Slow Android Phone Performance? Examine These 7 Suggestions to Help Your Phone Perform Better
If you don’t own a compatible Google Pixel phone, such as the Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro, there’s a possibility you won’t always have access to the most recent Android updates as soon as they become available. It’s not all bad news, though, because you can try to optimize the performance of your Android device using the software that you already have, even if you can’t always update to the newest version as soon as it becomes available.
Regardless of your smartphone brand—Samsung, Motorola, or OnePlus—you can still maximize battery life and speed up your device by tinkering with a few specific settings.
Because phone manufacturers frequently add their own software on top of Android, not all Android devices are created equal. As such, depending on the version of Android you’re running and the manufacturer of your phone, some settings may be missing or located in a different location.
More Android advice needed? Check out these five methods to restore the original feel and appearance of your Android device, as well as how and why to stop granting your Android apps invasive permissions.
Settings to improve your battery life
It can be frustrating to have a phone with short battery life, but there are some things you can do to get the most out of every charge from the start:
1. Turn off auto screen brightness or adaptive brightness and set the brightness level slider to under 50%.
Your screen will drain more battery life the brighter it is.
If the slider is present, adjust it to access the settings by dragging down the shortcut menu from the top of the screen. Certain phones might have an auto brightness toggle in the shortcut panel; if not, you’ll need to search for “brightness” in the settings app to locate the setting and disable it.
2. Use Adaptive Battery and Battery Optimization.
These features concentrate on analyzing your phone usage patterns, such as the apps you use and when, and then optimizing the apps in terms of battery consumption.
While some Android phones (looking at you, Samsung) hide these settings, others will have a dedicated Battery section in the Settings app. Every phone has a slightly different version. To locate the correct screen, open your settings and type “battery” into the search bar. Additionally, to maintain the health of your phone’s battery, your phone might have an adaptive charging setting that tracks how quickly the battery charges each night.
Why you should use dark mode more often
Using Android’s dedicated dark mode is another way to prolong battery life and protect your eyes. Android 10 or later will come with a dedicated dark mode option for any Android phone.
Google claims that using dark mode extends the life of a smartphone’s battery because dark backgrounds on OLED screens—which are found in the majority of flagship phones—use less power than white backgrounds. This helps to lessen the strain that smartphone displays place on our eyes.
You might need to search through the settings app to locate a dark mode, depending on the Android version and manufacturer of your phone. Systemwide dark mode is available if your phone is running Android 10 or later. Do not give up if it is running Android 9. Whether or not you have Android 10, you can use the dark mode feature that many apps offer in the settings.
To turn it on dark mode, open the Settings app and search for Dark Mode, Dark Theme or even Night Mode (as Samsung likes to call it). I suggest using dark mode all the time, but if you’re not sure, you can always set dark mode to automatically turn on based on a schedule, say from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day, or allow it to automatically switch based on your location at the time of sunset and sunrise.
Keep your home screen free of clutter
Are you preparing to browse the Google Play Store in search of several new Android apps? When you install something, shortcuts end up on your home screen, so get ready for a lot of icon clutter there.
If you don’t want that, there’s a simple way out of this: Long-press on an empty area of your home screen and tap Settings. Find the option labeled something along the lines of Add icon to Home Screen or Add new apps to Home Screen and turn it off.
And now! When you install new apps, the icons on the home screen disappear. Although shortcuts can still be added by dragging an app’s icon out of the app drawer, they won’t show up on your home screen by default.
Set up Do Not Disturb so that you can better focus
You probably don’t want your phone to constantly beep or buzz when you have a call, message, or Facebook alert if it is kept on your nightstand, especially when you’re trying to fall asleep. Android has a feature called Do Not Disturb that, during specific hours, keeps the phone essentially silent. This is called Quiet Time or even the Downtime setting on some phones.
Head to Settings > Sounds (or Notifications), then look for Do Not Disturb or a similar name. If you can’t find it, search for it using the built-in search feature in your settings.
You can program a range of hours for when you want to turn off the digital noise by using this feature. Rest assured, though, that any alerts you receive while using Do Not Disturb will still be there for you when you awaken. Additionally, you can usually create an exception that will let calls from favorite contacts and repeat callers pass through. Activate that. It’s likely that someone will try again if they are phoning you in an emergency.
Always be prepared in case you lose your phone or it’s stolen
Is a stolen or lost phone the worst thing ever? Just the knowledge that if you had enabled Google’s Find My Device feature, you could have located it.
To set yourself up for a successful recovery, here’s what you need to do: Open the Settings app and then search for Find My Device. It’s usually in the Security section of the Settings app.
Or if you have a Samsung device, you can use Samsung’s Find My Mobile service found in Settings > Biometrics and security > Find My Mobile.
Once that’s enabled, you can head to android.com/find from any PC or mobile device and sign in to your account. Samsung users can visit findmymobile.samsung.com to find a lost phone.
See our detailed guide on recovering a lost Android phone if you encounter any difficulties configuring any of this.
You should be able to locate your phone on a map if it is turned on and connected to the internet. From there, you can set it to ring, lock it, or, in the worst case, remotely wipe the entire device. You can also set a lock screen note to instruct whoever finds it how to return it to you.
And always keep your phone up to date
As apparent as it may seem, a straightforward software update may be able to resolve bugs and other problems that are causing your Android device to lag.
Make sure your device is connected to Wi-Fi before downloading and installing the most recent software update; otherwise, this will not function.
Now, open the Settings application and type in Update. You’ll then either see Software update or System update — choose either one. Then just download the software, wait for a few minutes and install it when it’s ready. Your Android device will reboot and install the latest software update available.
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