If you have been using Android smartphone for a while, then you might know that Android devices usually slows down over time. It doesn’t matter how powerful your smartphone is in terms of hardware, it will slow down after a few months or years. However, do you know the actual reason behind such a slowdown?

Well, there are quite lots of factors which lead to slow down. In this article, we are going to share 10 common reasons why your Android device slows down over time. By knowing these reasons, you can effectively take proper steps to ensure a better phone’s performance.

10 Reasons Your Phone Slows Down Over Time

Not just Android smartphones, it will also help you deal with iPhone’s slowness as well. So, let’s check out the reasons why your phone slows down over time.

1. The OS Upgrades

Just remember, when you first bought your device, it might be running Android KitKat or iOS 7 at that time. Both iOS 7 and Android KitKat were launched in the year 2013. Well, these upgrades are released with a certain set of hardware specs in thought.

If we take a look at the current year, hardware specifications have drastically updated. Many features have been added to both iOS and Android. However, these features are made with newer hardware specs in mind. So, if you are running the newer version of any operating system in an outdated phone then this can slow down your phone in no-time.

However, these upgrades are hard to ignore, so minor updates are okay, but if you are planning to jump from Android KitKat to Nougat then be ready to face the difficulties.

2. App Updates

As we already mentioned, we keep on trying new apps and games in our Android and iOS devices. The so-called ‘lightweight’ apps that you install can be transformed to ‘heavyweight’ over time. The main reason behind this is app updates. Developers are constantly pushing updates, every new update brings new features, which ends up eating lots of RAM and CPU.

The best thing you can do is to once you feel the app is bloated, replace it with another lightweight app.

3. Apps Running On The Background

Other crucial things that we neglect are background apps. Believe me or not, you have almost 80% more apps installed on your devices than when you first got it. Just go to the phone’s settings and have a brief look at all of your downloaded apps. Users might think that they have installed 10-15 apps, but are often shocked to see closer to 40-50.

The problem arises when some apps keep running in the background without activating it. There are many apps like email services, messaging apps that are always active. These apps use CPU and RAM, which impacts your phone’s performance.

So, make sure to disable or uninstall the apps which consume lots of RAM and CPU, switch to static wallpaper and say goodbye to live wallpapers.

4. Memory Degradation

Smartphones run on flash memory, the most common type of flash memory is known as NAND. Let me tell you, NAND memory gets slower as it fills up. In short, NAND Memory needs some amount of vacant blocks to operate efficiently.

Secondly, NAND memory degraded with some time of usage. NAND memory is of three types- SLC, MLC, TLC each one of them has to write cycle boundaries per memory cell. Once the limit is touched, the cells wear out and this affects the performance.

The best thing to do here is to stick with 75% of your device’s total storage capacity. For example, if you are having 16GB internal storage, don’t cross the 10GB threshold.

5. Full Storage

Well, storage systems in Android slowdowns as you fill them up, so writing to the file system may be very slow if it’s almost full. You can always check your storage by going through the settings menu. Actually, full storage leaves very little room for your operating system to run properly.

6. Bloatware

Well, Bloatware is the apps that come built-in with your Android smartphones. Smartphone manufacturers normally install some apps which we often don’t need. These bloatware does nothing and runs silently on the background. So, over time these bloatware installs updates and downloads other things which cause our phone’s storage to quickly fill up. So, bloatware is another reason why our phones slow down over time.

7. Launchers

Yes, you read that right! Since after purchasing a new smartphone, we usually head to the Google Play Store and download the good looking launchers. Well, Launchers can transform the look of your Android smartphone, but it can slow down your phone as well. Since Launcher apps for Android constantly runs on the background and it keeps checking for app updates. This thing fills up our internal storage rather quickly and this is why our phone slows down over time.

8. Using Task Killers

Well, I have seen many people choose to have a task killer on their Android smartphone. Running a task killer when your phone is operating slow is just like beating a dead horse here. These task killers actually kill all the app that are stored on Android’s memory which fills up the RAM. However, Android stores apps in your RAM so that it can be quickly switched to without Android having to load them for its slower storage.

9. Using Battery Optimizers

Well, just like task killers, there are several battery optimization apps available on the Google Play Store. These battery optimizers usually don’t work and they just clean the RAM memory. These Battery optimization apps kill app apps that are stored on Android’s memory. So, the next time when you open the app, the system again works to store those apps on the memory. These thing leads to battery drainage and overheating.

10. Higher Expectations

Sometimes, after looking at several high-end smartphones, we perceive our phone to be slower. This is normal human psychology, which constantly seeks more and more. You can’t company Galaxy S3 with Galaxy S8. So, we should learn to accept it or upgrade our device.

These are the reasons why the phone slows down after several months of usage. I hope you like the article, share it with your friends too! If you want to add something else to the article, let us know in the comment box below.