If your iPhone has been in use for several months or even years, it often doesn’t run as smoothly as it did right after purchase. this is not uncommon, after all a lot of apps have been installed and data backed up on your smartphone over time. But when apps are slow to open and commands aren’t executed right away, it can significantly impact the user experience and, most importantly, be quite annoying.
But no worries! With a few tricks you can give your iPhone a speed boost, so that everything runs smoother again. We have compiled the most important tips to make your iPhone faster.
Create more memory on the iPhone
If your apps are slow to launch or keystrokes don’t work, it may be due to too full memory. This slows down the speed of the iPhone. You can check what’s taking up the most storage space on your iPhone in Settings. This gives you an immediate impression of where there is potential for optimization. Now, there are several ways to create storage space on the iPhone: Besides simply deleting pictures, videos and messages, you can clear the RAM and browser cache and uninstall apps.
- Empty working memory
- Clear browser cache
- Delete iPhone apps
Similar to a PC, a full memory can reduce the speed of a smartphone enormously. Basically, iOS uses RAM pretty efficiently – but in some cases, it can still be worth emptying it out. This is how it works on an iPhone with home button (i.e. up to iPhone 
.
- Press the power button until the power off dialog appears.
- Do not turn off the device, but hold down the home button now.
- After a few seconds, the home screen is displayed again and the iPhone’s memory is emptied. As soon as you open an application, it will be reloaded.
Even without a physical home button, you can empty the working memory by setting up a virtual home button. Here’s how to do it on models starting with iPhone X:
- Open the device settings and navigate to the "Tapping" item via "Operating aids".
- Here you activate "AssistiveTouch" with the slider and a kind of virtual home button appears resp. A small menu with different options.
- Tap the icon and hold the virtual home button until the screen lights up briefly. The RAM is now cleared.
Being able to access the Internet anytime and anywhere is one of the greatest advantages of a smartphone. But by frequent surfing with the iPhone a lot of data accumulates in the Safari app. Content loaded from the Internet is saved in order to be displayed more quickly when the web page is called up again. They are saved in the cache and you can empty it manually if the iPhone slows down a bit.
Depending on your browser usage, you can free up a few megabytes of storage space. The speed of the Safari browser can increase significantly this way. If you want to clear your iPhone’s browser cache, go to Settings, navigate to Safari and select "Clear history and website data".
Apps usually take up a large part of the iPhone memory and offer you many great features. In between, however, it is worth sorting out apps and uninstalling those that you no longer use. By doing so, you free up valuable storage space that can significantly increase the speed of your device. How to remove apps from your iPhone:
- On the home screen, press and hold the app’s icon and select the "Edit home screen" option so that all app icons start shaking.
- Now go to the minus in the upper corner of the app icon, so that further options open up.
- Here you select "Delete app" and confirm that you want to uninstall the app. Attention: There is also the option "Remove from home screen", but this only moves the apps to the app library and does not delete them from the iPhone.
Does quitting active apps improve the speed of your iPhone?
A myth that divides minds. For years, it’s been said that manually quitting apps frees up memory and increases battery life. Apple’s software chief Craig Federighi but officially disproved this claim.
Also the Apple support advises against it, Quit iPhone apps this way. Closing apps manually only makes sense if an app freezes or stops working properly, he said.
Disable background updates and improve iPhone performance
Apps on the iPhone normally work steadily in the background, so that they are directly up to date every time they are opened. For example, the weather app regularly downloads new data and WhatsApp updates your chats. So the background updates are basically a useful and practical feature.
However, the updates that many iPhone apps perform in the background not only cost battery, but can also reduce the speed of your iPhone. Especially for apps you don’t use every day, you can think about disabling the automatic background updates. Here’s how to change the setting:
- Go to the settings and select the menu item "General".
- On the level that appears, navigate to the "Background update" item.
- Now you can disable the background update next to each app with the sliders. If you want to disable the feature completely, go to "Background Update" at the very top and select "Off".
Good to know: If your iPhone is in power-saving mode, background updates will be automatically disabled for the time being.
Make iPhone faster: Disable automatic app updates
Automatic app updates on the iPhone have the advantage that the apps always stay up to date and you don’t have to worry about updates. However, you also have a few disadvantages: The updates cost performance, data volume and battery life.
To deactivate the automatic updates, go to the "App Store" item in the iPhone settings. Under "Automatic downloads" you will find the option "App updates" – you can easily disable it with the slider. You can also specify whether automatic downloads should also be done via your mobile data or not.
If you want to update your apps now, you can do that too manually. To do this, open the App Store and tap on your profile picture in the upper right corner. In the view that opens, you will see the upcoming updates at the bottom and can select, for example, "Update all" or the update of individual apps.
Turn off Spotlight search and increase iPhone speed
Spotlight search on Apple devices can be a useful tool to search your smartphone for content. It gives you the ability to directly search all apps and files on the entire iPhone for the entered term with one request – this saves you the hassle of going to each app individually, especially if you don’t know exactly which app contains the information you’re looking for. However, if you do not need the search function, you can use it partially disable. You can’t turn it off completely, but you can specify which apps you want to limit the search to.
- Open the iPhone settings and go to the "Siri&" item Search".
- In the lower area you will now see a list of apps.
- If you select the individual apps, you can disable the "Show app in ‘search’" and "Show content in ‘search’" options with the slider bar.
Without the voice assistant Siri, your iPhone will be faster
The Siri voice assistant can simplify the operation of your phone in many situations: The intelligent software understands Hundreds of commands, performs processes for you and answers your questions. However, Siri is not only helpful, but also costs performance. If you don’t want to use the software, you should deactivate Siri to make your iPhone faster. Here’s how to do it:
- Open the iPhone settings and go to the "Siri&" item Search".
- Here you can find the submenu to Siri with several options.
- Disable the options "Watch for ‘Hey Siri’", "Press side key/home button for Siri" and "Allow Siri when locked" with the slider to turn off Siri.
Using Siri correctly: Tips, questions and commands
Do you already know all Siri commands and functions of the voice assistant?? We’ve rounded up all the important tips, questions, commands and fun Easter Eggs to make your mobile life easier.
Reduce visual effects and movements
Apple is known for making the operation of the iPhone visually appealing with special features. These include for example Animated backgrounds, like the Parallax effect. This will make the app icons change to create a 3D effect depending on the orientation of the smartphone.
This feature is visually very appealing to users, however, it can reduce the iPhone’s performance. Just as pretty to look at Transparency effects on iPhone – but these are also real processor hogs. So if you want to make your iPhone faster, it’s best to do without these features and effects.