It's spring time and that means what better time is there than right now to do a bit of a spring clean on your dusty Android and shake off that winter sluggishness? The simple fact is that the longer you use your Android the laggier and slower it seems to become, but that doesn’t need to be the case. With a little simple maintenance you can have your Android acting as though you just pulled it out of the box. Here's five super simple tips to improve your Android's system performance (none of these tips require root).

A few simple tips can speed up your Android's performance. / © Ranksol Ditch unused apps

Seriously, you're not building a library here. Most apps are free, so you can easily ditch any you're not using and feel no pain. Plus, you can always get them back in 10 seconds if you ever need them again, so it makes no sense to store dozens of apps you haven't opened in months, especially when they might be running background processes. Unused apps are a waste of space and system resources. If you're absolutely dead set on keeping your app collection, at least make sure they're updated to the latest versions, as app updates always have system performance improvements on board.

If you don't even use an app, why let it waste space and system resources? / © AndroidPITDo a factory reset

A factory reset is exactly what it sounds like: it resets your device to how it was when it left the factory. Of course, this means two things, that it will wipe all of your data and that you will then need to put it all back on afterwards. Fortunately, this is super easy. If you have a custom recovery installed you can do a full Nandroid backup (a complete backup of your system as well as apps and data) or a backup of apps and data via any one of a number of apps like Titanium Backup (root) or Helium (no root). We've got information about that process and those apps elsewhere on the site.

A regular factory reset of your device will keep it running smoothly. / © AndroidPIT

Once you've done a backup (make sure you save your Nandroid to your computer or cloud storage, for obvious reasons) you are ready to wipe your device clean. You have two options, the simple menu option, found in Settings > Backup & Reset > Factory Data Reset, or you can do it via a hardware button combination, which is different for each device. Head to the forums to find your device's particular combination, but once you're in the Recovery Menu you can manually select to wipe data/factory reset and also wipe cache partition and Dalvik cache, which gives you a little extra oomph in clearing out your device's memory. Once the process is complete you can reboot and restore your apps and data from backup.

Transition animations look nice, but they take time. / © AndroidPITStop animation

This is a super easy thing to do that may not really boost speed, but it'll make you think things are snappier, so why not add it to the list? Your Android has various animations and transition effects that look lovely but can add to the sense of impatience when you feel like your device is slow. First, you need to enable Developer Options. Go to Settings, down to About Phone and then tap your Build Number seven times. On the Settings menu you'll now have Developer Options enabled. Scroll down to Window Animation Scale and Transition Animation Scale and set them both to 10 to see the effects in slow motion (navigate around your device to see what they do) then turn them both off and see how much zippier everything feels afterwards.

That's an awful lot of syncing for services you don't need synced all the time! / © AndroidPITWatch your syncing and updating

The more accounts, services and apps you automatically sync the more of your device's memory and processor power is going to be dedicated to that task when you might be wanting it to do something else. If you only ever check Gmail once or twice a day then why not turn syncing for Gmail off? You can check manually whenever you have the time, rather than every 15 minutes just to get emails in your inbox you don't have time to read anyway. The same goes for many other accounts and services. Only sync or update those services you really need synced.

With the tap of a menu option your Android could be running faster. / © AndroidPITTry your hand at ART

ART stands for Android Run Time and is the runtime that will soon replace the aging Dalvik. Basically, ART pre-compiles your apps so that every time you launch them you're not starting from scratch, meaning that you'll have significantly faster app launches. Not every app supports ART right now (the most glaring example being WhatsApp) so you'll have to make some sacrifices if you want faster performance, but there's plenty of alternatives available that do. ART is the way of the future, so why not get on board early?

You can also check out our top 3 apps to boost Android system performance.

Is your device running faster now? What other things do you do for improved performance?  

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