How to android faster

Build your Android app Faster and Smaller than ever

Last month I got a great opportunity to give a talk in LINE DEVELOPER DAY 2018. It’s a special moment for me because it’s my first talk in Japan. Before being speakers this event LINE staffs have to submit their talk to the global team.

The topic I submitted are tips how to build Android app faster and how to generate smaller APK by Android Studio and Gradle that I’ve gathered from my experiences, Google I/O and especially from Developer Build Clinic. So Developer Build Clinic is one on one consulting in build performance improvement provided by Android Studio team.

In this blog I want to share with you these tips and the app I bring to show you in this experiment is LINE MAN Driver app.

For people who don’t know what LINE MAN is, it’s an on-demand assistant app with professional services including Food Delivery, Convenience Goods Delivery, Messenger Service, Parcel Service and Taxi to serve all of Thai user needs at any time.

P lease noted that actual results may vary because it depends on your project characteristics and your build environment e.g. project size, resources, dependencies and machine performance.

Tips for building app Smaller

The size of your APK has an impact on how fast your app loads, how much memory it uses, and how much power it consumes. I think most of you know APK size is an important factor in your user engagement. Let’s see current app size in LINE MAN Driver

Quick recommendation to optimize your APK is to use APK Analyzer in Android Studio. You can open Android Studio and select “Profile or debug APK” then browse your APK file. This tool will breakdown your packages in your APK file e.g. layouts, images, classes, libraries and etc. So you’ll know which part is big or which part is small then you can prioritize which one you should optimize.

Tip 1: Remove unused resources

Most of you are developing in legacy projects and there are a lot of images, layouts, and strings that you never used but you don’t know and you don’t want to remove it yourself because you are afraid you will make your app crash right? So In Android Studio, it provides you a menu called Remove Unused Resources.

It is very helpful for us because it’ll find unused resources automatically then you can remove them in one click.

Tip 2: Add just Dependencies Needed

Some dependencies they include a bunch of library inside like play-services and Facebook SDK. If you don’t specify libraries you need you will get entire of them that make your app fat. For example, if you want to use Google Auth you should specify “ com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth:16.x.x” instead of “ com.google.android.gms:play-services:16.x.x”

You can break down dependencies in your project by a command line below

You will see all of dependencies you use in your project then make sure you only use dependencies you need.

Tip 3: Build Multiple APKs for Screen Densities

By default Android Studio will generate a universal APK that include all of screen densities inside. In this tip you can specifically exclude or include screen densities you want to support in app/build.gradle and Android Studio will generate multiple APKs for you.

So you need to upload all of them to Google Play and finally your users will download only APK which match with their screen densities.

Tip 4: Build Multiple APKs for ABIs

This tip is similar to the previous tip but this tip is for supporting Application Binary Interfaces(ABIs). Now a day I think there are 7 CPU architectures in Android market and 3 of them are hard to find(mips, mips64, armeabi) so you can specify ABIs you want to support in app/build.gradle and Android Studio will generate multiple APKs for you.

After that you need to upload all of them to Google Play and finally your users will download only APK which match with their CPU architectures.

Tip 5: Build an APK with Specific ABIs

This tip is different from multiple APKs. You can specify CPU architecture you want to support and Android Studio will generate only one APK.

In my experience I prefer this tip than build multiple APKs because I used to find some crashes in some devices from multiple APKs.

Tip 6: Remove Unused Alternative Resources

Sometimes you create a local app and you only want to target some specific languages. But there are some dependencies that include many languages around the world and you don’t need all of them. So you can use “resConfigs” property to specify languages you want to support and your app size will be smaller.

Tip 7: Shrink Unused Code and Resources

By default minifyEnabled in Android Studio is false but I think many of you set it to “true” to minify and obfuscate your code for smaller and security reasons. I recommended you to add “shrinkResources” in app/build.gradle to remove unused resources after minify process. Because in minifying, gradle will remove unused code and that code might refer to some resources.

Lastly I think most of you may not know “-optimize” So you can add “-optimize” after “proguard-android” it will do more optimization for your build and your app would be smaller in significant number.

Please be reminded this process will take more time so you should use “-optimize” in release block only.

Tip 8: Use Shape Drawable

Sometimes I see developers use gradient background or rounded corner image as a Bitmap image. Actually bitmap image is bigger than Shape Drawable that provided by Android Studio because in Shape Drawable you can draw rectangle oval, rounded corner and other in XML format.

