If you’ve had an Android phone for any length of time, it’s easy to get used to living with, well, chaos. If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly adding new apps, deciding they’re okay but not great, adding another, and so on. Then, a few months later, as you’re scrolling through your app drawer, you’re surprised to see several apps that you forgot about and perhaps don’t even remember what they’re used for.
In a very short time, it can become a mess. And if you’re really an app enthusiast, it can start taking up more space than you can spare. (Here, we can take as written the obligatory KonMari reference.)
There are essentially two steps to making sense of all of those Android apps: find a way to organize them (and there are a variety of ways, depending on what you’re comfortable with) and periodically remove all of the extra apps that you’ve accumulated and no longer use. Here are a few tips to help you do both. If you’re new to Android, this may help you stay organized from day one; if you’re an experienced user, you might pick up a few tips.
As you go through these suggestions, keep in mind that not all Android interfaces are the same. This how-to was created using a Pixel 3 XL running Android 9 Pie, but your interface may be slightly different, depending on the model of your phone and which Android version you’re running.
At the most basic (and anyone who’s had an Android phone for more than a week or two can skip down a bit), you can just use the app drawer, which is accessed either by swiping up from the bottom of the phone or by pressing on the apps icon at the bottom center of your display. Place the apps you use the most on one or more of your home screens by long-pressing them while in the app drawer.
The app drawer is (thankfully) organized in alphabetical order, with your four last-used apps on top. You can swipe up to go through the apps; you can also swipe down on the side to go through the alphabet (which could be faster). A search bar at the top lets you type in the name of your app if you wish.
However, once you start accumulating apps, you may want to save some time by creating a more structured system.
You can quickly access your most-used apps by putting them Favorites Tray, the bottom row of apps that is always there no matter which home screen you’ve swiped to. The tray is already filled? No problem.
A good way to organize your apps is to use folders. For example, you can put all of your music and podcast apps into a folder called “Listen,” or all your social media apps into a folder called “Social.” It’s simple to create a folder.
It’s easy to create a folder by dropping one app onto another.
Sometimes when I install a new app, I’ll know immediately that it’s not for me, and I uninstall it then and there. More often, unfortunately, I’ll try out an app, decide that I may want to use it sometime in the future, and I leave it there. Where it sits. For months. Or years.
Once you start accumulating apps, it’s incredibly easy to forget about the ones that you no longer need. But allowing old apps to remain on your phone may not be as harmless as it seems. Not only are they taking up useful storage space, but they may be unnecessarily collecting data (assuming you gave them the permission to). And if they’re working in the background, they could be draining your battery.
As a result, it doesn’t hurt to check out what apps you haven’t used recently and remove them from your phone. There are several ways to do this.
Yes, this is the obvious one, but it has to be said. Spend a little time cleaning out your app drawer: open it up, and see what’s in there. You may be surprised by what you’ve forgotten and what you may no longer need. Anything you don’t need, swipe up to uninstall.
It’s not as simple as going to your App Drawer or as efficient as Files by Google, but if you happen to be in the Play Store and want to get rid of a few unnecessary apps in order to install some new ones, there’s a way.
You can find a list of your last-used apps in the Play Store.
If you accidentally delete an app and then later think, “I shouldn’t have done that,” or you suddenly remember an app you used on a former phone that you’d like to use again, you can find and restore your previous apps from the App Store (including ones you deleted from earlier devices that were using the same account).
If you’re walking down the street and don’t have a spare hand, don’t forget about Google Assistant. Activate it (by long-pressing the center bottom button), and say “Open AppName” or “Find AppName,” and your phone will open the app.
Files by Google is a surprisingly handy app that, among other things, helps you get rid of unneeded files that are taking up space. If you decide to install Files, this is how you can use it to get rid of unused apps.
Files by Google can help you locate apps that are taking up unnecessary space.
There are a variety of Android apps available in the Play Store besides Files by Google that can help. To begin with, there are other file managers that can make it easier to track and administer the contents of your phone, such as ES File Explorer and File Manager. (There are, in fact, several apps called “File Manager” in the Play Store.)
Some create overlays to help you organize your home screen. Jina, for example, lets you create a sidebar that pulls out from the side of your screen and gives you a compact list view of all your apps. Taskbar puts a configurable Windows-like start menu on your display.
If you want even more control over your Android environment, there are launchers such as Nova and Action Launcher that allow you to more thoroughly customize your app drawer and home screen with icons, animations, and different layouts. In future articles, we hope to try some of these out and report back on what we find.