Make Android device Run Smoothly

SD Maid

Image: TechRepublic/Brandon Vigliarolo

At its surface SD Maid is designed to do the same thing as Norton Clean, but it's nowhere near as simplistic. This app cleans with gusto unseen in other apps. It scans both the internal storage and SD card for files left behind when apps are uninstalled, it looks for duplicate files, analyzes databases on your device, locates pieces of your system that could use cleaning up, and more.

Greenify

Image: TechRepublic/Brandon Vigliarolo

One of the biggest problems for smartphones—both Android and iOS—is background services chewing through battery capacity and device performance. The more apps you install and leave running in the background the worse your device will perform. We've all experienced it, and while Android is getting better at freezing apps that aren't performing necessary functions, problems still exist.

Greenify wants to solve that problem by putting apps into hibernation mode when your device isn't in use. It won't just put your apps to sleep, though: Greenify gives you a full list of what's running and what may be causing issues and then gives you the choice to add it to its hibernation list.

History Eraser

Image: TechRepublic/Brandon Vigliarolo

History Eraser is the only app from our 2012 list to return, but with one important distinction: The Pro version that we profiled in 2012 hasn't been updated since 2014, while the free version has been updated in the past month. That said, this review is for History Eraser, not History Eraser Pro.

The purpose of History Eraser is pretty obvious: It gets rid of any personal history files on your device. SMS messages, calls, web browsers, and searches inside of apps like Google Play and YouTube are all covered. You can choose what to delete, tap Clean, and be comfortable that your personal data is secure and old cache files are deleted, potentially speeding up your device.

Scale back animations, widgets and live wallpapers

Navigate to About phone in Settings, then tap the Build number label seven times to activate a hidden Developer options entry in the menu. From this screen, you can turn off some of the animations used across the Android OS (under the Drawing heading lower down).

After that, your phone should be a little snappier. If you spot any bugs, try reducing the animation scale to 0.5x instead. Cut down on the number of home screen widgets, and use a static wallpaper (instead of a live one), to further reduce the strain on your phone’s system resources.

Wipe cache partition

The cache partition is separate from your app data cache and it contains temporary files. It’s worth cleaning this out every once in a while. You’ll have to boot into recovery mode to do it. The method of entering recovery mode varies depending on your device, but you’ll find it easily with a quick Google search. Once in recovery mode you use the volume keys to navigate and the power key to select an item. You’ll want to choose wipe cache partition.