How to Speed Up a Slow Android Phone Without Cleaner Apps

Quick answer: Restart the phone, install pending system and app updates, and make sure at least 10% of storage is free, since Google says phones can start having problems below that. If it got slow right after an update, leave it charging with the screen off overnight so Android can finish optimizing apps. Then check for settings that slow the phone on purpose, like Samsung's Light performance profile or Battery Saver, and use safe mode to catch a bad app.

You don't need a "booster" or RAM cleaner app for any of this. Every fix below uses tools already on your phone, with the exact menu paths for Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones and the official source for each step.

Start with the four fixes Google and Samsung both list

The first four steps on Google's "Speed up a slow Android device" page and Samsung's slow or unresponsive Galaxy page are the same, and they fix most slowdowns. Google suggests restarting after each step to see whether it helped.

1. Restart the phone. On a Pixel 6 or later, press and hold Power and Volume up for a few seconds, then tap Restart. On a Galaxy, swipe down to Quick settings, tap the Power icon, then Restart. If a Galaxy is frozen, Samsung says to hold the Side key and Volume down for more than 7 seconds.
2. Install system updates. On a Pixel, go to Settings > System > Software update. On a Galaxy, go to Settings > Software update and tap Download and install (One UI 8.0 or earlier) or Check for updates (One UI 8.5 or later).
3. Free up storage. Open Settings > Storage on a Pixel, or Settings > Device care > Storage on a Galaxy. Google's help pages say a phone "can start having issues when less than 10% of storage is free." On a 128 GB phone, that's about 13 GB. Our guide to freeing up storage on Android walks through the safest things to delete first.
4. Update your apps. Open the Play Store, tap your profile picture, then Manage apps & devices, and update everything listed under "Updates available."

Before you go further, rule out your connection. Google's page starts with network troubleshooting because a slow Wi-Fi or mobile data connection makes apps feel slow too. If pages and feeds hang but the phone's menus open quickly, see our guides to Wi-Fi that's connected with no internet and mobile data not working.

Slow after an update? Let it charge overnight

A phone that feels sluggish for a day or two after a system update is usually still optimizing its apps, not broken. Android's own documentation explains why, and it changes what you should do about it.

Android's app runtime (ART) compiles apps into faster code in stages. The ART Service documentation lists "the first boot after an OTA update" (an over-the-air system update) as one of the times it optimizes apps. It also runs a background job "daily when the device is idle and charging" that recompiles apps based on how you actually use them. That job is canceled as soon as the phone is no longer idle or charging. So if you use the phone all day and charge it while scrolling, the job keeps getting interrupted.

Phone makers give similar timelines. Sony's support page says it "may take up to two days" for the software to settle after an update while the phone indexes files and updates preinstalled apps. Huawei's lag guide recommends charging with the screen off for at least 2 hours after an update and says the optimization can last up to a week.

What to do: plug the phone in overnight, leave it alone, and judge its speed the next day. If it's still slow after two or three days, carry on with the steps below. Old advice to "wipe the cache partition" after an update doesn't apply to most current phones; our guide to clearing cache on Android explains why.

When Android optimizes apps	What you notice	What helps
First boot after a system update	A longer startup and some lag on the first day	Wait it out; don't factory reset yet
Daily, when idle and charging	Apps get quicker over the next few days	Charge with the screen off, ideally overnight
When you install or update an app	That app may be slower for its first few launches	Use it normally; Android learns which code to speed up

Sources: ART Service README and Configure ART (Android Open Source Project).

Check for settings that slow the phone on purpose

Several battery and heat features deliberately trade speed for battery life or a cooler phone. They're easy to turn on and forget, and none of the generic speed-up checklists mention them.

Samsung Galaxy: Performance profile and Power saving

Samsung's Device care support page says Galaxy phones use a Standard performance profile by default, and that Light mode "prioritizes battery life over processing speed." To check it, open Settings > Device care > Performance profile and pick Standard. Samsung notes that Light mode doesn't affect games, so a phone that games fine but lags in everyday apps is a hint that Light mode is on.

Power saving can slow things too. The same Samsung page lists "Limit CPU speed to 70%" as one of its options. If Power saving is on, either turn it off or open its settings and switch off the CPU limit.

Google Pixel: Battery Saver and Extreme Battery Saver

According to Google's Battery Saver help page, standard Battery Saver turns off Smooth Display on Pixel 4 and later, which makes scrolling look less fluid, and stops apps from refreshing in the background, so feeds load only when you open them. Extreme Battery Saver goes further: Google says "your phone's processing (CPU) slows" and most apps pause. If your Pixel suddenly feels choppy, swipe down and check whether the Battery Saver tile is on.

Heat (and cold)

A hot phone slows itself down. Google's Pixel heat page says a phone that's too hot may "reduce CPU performance," reduce charging speed, and turn off 5G. On a Pixel 6 or later, you can check at Settings > Battery > Battery diagnostics > Phone is very warm. Google adds that setting up a phone or restoring a backup can make it warm, which is another reason a brand-new or freshly reset phone can feel slow at first. Cold matters as well: Huawei's guide says performance drops when the phone is too cold, so a phone that's been in a winter jacket pocket may lag until it warms up. Our Android overheating guide covers the common heat causes.

