10 ways to make your Android phone run faster

If your phone is running slow, it's possible that you may not have installed the latest Android software update. Head over to Settings >About device >Software update to see if there are any updates available.

If your phone is still slow, try getting rid of files you don't need. It's easy to forget to delete old photos and music files, but getting rid of content is one of the easiest ways to get your phone running smoothly again. Apps could be using resources from your phone to perform processes in the background, which could be slowing down your phone. The less clutter, the better.

Your phone will sometimes store certain images or pieces of data associated with an app so that it doesn't have to download them every single time you open an app. This is generally a positive feature, especially if you're trying to cut back on how much data you use. But, if your phone is running slow, there may be images stored on your phone from apps you don't even use anymore. Delete these by going to Settings > Storage > Cached data.

Here's a neat little trick — you can unlock an entirely new Settings menu within your Android phone that lets you get rid of animations in the Android OS to make it feel faster (via Android Authority).

Head over to Settings > About phone, and then scroll down to a category called Build Number. Tap Build Number exactly seven times. Once you do this, you'll get access to a "Developer options" menu in the phone's system settings. In this menu you'll find categories like Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale. Tap each one and set it to .5x or off.

By installing a custom ROM, you're essentially replacing the system files for Android with new ones that may add new features, as Android Authority explains. Since the code for Android is open-source, anyone can modify it. CyanogenMod and AOKP are two of the most popular ones.

If you have an older Android phone that's no longer receiving software updates, installing a custom ROM will allow you to run more recent software on your phone. This could make it run faster if your phone's current performance is sluggish.

Be warned: you need to root your Android phone to install any custom ROMs, which voids the warranty. Rooting is a process that gives you root permissions on your phone, hence the name. It's similar to running a program as an administrator in Windows, as Lifehacker describes it.

If you've noticed that the Chrome browser has been a little slow on your Android phone, there may be a way to fix that. You can allow the app to use more memory so that it runs faster, as Reddit user erythrocytes64 explained, which Wired picked up.

Simply open Chrome, launch a new tab, and type the following in the URL bar: chrome://flags/#max-tiles-for-interest-area. A menu will pop up that lets you change how much memory the browser uses. You should select "512" instead of the default "128" if you want to make Chrome run more quickly.

Often times, weird bugs or issues with your phone can be traced back to one app. The problem, however, is that it's hard to tell which app is causing the problem. If you think this may be happening to your device, try using Watchdog Task Manager. The app monitors how much computer power and resources an app is using to let you know which one might be slowing down your phone.

One reason your phone may be running slowly is because they could be using data in the background. Limiting or disabling this may not only speed up your phone, but it could help you cut down on how much data you use each month too. Navigate to Settings > Data Usage, and scroll down to see which apps are using data in the background.

If your phone is unbearably slow, try performing a factory reset. This will wipe all of your data, apps, photos, music, and anything else stored on your phone, so you'll need to back everything up. A factory reset basically returns your phone to the condition it was in when you first bought it. It's not guaranteed to make your phone faster, but if there is a problem caused by an app or file you downloaded and you can't track it down, a factory reset will get rid of it. To do this, navigate to Settings >Backup and reset>Factory reset.

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