepn can also produce app-specific or system-wide profiles and contains various methods for displaying accumulated data. You can save your profiled data for offline viewing and analysis and even have performance overlays on running apps.

Once you've figured out your specific issue, you can move on to the solutions below.

AndroidPIT Trepn Profiler performance graph app profiler — Real-time CPU usage for individual cores (left) and app profiling options (right). / © ANDROIDPIT

2. Free up some space

All those photos you've taken and all of those apps you’ve installed can take their toll on your phone. It needs a little breathing room to run smoothly and if it's running low on space, it can start to slow down.

moto x pure speed up 01 — Android includes ways to free up space and speed up your device. / © ANDROIDPIT

You can check how much space you have left by heading to theStorage section of Settings.

One of the easiest ways to free up space is to tap Applications and see which apps you can uninstall.

moto x pure speed up 02 — If you've had your phone for a while, there are probably several apps you can remove. / © AndroidPIT

Tap the entry for an app you no longer need and then tapUninstall. You can repeat this process as many times as necessary for any apps you feel you can live without.

There are other ways you can free up space. The files you have downloaded are probably still sitting in storage wasting space and can be removed.

In Storage, tap Downloads, select the files you want to remove and then tap theTrashcan icon

moto x pure speed up 03 — Downloads and app caches occupy valuable space that could be put to better use. / © ANDROIDPIT

Many of the apps you have installed use data caches in an attempt to speed up operations. This is effective up to a point, but if you are running short of space, it can actually be counter-productive.

To free up this space, hit theClear cached data option and then tap OK to confirm.

moto x pure speed up 04 — Free up as much space as possible. / © ANDROIDPIT

More files ripe for deletion can be found in theMiscellaneous files section.
Tick the boxes next to any types of file you'd like to remove – backups, files received via Bluetooth, playlist files, and so on – and then tap the Trashcan icon.
You can keep an eye on how much space you have freed up when you look at theAvailable space section.

You can also disable any apps that came pre-loaded on your phone but you don’t use. If you have rooted your Android, you can actually get rid of these apps, but if not, you can go to the app properties and disable it to prevent it from running and using up your phone’s resources.

3. Cut back on the widgets

All those widgets you have running on your home screen may be useful, but they also take up their fair share of resources.

moto x pure speed up 05 — Widgets can be a waste of resources, so kill any you don't really need. / © ANDROIDPIT

If you have any widgets running that you don’t really need, consider disabling them.

animations and extras

Depending on the launcher you are using, you may find that there are various animations and special effects in place. These may look great, but they can also slow things down.

Check in your launcher's settings to see if there is a way to disable any of these unnecessary extras, and you could earn yourself a speed boost.

moto x pure speed up 06 — Extras offered by your launcher could be slowing down your device. / © AndroidPIT

5. Close down apps and free up RAM

Multi-tasking several apps makes it easy to switch between different tools, but there can also be an impact on performance. You can quickly close down any apps you are no longer using by calling up the running apps list – press and hold the home key and then swipe away any apps you want to exit.

moto x pure speed up 08 — Terminating unused apps and freeing up RAM will help the speed of your device. / © ANDROIDPIT

While you are at this screen, tap the pie chart icon to the lower right of the screen and then move to the RAMsection.
Tap the Clear memorybutton and any background processes that are running unnecessarily will be closed down.

6. Restart your device

A quick and simple fix for a slow device is to simply restart it. This can clear out the cache, stop unnecessary tasks from running, and get things running smoothly again.

Just hold down the power button, select the Restartoption, and then tap OK to confirm.

moto x pure speed up 07 — Sometimes, something as simple as a restart is all that's needed for a speed boost. / © ANDROIDPIT

7. Make sure your software is up to date

Do you keep swiping aside that notification to update your software? It only wants the best for you. Software updates are not always about new features, most of the time they also contain bug-fixes and performance enhancements than can significantly speed up your device's operation.

8. Factory Reset

Yes, it's that faithful old last resort that can save the day when all else is lost (and if you're doing this, all else will be lost). A factory reset will restore the phone to the condition the manufacturer shipped it in, which can do wonders to clean up obscure bits of leftover software and buggy code that could be clogging up performance.

Trouble is, of course, that you'll lose all your data. But if you've tried all our other tips and still aren't happy with the speed of your phone, then it could be time for drastic measures.