Easy-to-miss Samsung button instantly ‘improves performance’ as cell-maker shares fix if ‘your phone has slowed down’
SAMSUNG is telling users about a clever settings trick to “improve performance” on your Galaxy phone for free.
The simple hack takes seconds to do – but it’s easily missed if you don’t already know about it.
Even expensive smartphones can start to slow down after a while.
There are so many reasons why your phone’s performance is dropping, and one is linked to memory.
“The memory on your device quickly loads all of the information about the app or game you are using,” Samsung explains.
“If your device is close to using all of its available memory you may find that your device slows down or apps don’t function as they should.
“You can free up memory on your device by closing apps that are running in the background.”
Note that memory is different from storage, which is where your files are kept long-term.
Deleting items from storage is tricky as it means giving up content that you might want – like apps or photos.
But clearing out your phone’s memory from time shouldn’t be a cause for concern.
HOW TO FREE UP MEMORY ON SAMSUNG
Samsung has added a section in your phone’s settings dedicated to clearing out memory.
The South Korean tech giant says: “Memory lets your device load information quickly.
“If you have noticed that your device has slowed down or if your apps or games don’t function as they should, free up memory by closing background apps to improve performance.”
Go into Settings > Device Care > Memory.
From there you’ll be able to exclude any apps that you don’t want to be part of the cleaning “cycle”.
Just tap on the Apps To Exclude From Cleaning button then choose Add Apps.
Next select the apps to exclude and tap Add.
Once you’re happy, you can then go back to the main Memory page and tap on Clean Now.
It should show you how much memory will be freed up by tapping the button.
Samsung – a brief history
Here's what you need to know...
- Samsung is a major South Korean company made up of many businesses that operate globally
- It’s known locally as a “chaebol”, which means “business conglomerate”
- It was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading company
- But over several decades, it branched out into food processing, insurance, textiles and retail
- It wasn’t until the late 1960s when Samsung entered the electronics industry – for which it’s best known in the West today
- It also launched businesses in construction and shipbuilding in the 1970s
- Today, Samsung’s most important sources of income are its smartphones and computer chips
- The firm accounts for around a fifth of South Korea’s total exports, and roughly 17% of the country’s GDP
- More than 270,000 staff are employed by Samsung globally
- And in 2023, Samsung Electronics turned over the equivalent of $194 billion in revenue
And you’ll notice a change at the top of the page, where your overall memory usage (and total phone memory) is detailed.
ONE MORE TRICK
There’s another setting that you should check out too.
Recent Samsung phones have an “optimization” feature built in.
“Give your device a quick boost by running a quick optimisation check,” Samsung explained.
“This feature is designed to identify apps that use excessive battery power, clear away redundant items from your device’s memory, delete unnecessary files and close apps that are running in the background.
“You can run a one-off cycle manually or set your device to automatically optimise once a day.”
Go to Settings > Device Care and you’ll see a score out of 100.
The higher the score is, the better your phone is optimized.
Tap on the Optimize Now button to instantly boost this score and improve performance.