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How To Make Android Faster

If you are using an Android Smartphone, you are no doubt using one of the most popular and advanced operating systems that has numerous exciting features built in it. While you can make your Android device the most beloved gadget to accomplish all your task easily but at the same time, it is to be ensured that the performance it offers is satisfying. It is absolute that with time and usage your phone will be filled with tons of apps, widgets etc. which ultimately have an adverse effect on the phone speed. So, if you are looking for ways on how to make Android faster, know here some of the easy tricks to follow.

Ways To Make Android Faster

Keep the phone up to date

Keeping your device updated with the latest software as the update is the most important and powerful tip to enjoy a lag free performance always. Whenever any latest software is released ensure to get it in your device as latest software always comes with bug fixes and various improvements which all together work to make your device faster. You can very often check if any update is available for your device by going to Settings > About device > Software update.

Uninstall the unused apps

Another great way to make Android run faster is to uninstall all those apps that you have installed once but not using now and there is no such intention to use them in the future as well. So, why to block some space in the device unnecessarily? Even though you are not using the apps currently, they have cached files and they also run in the background which is affecting the performance of the device to some extent. So, it is always better to get rid of them completely by uninstalling them from the device.

Remove bloatware

Bloatware is another thing to slow down the performance of your device. Some companies like Micromax, Samsung etc. install numerous third party app commonly called bloatware in their Android device which is of no use actually. So, it’s always better to get rid of them to improve the device speed. So, what you are required to do is uninstall them from your device after rooting the phone.

Ensure the home screen is clean

Another thing that affects the performance and reliability of the Android device is a highly cluttered home screen. If the home screen of the Android device is filled with so many widgets, icons and other things it is definite that the performance of your device will be lagging. Also, if you use live wallpaper, things will be even worse. Remember a less clutter home screen is the key to great performance and this is why all Android users are recommended to make the home screen as clean as possible by removing all the unwanted icons and widgets. With this, replace the live wallpaper with a static image one for a better result.

Go for wiping cache partition

While cache or temporary files for every app is generated to store the temporary data so that switching from one app to another become easier but too much of cache data finally slow down the device. So, very often it is advised to go for wiping the cache partition to ensure your Android device performance is not at all affected by it. To wipe the cache partitions bring the device in recovery mode and then wipe cache partition.

Reduce the auto-sync

While syncing of various accounts is done in order to stay updated but too much of synchronization can harshly affect the device performance. So, another step to pursue is to turn off or else reduce the auto-sync feature so as to make android faster. It is very common for the new users to add so many accounts on their Android device without knowing its negative effect. What happens is the data gets automatically synced in the background leaving a deep impact on the performance. So, sync only those needed accounts and enjoy the lag free performance from your phone.

Get an antivirus

If you aim to enjoy a very smooth performance from your Android device, installing a strong and powerful antivirus is a must. While antivirus protects your device from the malware and viruses, it also works to enhance the performance by offering the utmost security. Of course Android device has some inbuilt defense feature to protect the device but still, it is highly recommended to get a powerful antivirus which will ensure the greatest performance when it comes to speed of the device. There are many antiviruses available in the market for Android, so you can easily get one for your device.

Overclock your device

Another powerful step to make your Android run faster. Overclocking the device will bring a huge change in the device performance and it is highly noticeable to all. By default, the manufacturer keeps this feature disabled as it produces a great amount of heat when the device runs at peek. However, performance can be improved by installing a custom ROM or else by rooting the device as well but it cannot offer the kind of performance when the device is overclocked. Anyways, overclocking a device will require you to root the device first.

Factory reset

The last advice is to perform a factory reset on your Android device once in every 3 or 4 months which will give a fresh start to the device. Factory reset will clear the system cache, cache partition and other junk files which all are simply deposited on the device and does nothing but affects its performance. But ensure you have a back up of the device before going ahead with the factory reset process.

So, 10 most effective steps to help you make Android faster are explained here. Maintain all these steps carefully while you can also do some other stuff along with these such as turning off the animation, clearing system cache, removing the old files etc. Always try to keep your device as clean as possible by removing the unnecessary apps, files, widgets etc. and it will automatically offer a noticeable boost in the performance.

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11 tricks to make your Android run faster

It’s frustrating to drop several hundred dollars on a high-end smartphone only to find that the smooth and speedy performance you expected remains elusive. Mid-rangers and the budget end of the market are even more prone to stuttering and lag. There are various ways to speed up that Android performance, and a few things you can do to make it feel faster.

