We all love installing certain apps as soon as we get our hands on a new phone. From gaming apps to social media apps, we tend to install them all. But have you ever considered the fact that not every app that you install or are pre-installed on your phone is necessary? No, right? Well, this is a harsh truth and therefore there are apps that you should delete immediately from your phone to save some memory as well as battery.
So, if you are interested in freeing your phone from unwanted garbage, then follow this article till the end.
Contents
Apps that you should delete immediately
Below is the list of App categories that you should delete immediately from your phone:
- QR Code scanner apps.
- Battery saver apps.
- Storage booster apps.
- Bloatware apps.
- Antivirus apps.
- Documents scanner apps.
- Social media apps.
- Flashlight apps.
- Free VPN apps.
Want a brief overview of all of the mentioned categories?
Then read on!
QR Code scanner apps:
As digitization has taken a boom, “Quick Response” or “QR code scanners” are becoming more and more popular nowadays. Every hotel, cafe, or restaurant, is ditching the old school paper-printed menus and switching to the new era of digital QR code menus, which of course is helping the environment by saving a lot of paper.
But, do you think that downloading a dedicated QR code scanner is one of the wisest decisions? In my opinion, it is a bit of a drag, because QR codes can be easily scanned with the help of the built-in camera app.
Don’t believe me?
Well, do one thing, open the Google app on your android phone, and then press the camera icon located on the right side of the search bar. After that, capture the QR Code, and snap! You will be redirected to the digital menu.
Similarly, if you are an iPhone user, then simply;
- Open up your native camera app.
- Then point it towards the QR code.
- Now it will read the QR code, and then show a pop-up for the appropriate website.
- Click on it.
- Done. You will now be redirected to the menu page of the restaurant or the website.
Note: This feature is available only on iOS 13 and later, so if you are on an older version, then you might want to keep the QR Code Scanner app intact. Additionally, if the feature is disabled, you can enable it by navigating to the Settings menu > Camera app > and then Enable the Scan QR Codes option by toggling the switch.
Battery saver apps:
Battery Saver apps were very much popular back in those days when android was not that smarter. But now, as android has upgraded itself, I don’t think there is a need to download such apps, because they are just a waste when it comes to managing battery consumption.
No doubt “Greenify” is an app that is still of my favorites, but it needs root access to function at maximum capacity. Therefore, it is better to leave your Android/iOS device out of this mess, and let your smartphone work in a much smarter way to manage the battery health.
Storage booster apps:
After talking about battery saver apps, it is now time to criticize the storage booster apps. I am pretty sure, that you must have heard of “Clean Master” – the app that claims to clean up unwanted junk files including cache files as well as RAM storage to help boost your phone.
Well, sadly it is not true, as it doesn’t clean up the Storage and RAM efficiently, eats up a load of space on your storage, and consumes more battery.
Additionally, some experts have also stated that these kinds of apps might make your device much slower, because when an app is forcefully closed with the help of such apps, it automatically restarts after a few minutes, thus, using much more power and RAM.
And for that reason, I recommend deleting such apps right away from your device.
Bloatware apps:
Phone companies like Samsung and Xiaomi still provide bloatware in their phone, and a lot of them are battery drainers as well as storage consumers. Therefore, I strictly recommend you delete such bloatware apps immediately from your phone, so that you can make some room for your favorite apps.
Although, be careful while deleting such apps, as they might be a mandatory part for your device to function properly. And therefore, whenever in doubt, you can “Force Stop” or “Disable” such apps, and re-enabled them when required.
Antivirus apps:
Phones are vulnerable to viruses and malware and no one can deny this truth, but installing antivirus app might not be the best decision.
Usually, when a user suspects some malicious activity on his device, he can run an antivirus scan to eliminate it. But sometimes these soldiers consume more battery and RAM than required, as they are designed to run continuously in the background.
Therefore, if you are someone who is not downloading any third-party app from a random website, I recommend you uninstall the antivirus software from your mobile phone.
Fun Fact: You need not worry much about the apps downloaded from Play Store, because Google Play runs a daily scan on its app store to prevent malware attacks.
Documents scanner apps:
This is another evil app that you should completely erase from your device, because; (a) It is free plus hogs on your data for revenue generation, and (b) Why would you even trust such apps with your personal data like; license, identity card, and documents?
Further adding, you must have heard about this app called “Cam Scanner”, right? Well, this app was busted a few years ago by cyber security experts for secretly installing malware apps on users’ devices.
So, would you prefer trusting such apps with your sensitive data?
No, right?
Therefore, it is better to uninstall them from your phone and never look back.
But what if you wanted to scan documents to create a PDF file on your phone?
Ahh…it is damn easy, just use your iPhone’s “Note” app or “Google Drive” (on Android) to scan your documents, which is the safest mode of scanning your documents.
Social media apps:
Many phone manufacturers have built up this tendency to give out their phones with pre-installed social media apps like; Facebook, Twitter, and Tik Tok. But, do you really need such resource-consuming as well as data-hungry apps on your mobile phone?
If not, then you should delete them right away and free up space on your device. Although, if you are someone who checks their social media accounts once in a while, then I would recommend using the “Lite” version or the “Web” version of the app, which are more resource friendly.
Flashlight apps:
Back in those days when android and iOS were new in the market, there was this crazy hype about flashlight apps, which allowed a user to use the in-built flashlight feature as a torch, or for incoming call flashlight notification.
Although, these cool features are now pre-fetched inside smartphones, and therefore, there is no point in using such apps. Plus, these apps used to hog the user data to earn revenue, because why not, they were free and wanted some resources to earn money.
Free VPN apps:
Nowadays, VPN apps are running high on demand, and why shouldn’t they be, as they provide full anonymity to users by hiding their internet activity from ISPs or Government agencies.
However, there are many apps available on the app store that claim to provide the best VPN service for free.
So, the question lies, can you trust them?
NO, you can’t trust them, because they are in this business to earn revenue, which they eventually get by collecting and selling your data to advertisers, or in a bad scenario to hackers.
Therefore, I recommend you use a premium VPN subscription, which will not only help you in saving your internet activity from prying eyes but will also delete your entire internet activity history as soon as you switch off the VPN connection, also known as the “No-Log” policy feature.
Final Remarks on “Apps that you should delete immediately”
Apps are a crucial part of a smartphone that helps a user in accomplishing a task more easily and successfully. However, there is a certain category of apps that are not good for your mobile phone health, and for that reason, it is better to delete or uninstall them completely from your device, which will in turn help in increasing the longevity of your smartphone.
