Whether you have a brand new iPhone 6s or an older model from several years ago, there are two things we can pretty much guarantee are true: you wish your phone was faster and you wish your battery lasted longer. Battery life complaints go without saying since iPhone’s are among the worst performers in their class. As for speed, the new iPhone 6s is the fastest phone on the planet, but who can say no to an extra speed boost? And when it comes to older iPhone models, everything slows down over time.
There are a number of different ways users try to speed up their phones and extend their battery life, and some things work better than others. In this post, however, we’re going to tell you about a few hidden tricks that might be just what the doctor ordered.
MUST SEE: The iPhone trick you’ve been waiting for: How to hide Apple’s default apps
Speed up your iPhone by Clearing your RAM
In just a few short seconds, you can easily clear out your phone’s RAM and help speed up performance. The longer you go without a reboot the more clogged your phone can get, but rebooting is a pain because it takes a while. With this trick, which was posted to Twitter a short while ago by iOS app developer Mark Forrest, you can clear your phone’s RAM in just a few seconds.
Here’s all you need to do:
- Hold down your power button until you see “Slide to power off” at the top of the screen
- Then release the power button and hold down your home button for five seconds until the home screen reappears
That’s it! Your iPhone will feel fresh and new without having to wait through a reboot.
Clear out Cache in Apple Apps
Cache buildups result in unnecessary clutter that can also slow down your iPhone, but there’s a great hidden trick we posted about recently that almost no one knew about.
There are several Apple apps that allow you to manually clear the cache. Examples include the App Store, Podcasts, Music, Game Center, iMessage and Phone. To clear out the cache in each app and help boost your phone’s speed, simply open any of the aforementioned apps and quickly tap 10 times in a row on one of the tab icons at the bottom of the screen.
Once you do that, the screen will go blank for a moment and the cache will be cleared.
Automatically Clear Messages after 30 days
Having all that old junk in there slows down your Messages app and your iPhone in general. Here’s how to fix it: go to Settings > Messages > Keep Messages and then change the setting from “Forever” to “30 Days” to clear up the most storage or “1 Year” if you’re not quite ready to lose all that history. Trust us, you'll be glad you made this change.
Disable Time-Wasting Animations
You can also toggle the “Increase Contrast” and “Reduce Transparency” options while you’re in there to give your battery life a slight boost.
Enable Wi-Fi Assist
Moving on to battery life, there are a few things you can do to improve your iPhone’s battery performance and the first one is fairly controversial.
Apple’s new Wi-Fi Assist feature switches from Wi-Fi to cellular data when your connection is spotty. This improves performance and saves battery life, but it also could cost you money if you have a small data plan or you’re roaming.
To enable the feature, go to Settings > Cellular and slide the toggle next to “Wi-Fi Assist” to on.
Enable Low Power Mode
Everyone has seen the little option pop up to enable Low Power Mode when their remaining charge gets down to 20% and then again at 10%, but you'd be surprised at how many people are unaware that this feature can be enabled at any time. So, if you’re going out for a long busy day away from Wi-Fi, enabling Low Power Mode can extend your battery life by several hours.
