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I’m willing to bet there’s at least five apps in there you’re not using.
I remember when I got my first smartphone, I was so excited. I trolled through the Google Play store for hours, downloading this app and that, installing a rimshot button, customizing every little thing. I was a kid in a candy store. Then, a month went by, and I realized I had only opened all of those apps once, twice tops, and had used that rimshot button a grand total of three times, all of which were ironically. As fun as it is to install a bunch of random junk on your phone, it’s not really a great idea because one, you’re slowing your phone down, and two, you’re likely agreeing to a bunch of stuff you haven’t actually read. Don’t let zombie apps clutter up your phone, just junk ’em.
What is a “zombie app,” though? Some apps, whether intentionally or not, have a quirk that keeps them open and running full throttle in the background even when you close them. They’re sucking up battery and processing power, or worse, they could be monitoring you. If you go into your phone’s settings, you can see what apps are running at any given moment, as well as how much memory and battery they’re eating up. If it’s an app you’re using regularly, then you can force stop it to (hopefully) put a cap on its resource-sucking. If it’s an app you just installed for giggles, though, then there’s no reason to keep it around. Just uninstall it and free up some space for more constructive things, like music. Or photos. Or more apps. Maybe not that last one.
Remember, a smartphone is a small computer, and like a computer, you need to periodically clean out the junk data. Your phone’s memory will thank you for it, your battery will thank you for it, and you’ll thank yourself for it when you need to install something actually important.
