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Tips for how to make Google Android run games and apps faster

Google Android has a lot of new games release for Android very often. But, some games like Asphalt 8, CSR Racing, Modern Combat 5, and Gangster Vegas may not run very well on older phones and tablets because of less RAM, slower CPU, and storage which is almost full. However, there maybe some tweaks you can do to make your current Android phone or tablet run more intensive games and apps, or at least run more apps without the game feeling choppy and slow.

A lot of more intensive games like Gameloft’s Asphalt 8 racing game let you set the quality to low, medium, and very low for older phones and tablets. The video will not look as nice, but it still looks pretty good for a mobile game even on low settings. Setting the video quality to low would also make your phone’s and tablet’s battery life last longer, and it won’t run as hot because lower quality video uses less RAM, CPU, and video chip resources.

Turning off background music, and sound effects in the settings  of games may increase performance a little bit because the sound effects, and music are not using up any CPU and RAM resources to play sound.

Some people claim Task Killers like Super Task Killer works at making Android faster, but you can do even more tasks like uninstalling rarely used apps, disabling apps, and turning off sync, and services to make Android faster. If you learn how to Root your device, you can overclock the CPU, and other parts for slightly faster speeds with your existing hardware by using over clocking apps to make the CPU run faster than stock.

You can manually force close apps in the App information page for the App. You can find the app information page for individual apps, and games in the App section in Google Android Settings. You just need to tap on the forced close button to force close an app, so it is no longer running, and using up CPU, and RAM resources.

There are also system utility apps like Clean Master with a Task Killer, and Game Booster which claims to Boost gaming performance by freeing up RAM, and stopping background programs from running to make your gaming performance faster.

Super Touch is another nice system utility app which makes scrolling through lists,sliding, dragging, zooming, scrolling, typing,app launch times, and touch responsive a lot faster.

I have been using Super Touch for a few months, and it makes using my mobile apps faster, and more responsive in my experience.

I recommend you first uninstall Apps, games, live wallpaper, and widgets you don’t need or rarely use to free up space to free up storage space which may make Android run better. You can also clear the cache for apps in the App page for the App in your Google Android settings for apps by clicking clear cache. Be careful not to clear the cache to apps which you commonly use since I notice some apps like CSR Racing will remove the game save data when it’s app cache is cleared, and you need to re-download the last save location from CSR Racing Server. Don’t click the Clear Data button unless you want to keep the app, but clear the data, and all its save data to reset the app, and start your game, and app all over again by clearing your saves, and custom settings.

Disabling Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, location access, GPS, Data, and NFC in Google Android settings will help at releasing RAM since the services for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc won’t be active in memory, and your battery life would be better. Plus, the syncing features for apps, and Android would not run since syncing needs a connection like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to sync wirelessly to a server or PC.

An App called Advance Mobile Care which you can find in the Google Play app store is a simple all in one system utility app which claims to optimize Android by getting rid of junk, and have a Game Speeder program to make games run faster. Advance Mobile Care also has a virus scanner, so it will scan for, and remove viruses if any are found to stop viruses from slowing down your device while making it unsafe to use.

There is also an App called 1Tap Cleaner in Google Play which cleans your history, call logs, cache for apps, and other junk files to make your phone or tablet use less storage space.

You can also free up space by deleting files you downloaded, but no longer need in your downloads folder, or using the USB cable which came with your device, and cut, and paste your personal files like pictures, music, etc onto your computer.

Wipe the Android Cache Partition in Google Android’s Recovery mode for faster performance

Wiping the Android Cache Partition by entering Recovery Mode can make Android faster, and crash/freeze less often. Wiping the Cache partition won’t delete your apps, personal files, game saves, and other important data in my experience.

I notice my Nexus 7 2012 now runs faster after wiping its cache partition in Recovery mode. The Android Cache Partition is different from individual app cache files found in Google Android. I recommend having a full battery before entering recovery mode, so you won’t run out of battery life while wiping your cache partition.

Recovery mode can be unsafe to use if you accidentally highlight wipe data/factory reset by mistake, so be careful when in recovery mode. Wiping the Android Cache partition can be hard to enter for less tech-savvy Android users.

Some Google Android devices has Recovery mode is disabled, or hard to enter. Most Google Nexus devices like the Nexus 7 usually have Recovery mode turned on by default, but some devices from other brands like Kobo may not have Recovery Mode turned on, so you need to root your device, and install a custom ROM to enter Recovery mode.

I recommend having a full battery before using Recovery mode to prevent your device from shutting down because of no more battery life.

How I wipe my Nexus 7 2012 tablet’s recovery partition?

1. I cleared my Nexus 7 2012 tablet’s Cache Partition by powering off my tablet, and powering it on.

2. When it is powering ON, and I see the Google Logo. I need to quickly hold down both the Power button, and Volume down button at the same time to enter recovery mode.

3. When I see the Android robot with an open door, keep pressing the volume down arrow until you see the Recovery mode title on the arrow pointing to the right.

4.I Press the power button to enter recovery mode.

5.When I see a black screen with a robot in the center with a ! caution sign. I need to press the power button, and the volume up button at the same time to enter the recovery menu.

6. When in the Recovery menu, I press volume down until the “Wipe Cache Partition” is highlighted.

7. After “Wipe Cache Partition” title is highlighted, I press the power button to wipe the cache partition which takes a few seconds or more to complete.

8.Once Android is done wiping the cache partition, I can reboot my device by taping on the power button when “Reboot system now” title is highlighted.