Make sure you’re up to date

The latest software will often contain bug fixes and general improvements and it can help your Android device to run better. Software updates tend to come OTA (Over The Air) and you should be automatically prompted to install them, but it doesn’t hurt to check. Go to Settings > About device > Software update and check for updates.

The same logic applies to apps, so fire up the Play Store, open the menu at the top left and tap My apps and make sure all of the apps you use are up to date.

Clean up your home screen

If you choose to use live wallpaper then consider replacing it with a good static image. You should also clean away any unused icons and limit your widgets to the essentials. The less cluttered your home screen is, the better in terms of performance.

Uninstall and disable unused apps

You don’t want to allow apps that you never use to take up space on your device and potentially eat into system resources. Go to Settings > Apps and swipe over to the All tab. Take a good long look down the list and identify the apps you don’t want or need. If you’re in doubt about what any of them do then it’s time to hit Google and check.

Tap on any app you don’t want and then choose Uninstall or, if the option is not there to uninstall, tap Disable. Disabled apps will be listed in a new tab, so you can always enable them again in future if you change your mind.

You should also take a look in Settings > Apps at the Running tab. Some apps want to be running all the time and they can seriously impact on performance. Think carefully about whether you need what’s listed there.

Turn off or reduce animations

You can make your Android device feel snappier by reducing or turning off some of animations. You’ll need to enable Developer options in order to do this. Go to Settings > About phone and scroll down to the System section to look for Build number. Tap on it seven times and you should see a message about being a developer. You can now go back to the previous menu and you should see Developer options listed under System. Head in there and scroll down to find Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale. Tap each in turn and set it to .5x or off. Pick an option and find out what suits you, if you don’t like just go back in and change the values again.

Clear cached app data

Cached data for apps should help them to load more quickly, but it can build up over time to take up quite a lot of space and there will potentially be cached data in there for apps that you no longer use. Sometimes clearing cached data for an app can also help clear up flaky behavior.

If you want to pick individual apps then head into Settings > Apps and slide over the All tab and tap on the relevant app then choose Clear cache. If you’ve decided to just clear the whole lot then go to Settings > Storage and tap on Cached data and then tap OK. Also, check out CCleaner, it cleans out your app cache and helps perform this kind of maintenance.

Turn off or reduce auto-sync

Most of us end up adding a list of different accounts to our Android devices and we allow them to automatically sync in the background to pull in new data and provide us with updates. All this syncing has a big impact on performance, not to mention battery life.

You could go to Settings and find Auto-sync under Accounts and just turn it off altogether, but that will be too drastic for most people. Instead why not just reduce the sync frequency and remove any accounts you don’t really need? For a lot of apps, like Facebook, you’ll need to open up the app and find the settings to reduce the sync frequency.

Wipe cache partition

The cache partition is separate from your app data cache and it contains temporary files. It’s worth cleaning this out every once in a while. You’ll have to boot into recovery mode to do it. The method of entering recovery mode varies depending on your device, but you’ll find it easily with a quick Google search. Once in recovery mode you use the volume keys to navigate and the power key to select an item. You’ll want to choose wipe cache partition.

Try a third-party launcher

Some of the customizations that OEMs make to their devices can be heavy-handed. If you want to change the feel of navigating around, and tweak some settings to make it feel speedier, then you might find that a third-party launcher does the trick. Try out something like Nova Launcher, Go Launcher EX, or Apex Launcher. Experiment with the settings and you should find that your device feels a lot faster.

Perform a factory reset

This is a drastic step, but some people recommend that you do a factory reset periodically if you want your device running in tip-top condition. It’s a shortcut to cleaning up your device and getting rid of any junk you’ve accumulated, but it means wiping all of the data and settings. If you decide to try it then make sure you back up everything that’s important to you first. You can find the option to do it in Settings > Backup & reset > Factory data reset.

Overclock your device

One of the reasons you’ll see differences in performance between Android devices with essentially the same processors, is that some OEMs limit speed in order to reduce heat and extend battery life. If you’re willing to root your Android device then you can overclock it using an app like SetCPU or Android Overclock. It’s wise to proceed with caution if you do decide to do this.

Install a custom ROM

Rooting your Android device doesn’t automatically offer any performance improvements, but a custom ROM can. For some devices that are no longer being updated custom ROMs are a way of getting a newer version of Android. You can also find custom ROMs that dispense with bloatware entirely and offer some interesting tweaks and modifications. You’ll need to do some research to find the right custom ROM for you.

We’ve reached the end of our tricks to make your Android run faster, but we’d love to hear your suggestions.

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