Let’s be honest: you probably have more than one app on your phone designed to perform the same task. Here’s an amazing life hack you probably never thought of: get rid of them.
Even if you have plenty of space on your phone, you don’t need to have several kajillion different messaging apps installed. Some may even still be lurking around from when you first got it (like the stock Messaging app in my screenshot above that I’ve never once used). As tech blog MakeUseOf suggests, if you know you have more than one app of the same type, get rid of the extras. Here are just a few of the categories where you could very easily accumulate multiple versions of essentially the same thing:
- Cameras
- Launchers
- Messaging apps
- Calendars
- Browsers
- Email apps
- Social network clients
Several of these categories come with multiple built-in apps, on top of the ones you download yourself. You can disable system apps in the Settings menu, but otherwise uninstall them. It particularly helps to keep the one-app-per-task idea in mind when faced with an app switcher. If Android is asking you to choose between four browsers, it might be time to delete three of them.
One of Each: A Simple Rule To Fight Clutter On Your Android Phone [MakeUseOf]
Comments
7 responses to “Reduce Phone Clutter By Deleting All Those Redundant Apps”
Often annoys me when my various friendship circles use different methods to communicate. Some use Facebook messenger, Snapchat, Whatsapp, SMS, email….
FB messenger seems the most obvious (though not the nicest) to be used solely but a few of my friends have started deleting their accounts in favour of sunlight.
On clutter… how about google makes chrome mobile and their web services better and then you wouldn’t need a YouTube app, a Google Play app, a Google Translate app.
AND FINALLY, one thing that has irked me about android for the longest time, Google play music, Google play movies, Google play books, Google paly games, Google play newsstand…. talk about redundant apps! Jeez!!
Phone apps are supposed to be small and single-purpose, though. I agree it’s silly, but it’s probably for people who like apps as simple as possible, not us
That’s fine if you can uninstall the apps….. the google play apps, of which I use none, cannot be uninstalled from stock android.
but they can be disabled … thus removing them from the launcher app drawer.
I agree with @stargrinder. It comes down to your friendship circles and they all use different methods to communicate and as people choose new apps, you have to follow and get the next latest messaging/calling app to stay in touch.
For instance, I am originally from the UK so I use a mixture of WhatsApp and Viber for txting and calling. Gone are the days of Skype, barely use that these days. Then there were friends with Blackberrys so you need the BBM iphone app. Before you know it you have 10 apps for the same thing.
I am about to make the switch from an iPhone to Samsung and agree, Google need to decluter themselves and make one Play app.
Edit: I just did a comparison and found that the majority of my contacts have switched to viber so thats one app I delete..bye bye whatsapp
I cannot stand Whatsapp… one (small) group of friends insist on using it and it is just not a nice app.
Google unfortuantely seem to have no intention of unifying their apps as they’ve recently split their drive app into 3, a document editing app, spreadsheet editing app and the original drive app. This is on top of the quickoffice app, which they bought out, assumedly as a competitor against M$ office.