Find the app that's slowing everything down

If the phone is fine in safe mode, a downloaded app is the cause. Safe mode temporarily turns off every app you installed, so it's the fastest way to separate an app problem from a phone problem.

1. On a Pixel 6 or later, press and hold Power and Volume up, touch and hold Power off or Restart on the screen, then tap OK. You'll see "Safe mode" at the bottom of the screen. (Steps for other phones are in Google's safe mode page.)
2. Use the phone for a while. If the lag disappears, restart normally.
3. Uninstall recently added apps one at a time, restarting after each one, until the slowdown is gone. Then reinstall the others.

Google's tip is to keep a list of apps you force stop (Settings > Apps > See all apps > the app > Force stop) so you can spot a pattern. Our guide to turning off safe mode helps if your phone gets stuck there.

Watch for one kind of app in particular. Samsung's page on slowdowns after installing third-party apps warns that some apps show fake alerts like "Your phone is slow" or "Battery is draining fast" to get you to install more apps. If you see those warnings along with ads, follow our guide to stopping pop-up ads on Android to find and remove the app.

Skip RAM cleaners and task killers

Low "free RAM" on an Android phone is normal, not a sign that something is wrong. Android's memory management documentation says the system "runs on the premise that free memory is wasted memory" and keeps apps in memory after you close them "so the user can quickly switch back to them." When memory runs short, Android closes background apps first on its own.

That's why a third-party cleaner that "frees up RAM" doesn't make a phone faster for long. The apps it closes have to load again from scratch the next time you open them, and the cleaner itself runs in the background. Our take: if you have a Galaxy, the built-in tool does the same job without the ads. Samsung's Device care page says Settings > Device care > Memory > Clean now stops background apps, and you can add apps to Excluded apps so they stay open. On a Pixel, use Force stop only on an app that's misbehaving.

Galaxy owners will also see RAM Plus on that Memory screen. Samsung's RAM Plus explainer says it uses part of your storage as virtual memory so more apps can stay open, and you choose how much storage it takes (a restart applies the change). If storage is your bottleneck, setting it lower gives that space back.

Make it feel faster with shorter animations

Shortening system animations makes every tap feel snappier, even though it doesn't make the processor any faster. The settings are in Developer options, which you turn on by tapping Build number seven times. On a Pixel it's in Settings > About phone; on a Galaxy, Settings > About phone > Software information.

Then open Developer options and set Window animation scale and Transition animation scale to 0.5x. Google's developer options documentation says "a lower scale results in a faster speed." Leave the rest of Developer options alone. Google describes "Background process limit" as a tool for developers to see how their app behaves, and "Don't keep activities" destroys every app screen as soon as you leave it, so apps have to rebuild it each time you come back.

Pixel vs. Galaxy: where the speed tools are

Task	Google Pixel	Samsung Galaxy
Restart	Power + Volume up, then Restart (Pixel 6 and later)	Quick settings > Power icon > Restart
Frozen phone	Hold Power about 30 seconds	Hold Side + Volume down for 7+ seconds
Check storage	Settings > Storage	Settings > Device care > Storage
Speed limiter to check	Battery Saver / Extreme Battery Saver	Performance profile (Light) and Power saving CPU limit
Close background apps	Settings > Apps > the app > Force stop	Device care > Memory > Clean now
Built-in checkup	Battery diagnostics, including a temperature check (Pixel 6 and later)	Samsung Members > Diagnostics > Phone diagnostics

Sources: Google's slow Pixel and frozen Pixel pages; Samsung's diagnostics page and the Samsung pages linked above. Menu names can differ slightly by software version.

One small inconsistency worth knowing: Google's Pixel page says to hold Power for about 30 seconds to restart a frozen phone, while the general Android help page says about 60 seconds. If 30 seconds doesn't work, keep holding.

When a factory reset makes sense

Reset only after the steps above fail, and only after a backup. Google calls a factory reset the advanced step because it removes all data and uninstalls your apps, though you can restore data stored in your Google Account. If safe mode was just as slow, Battery Saver and heat aren't the cause, and the phone has been up to date for a few days, a reset is a reasonable next move. Follow our guides to backing up an Android phone and factory resetting without getting locked out.

If a phone is still slow after a reset, with plenty of free storage and nothing installed, the hardware is the likely limit. On a Galaxy, run the full Phone diagnostics test in Samsung Members before you decide between a repair and a new phone. If the slowdown only shows up in games, our mobile gaming lag guide covers game-specific fixes.

How we put this together: Aditya Singh checked each step against Google's Android and Pixel help pages, Samsung's US support pages, and the Android Open Source Project's documentation on November 2, 2026. Menu paths are quoted from those pages; we didn't benchmark phones for this guide.