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Too Many Apps? Here’s How to Kick App Addiction

September 13, 2017 No Comments

Featured article by Calvin Paige, Independent Technology Author

As a busy mom, you are always looking for tips that will help you stay organized and on top of your endless to-do list. One way that you may have done this is to install a variety of apps on your phone. From the scheduling app and the financial app to the homework reminder app, cooking app, shopping app and myriad other app choices, chances are your phone now has dozens of apps that are designed to be helpful.

While this may have sounded like a good idea 26 downloads ago, you might now be feeling overwhelmed by all of those colorful app icons on your phone, each one sending out notifications, using up data and cluttering up your screen. Almost all smartphones store apps on the physical hard drive. Once you load up your phone with apps, you will probably notice that your phone is not working as well as it used to — for example, it will be harder or impossible to update your device, run programs or take photos of your kids at the park. If you feel like it is high time to pare down your apps to a more manageable number, check out the following tips.

Assess What You Have vs. What You Use

When your closets and drawers are bursting at the seams and you are inspired to donate some of your gently used clothes to free up space, you start by asking yourself which pants and tops you actually wear. Use this same approach to eliminate a number of apps from your smartphone. Swipe through the screens on your phone and check out what you have. If you do not recognize an app by looking at the icon and have to open it up to see what it does, chances are good that you can delete it. As you look at the more familiar apps, ask yourself how often you use it. If the answer is “never” or “twice a year” it may be time to get rid of it. Remind yourself that you can always download the app again someday, if and when it will be useful to you.

Look at Usage

There are a number of apps that keep running behind the scenes, even when you are not using them — this is especially problematic for older phones with less memory. You can check to see how much battery juice your apps are eating up — even when they are not actively being used. For an Android device, like the Samsung Galaxy S8, swipe down from the top, tap the battery icon and then the “More Settings” link and “Cellular data usage.” You might find that some personal finance or shopping app that you never use is sucking down battery energy at an alarming rate — which can also help you to determine which apps can be deleted.

Check Out Android Instant Apps

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could download and use an app for an hour or two, and then have the app magically go away on its own? As it turns out, this amazing technology is here, and it’s called Android Instant Apps. Smartphones that are equipped with cellular modems that offer Gigabit LTE speeds, like those in the Qualcomm Snapdragon series, will let you load an Android Instant App that is up to 20 MB in size in just over a second — and then use part or all of the app. When you are done with it, the app will disappear from your phone. Talk about having your cake and eating it too — by upgrading to the Gigabit LTE speed, you can satisfy your craving for apps without clogging up your phone.

Apps can definitely be amazing tools and if you find them to be helpful, by all means, continue to use them. By trimming back the number of apps that you have, you will feel less overwhelmed by your smartphone and it will thank you too by running faster and more efficiently.

 

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