Keyboard, Twitter, Launcher and 3 other lightweight APPS for Android

If your cell phone is low-end, cheap or not very powerful, you will want to have as few applications as possible installed to avoid filling up the internal storage or making the mobile slow. You also don’t want to have “heavy” applications installed, with invasive advertising, saturated with features that overload the computer’s electronics. Namely, “light” applications or “light.”

Generally, the simpler, the fewer functions and the smaller the application, the better. Technically, if it is installed and you want to monitor its behavior, go to Android System Settings, Developer Options, Running Services. In a very basic way, the less Running processes see here, the less load the processor will have and the longer the battery will last.

When it comes to saving storage, you may want to simply use the apps that came pre-installed on your device at the factory, such as the keyboard, browser, or launcher. For performance reasons, in other cases it will be better to replace some apps like Facebook, which is a “devourer” of resources.

Light keyboard

Google released a lightweight version of its famous Gboard keyboard, Gboard Lite o «Go», which is designed for Android 8.1 «Go» devices. However, it is possible that it can be installed on other devices with Android 8.1 or higher. This keyboard has a “low” RAM consumption and its size is 40 MB, compared to the 70 MB that the keyboard has. Gboard normal.

If you get an error installing that keyboard, there is unfortunately not much to choose from. Perhaps your best option is to use the keyboard pre-installed on the device. In addition to not having to spend additional storage, in my case I have seen that the Samsung keyboard (up to 70MB of RAM use) has a lower RAM consumption than Gboard (90M) or SwiftKey (120 MB). However, when it comes to storage, SwiftKey takes up almost half the space of Gboard.

Facebook

Facebook has a version Lite of only 1.66 MB in size, whose RAM consumption according to my device, is up to three times lower than the app original. You can also chat right there without installing Messenger (which also has its Lite version).

However, it is probably better that you use the web browser to view Facebook, because your application can open more than one process for its operation, in addition to activating that of other applications, such as Messenger or Facebook services. Having your app installed may also give you more control over your activities outside of Facebook.

There are also alternate Facebook clients, known as “wrappers,” a customized version of Facebook’s mobile website, quite lightweight but with added features. One of the simplest is Tinfoil, whose size is 0.5 MB. Another more complete is Swipe, whose size is around 5MB and allows you to download videos, photos easily, blocks advertising, has chat bubbles, password lock, etc.

Twitter

Twitter also has its propia app Lite only 1.3 MB in size for limited phones. However, due to what has been said before, I prefer to add a shortcut to its mobile version on the desktop mobile.twitter.com that allows you to make tweets, retweets, send DMs and all the important actions.

Initially this Twitter website worked as progressive web app (PWA). In other words, it was “installed” in the browser, but it functioned as a standalone app with a custom interface, a welcome screen, without the address bar, a browser menu, and an “offline” mode. However, now they behave like the normal Twitter website, probably due to the appearance of its Lite app.

Browser

Naked Browser is a lightweight web browser only ~ 0.1 MB in size, with the bare minimum necessary to view the internet. It opens fast and runs smoothly. It is a lightweight replacement for Chrome or Firefox, which are excellent in terms of functionality, but not as efficient in RAM consumption.

Other lightweight browser that you can try is Lightning Browser, only 3.2 MB in size.

Launcher

Little It is a launcher developed by Xiaomi, of only 13 MB in size that is not as rich in functions as other launchers, but it goes fast and fluid. Here you have the option to hide applications, group them, double-tap to lock the screen, and apply an icon pack.

Nova Launcher is another excellent option. Although it is 40MB in size on my computer, it has never slowed it down. It is also one of the most customizable. If you want to take advantage of its full potential in terms of features, you can buy the paid version “Prime”.

Google

To improve the performance of your device, you may also be able to replace some factory apps, such as Google, YouTube, Maps, Assistant, and Gmail. for his versions «Go» or light that you can find in the Play Store, as long as they are compatible with your device. Please note that these are trimmed versions of the originals, with fewer functions or features.

10 solutions for a SLOW cell phone that gets stuck

Disable animations to SPEED UP your cell phone

What is it, how and what applications to DISABLE on Android