9. I wait for Google Android to finish booting up my device.

10. Now I can use Google Android again, and experience faster performance.

You can learn how to enter Recovery mode for most Google Nexus smartphones and tablets at https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4596836?hl=en&rd=1

I recommend you ignore the parts about wiping your data by performing a Recovery because you will lose all your data unlike wiping your cache partition which will just delete temporary files in your cache partition.

Disabling auto-sync and notifications on social networking, chat, storage apps

If there are social networking, online storage, and e-mail apps on your phone, or tablet, disable auto-syncing, notifications, and updates while you are gaming to prevent your games and apps from being interrupted, or running slower while you use them.

Also, disable auto-updating on Google Play since I notice on older smartphones and tablets with slower performance auto-updating on Google Play can slow down the entire device. Install updates when Google Android is idle, or you are not actively using it. I recommend installing the latest updates for apps, and games, so you get the latest updates to fix problems related to performance and stability found in older versions of the app.

Buying or choosing apps and games which don’t have ads may make your games, and apps run more smoothly since there are no ads slowing down your phone or tablet while displaying apps.

Changing the homescreen launcher back to the default homescreen launcher, or Nova Launcher could make your phone and tablet faster as well if it came with a slower launcher, and lots of widgets and icons on the Launcher. Removing icons and widgets from the launcher could decrease the RAM usage as well, and using a picture base wallpaper instead of a live wallpaper may help, too.

Exiting programs like web browsers, other games, and apps which you are not using can make apps, and games run better.

Some Apps and Games may have a lighter version of the app which is designed for slower phones, or tablets, so search Google Play to see if there are lighter versions of apps like Boat Browser Mini, Dolphin Browser Mini, etc which run better on older devices. A few games like Real Racing 3D, ShadowGun, and Beach Buggy Blitz let you change the video quality setting  in the options to low to medium to run better on older devices with slower video chips like the Nvidia Tegra 2.

Task Killers aren’t very helpful at making a phone or tablet use less memory, and may kill important tasks which you need running like e-mail. Sometimes task killer apps run in the background using some RAM as well. Powering Off your tablet, and Smartphone by holding down on the power button on your device until you see a power window, and picking power off, and turning back on your device should refresh your memory, and make your device have more free memory.

Sometimes a phone, or tablet is just too slow to run the newest apps and games because its CPU, RAM, Storage, and Video chip are too slow, and if you want to play newer games like Shadow Gun, CSR Racing, and Soulcraft, you need a new phone or tablet.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is a fast Android smartphone is one of the fastest Android phones for running Android Apps and games. The S7 should be able to handle most apps, and games made for Android without as many slowdown.

The Nvidia Shield K1 Tablet 16GB is a very fast $199 Google Android tablet which can currently run almost all newer Android games, and apps without as many slowdown problem as slower tablets. It also has a Tegra K1 CPU and video chip and 2GB of RAM which is great for 3D gaming, and running many apps at once.

If you care about Android updates, buying a Google Android phones, and tablets with the Google Nexus brand is a good idea. The Google Nexus phones and tablets will be first to get updates for Android by Google. Updates sometimes make Android run faster on Nexus hardware. Nexus devices also uses a clean/pure version of Android without any third-party widgets, third-party apps, and resource intensive launchers which can make Google Android run slower, and less stable.

If you don’t use a Google Nexus Device like the Nexus 7, there are tutorials online for rooting, and installing custom versions of Android like  Cyanogenmod which could make your phone or tablet faster, or update Android to a newer version than what is on your phone or tablet. Rooting, and installing is an advance level tasks, and would void your warranty, so if you don’t want to risk breaking Android on your phone or tablet, I recommend doing lots of research online on rooting, and custom firmware before starting, or ask someone who is more experience to root and install firmware for you.

Once your phone or tablet is rooted, you can also overclock your CPU on your device with overclocking apps to improve its performance, but overclocking is risky, and may damage your tablet if you set the CPU speed too high.

You can also uninstall bundled system apps like Google Maps, YouTube, etc with apps like Root Uninstaller to free up more space for games and apps, and stopping them from starting up and running in the background because they are uninstalled, and no longer on your device. In Google Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2, you can manually disable the apps by going into the app settings in Google Android settings, and Disabling apps like Currents, Maps, YouTube, Chrome, Calculator, and other Google and pre-installed apps from being enabled, but they can’t be uninstalled on a non-rooted device, so they still take up some storage space when disable. If you need to enable an app again, you can go into your app settings and go to the disable section to re-enable apps which you want to enable again. You can also use Google Play to re-enable an App like YouTube, and install the latest version of the app.

Optimizing your phone, or tablet running Google Android could also make your device more reliable, use less battery, and fun to use because it runs faster, and freezes less.

If your touchscreen is slow, or unresponsive, using a capacitive stylus instead of your finger, and cleaning your screen with a lightly damp clothe may help at making your touchscreen more responsive.

The Nvidia Shield console, and Shield tablet are the best Google Android devices for gaming because both devices are optimized and designed for running Google Android games at its best compared to other Android devices which may come pre-loaded with a lot of unneeded themes, wallpaper, background apps, and services which you don’t need, and can even slow down your device while gaming.

1 comment… add one
  • niraj October 29, 2017, 5:06 am

    Hello,
    Very nice article. i followed same process and i am very happy because its very fine so please add some more tricks, that can help us more.
    make android faster

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