Does your iPhone feel slow and not as peppy as the day you bought it? You’re not alone. Smartphones tend to get slow over time for various reasons.
But before you go splashing your hard-earned money on a new phone, why not try a few tricks to speed up your aging iPhone?
5 tricks to speed up your iPhone
1. Update to latest iOS
It may sound obvious, but having your phone running the latest operating system makes a lot of difference. With every iteration, Apple not only introduces new features but also improves a device’s overall performance: As is evident with the iOS 14.5 update. To check for the latest update, go to Settings -> General -> Software Update.
2. Turn down visuals
Visual effects and animations may look nice, but they hog a lot of resources. You will notice a bump in speed when you turn them off.
You should first turn off the parallax effect of the icons and alerts. Head to Settings -> Accessibility -> Motion, and then turn on Reduce Motion. Next, you should reduce the transparency effect by going to Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Size, and turn on Reduce Transparency.
3. Turn off Background App Refresh
Some apps automatically download updates to save you time. Email apps too tend to automatically retrieve emails so they are ready in the inbox before you open the app. These background processes not only use data but also your phone’s resources.
To turn them off, switch your phone to Low Data Mode. Head to Settings -> Cellular -> Cellular Data Options, turn on Low Data Mode.
4. No thank you, Siri!
Though Siri can be quite handy, some of its features can potentially slow down iPhones (especially older ones). Siri can suggest things based on your phone’s usage, but this can hog resources.
Turn it off by going to Settings -> Siri & Search -> Turn off all Siri Suggestions. Also, turn off the feature that can wake up Siri with the command– “Hey Siri”. On the same screen turn off “Listen for “Hey Siri”.
5. Delete unwanted apps
Low storage can also be another reason for your phone’s sluggish performance. You should ideally have at least 10% of your phone’s storage free for optimum performance.
Head to Settings -> General -> Storage for a detailed look at how your phone’s storage is being used. To free up some space, delete unused apps, old messages, and other content like music and photos.
Since it will wipe out everything on the phone, it is imperative to back up your data prior to initiating the factory reset. On an iPhone, head to Settings -> Apple ID -> Back Up Now.
