Editorials

Start the New Year off right by deleting unused apps

The New Year is coming, you’ve got apps on your phone from 3-5 phones ago you don’t use. Delete them, save space and power, shorten boot times, avoid being tracked later on.

While the way Android does power management these days probably means an old unused app is not taking up much power, each app on your phone takes something. Whether it’s a couple milliseconds to pull the icon from the app so the app launcher can display it, the time needed to “optimize apps” after an upgrade, or just the mental energy of wondering if you will ever use that app again and whether you should delete it.

Delete it.

“But Paul,” you say, “an unused app becomes unused by the operating system these days.” To which I reply: Nope, you’re going to get advertising or your info harvested by the trickier actors later on. I’ve got apps that I haven’t used in a long time that suddenly want to tell me about great deals expiring soon.

Should you get an application to delete applications in mass? Probably not, but if you do you might want to check out (on Android) Files by Google. You can select a bunch of apps for uninstall and see which are used and not used and serial batch uninstall.

Pocketables Uninstall Application / Liberation day

Should you get any one of the 6 billion app cleaners and junk removers? Probably not – just uninstall your own unused apps.

See an advertisement in your notification bar? Long press it, find out what that app is, and uninstall it.

Got an unused app you might need for a rainy day? Make a folder in your launcher, put in all the garbage you think you might need some day, then uninstall it later. I’d also advise getting something to disable these apps and going in and removing any permissions they have. You might not save battery or processor time by putting them in a junk folder, but you’ll at least know how many you’re holding onto and clean up your launcher a bit.

Celebrate Pocketables Application Uninstallation / Liberation day (or PAUL for short) and yeah, get rid of those garbage apps.

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Paul E King

Paul King started with GoodAndEVO in 2011, which merged with Pocketables, and as of 2018 he's evidently the owner. He lives in Nashville, works at a film production company, is married with two kids. Facebook | Twitter | Donate | More posts by Paul | Subscribe to Paul's posts

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