For better or worse, your iPhone comes with several pre-installed apps. Some you may find yourself using a lot — like the Weather app, for example. There are others you may never glance at, and you may be wondering if there is some benefit in deleting pre-installed apps to carve the path to more storage space.
The answer is: yes — but also, it depends.
If you’re simply keeping pre-installed apps on your phone but don’t use them, these apps won’t take up significant resources. Deleting them may help restore a little bit of storage space, but it’s not going to make a big dent if you’re truly struggling to regain storage. However, these three pre-installed apps can really do a number on your battery and storage space if you are using them.
Podcasts
The Podcasts pre-installed app is a fantastic one if you’re a big fan of downloading and enjoying podcasts. But once you start using it, it’s important to make sure your settings are not set to automatically download podcasts. Doing so will cause a significant decrease in battery and will eat up space — and you may not be getting much back for it.
Also, be sure to delete podcast files after you’ve listened to them to save storage.
Music
Similar to Podcasts, the pre-installed Music setting won’t cause much of a problem if it’s on your phone untouched. But once you start downloading music files to it, it’s up to you to keep your eye out on how many files you’re saving and the impact it can have on your battery and storage.
Messages
Everyone uses Messages (okay, maybe not everyone, but lots of iPhone users). That’s why it’s so important to perform occasional maintenance on this app and delete old messages, especially those that contain big files and things like photos and videos, which take up a lot of space.
Photos
Like Messages and Mail, you will be pressed to find anyone who uses an iPhone and isn’t taking advantage of its Photos app. But the fact remains: Photos is probably one of the leading causes of battery drainage and storage space issues. There are ways you can decrease the impact Photos has on your device without refraining from taking and storing photos and videos.
Delete duplicates and perform regular maintenance to decide which media files you can delete or save to the Cloud to free up space on your phone. It’s also a good idea to change your settings so that you are not taking and storing the highest quality photos when it’s not needed.
