Couldn’t help but install a handful of apps that you swore you’d use? We’re all accused of this at some point. Every one of us downloads application after application to use them every day and maybe use them rarely in a month. We would uninstall these applications, but you are determined to use them somehow! Plus, who knows when you’ll need any one of them right?
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The thing is, inactive apps still use up processing power on your phone. This will ultimately affect your Android’s performance. The programs you do use will run slower and choppier and are more likely to crash.
Without your knowledge, these apps will sometimes launch and start running by themselves as soon as you turn on your phone, too. Though you may want this to be the case for the apps you do use, those forgotten ones need to stay forgotten — just not uninstalled.
Adjusting your Android’s app start-up settings can prevent these potential problems with performance. On top of that, you can control which apps open on your Android smartphone’s startup.
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Best Ways to Disable Auto-start Apps in Android
Disable and Autostart
Disabling apps in this context means preventing them from running on their own without your order. In other words, you are not uninstalling these apps, simply “freezing” them.
Disabling apps can also be particularly useful when trying to turn off built-in device applications. Disabling an app requires you to follow some simple, easy steps. You can also access an app’s autostart feature this way.
Note: the options presented below may differ from your phone depending on which Android software version your smartphone device is running, as well as the phone’s make and model.
- Go to Settings, then select Applications or Installed Apps to access the Application Manager.
- From your list of downloaded apps, select the one that you wish to disable.
- Either Disable or turn on Autostart.
- Keep doing the same for other apps you want to freeze.
The ability to disable and autostart apps is a convenient feature. Still, it’s not an all-powerful tool, so you might want to try other options.
Using Developer Option
The developer options built-in to every modern Android smartphone allows you to modify more complex settings, including those that involve active or inactive apps. Here’s what you need to do:
- Enable Developer Options. If you need to enable Developer Options on your phone, you can do so by opening Settings > About Phone > Software Information.
- Repeatedly tap Build Number seven times, or until a text displaying, “You are now a Developer!” appears on your screen. You may need to type in your PIN to proceed. If successful, you can now turn on the developer options from the Settings menu.
- Under Developer Options, scroll down to the section that controls the behaviour of your apps. These options will vary from phone to phone. In some phones, you may see an option for Inactive apps. Here, you can select which apps you want to prevent from being activated — and vice versa — upon booting up the device.
Another important thing to consider is that Developer Options manages how apps should behave when they are inactive or abandoned.
For instance, try turning on Don’t keep activities under developer options. Enabling this setting prevents your phone from running any background app. This can be pretty useful, especially for phones that have limited RAM.
Should you wish to limit the number of apps running in the background instead of cutting them out completely, use the Background process limit option directly underneath it.
Force Stop Apps
If your device has certain apps that feel like they start automatically even if you don’t launch them manually, then Android smartphones offer a built-in feature to stop or disable apps. Follow these steps if you don’t know how to disable autostart apps on Android.
- Open Settings on your device and go to the Applications section Then click Application management.
- You will now see a list of all the apps on your device. Select the app you want to force stop or disable. Finally, click ” Impose Suspension ” or ‘ Disabled ‘. The option may vary from phone to phone.
When you force an app to stop, it won’t start automatically on your device. However, your device will automatically activate these apps when you open them or start using them.
Enable battery optimization
If you are wondering how to disable autostart apps on Android, you have the option to enable battery optimizations for apps that start automatically on your device. When you enable battery optimization for an app, your device will restrict the app from consuming resources in the background, so the app won’t run on your device automatically. To enable battery optimization for an app that starts automatically on your device, you can follow the steps below:
- Open Settings ”on your device.
- Scroll down and open the Battery tab. Some users will need to open the Passwords & Security section and then click Privacy.
- Click Special App Access and then turn on Battery Optimization.
- You can now view a list of all applications that have not been optimized. Tap the app you want to enable battery optimization for. Select the Optimize option and hit Done.
Limit Background Process in Developer Options
In every Android version, there are developer options available. Among the settings, we will find the “Background process limit.”
This feature disables background-running apps. When we run an app, it will automatically “kill” the one we were using before that, instead of putting it in the background.
To use this feature, we start by enabling “Developer options.”
We go to “Background process limit,” and select it. The options window will appear.
We can choose the standard limit, with which the operating system will be closing apps as it deems necessary for our memory not to overload, and our device not to lag.
Meanwhile, with “No background processes,” our system doesn’t allow any app to run in the background at all. This practically means that if we close an app, then it is automatically “killed.”
Lastly, we can choose to keep one to four apps running in the background.
We tap on the desired option and leave the settings. Now, our operating system will make sure apps won’t run in the background unless we want them to.
Use a Third-Party app
As mentioned, the solutions described earlier require us to take several actions, including frequent check-ups. All of this is undoubtedly inefficient, let alone monotonous and annoying.
If we want to prevent auto-starting apps on Android, then we need to take the following steps. To forbid apps from running when we boot up our phone, then we need to use third-party apps. We can use these apps on rooted, and non-rooted devices as well.
By Using built-in Auto-start
Android phones like Xiaomi, Redmi, and Pocophone offer a built-in feature to prevent apps from launching automatically on Android. So, if you have any of the Android phones mentioned above, you can follow the steps below to disable the auto-start feature for certain apps on your device:
- Open Settings On your device, swipe down and open apps and tap Manage apps.
- Open a section Permissions.
- Now click, “Autostart” to view a list of apps that can start automatically on your device. You can also view the list of applications that cannot be launched automatically on your device.
- Finally, turn off the toggle next to the specific app to disable the autostart feature.
Make sure you only disable unnecessary apps on your device. You also have the option to disable the auto-launch feature for system apps, but you should do this at your own risk and only disable apps that are not useful to you. To disable system apps, click the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the screen and click “Show system apps”. Finally, you can turn off the toggle next to System apps to disable the auto-start feature.
Conclusion
Keep in mind that most of the time, your Android smartphone system manages your apps for you. For example, when you run out of RAM space, unneeded apps running in the background are terminated instantly without needing intervention from you or any third-party app.
Having said that, Android is not a perfect OS. Any configurations or tools mentioned only serve as performance optimization aids. Just like any other tweaks or tricks, they may not work 100% of the time.
