iPhone apps are the source of so much pleasure and practicality. Whether you consider apps that provide directions to keep you from falling off the map, apps that allow you to stay in close contact with friends and family, or apps that let you shop until you drop, there is no shortage of great apps out there to keep you occupied and keep your life on track.
But when you think about the many roles these apps play and how resource-intensive they can be, it makes complete sense that they are also one of the greatest sources of storage and battery drainage for your phone. All apps aren’t equal in terms of how much battery power they consume and, in turn, how much they can slow down your device, and a few are the “bad apples” that ruin the whole bunch.
To find out which apps are consuming the most storage space, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and scroll down to see the apps and their storage usage. Once you figure out which apps are the cause of so much of your phone woes, you then have some difficult decisions to make. Should you delete the app outright, change some settings (when possible) to keep it from taking up so much storage space, or leave it as it is and just deal with the slowness?
These three apps are among those that could be hogging your storage and slowing down your iPhone.
1. WhatsApp
WhatsApp may not have the same reputation issue as social media apps like Facebook, but it takes up a lot of storage space on your iPhone and is a contributor to your slow phone problems. This app accumulates a number of media files like audio messages, photos, and videos, and stores attachments you receive, including links, documents, and images. WhatsApp also backs up your chat history. When you put all of these factors together, it’s easier to see how WhatsApp takes up storage and can run down your battery over time. One thing you can do to get a grip over this app is delete old chats and media. You can also prevent the app from automatically downloading media files by going to WhatsApp Settings > Data and Storage Usage > Media Auto-Download.
2. Apple News
Although Apple News does not take up a significant amount of storage space on your device, it stores cached articles, images, and videos, and this can consume space. Saving articles to read them offline is also a source of storage. Instead of deleting the app, you can clear its cache on a regular basis and disable offline reading.
3. Photos App
You need your photos app — it brings great joy, of course, so the only tips for this one involve how to prevent photos from eating away at so much of your storage space. The reason behind its storage consumption is the most obvious of all apps: Photos saves a multitude of photos and videos and doesn’t ask for anything in return (except your storage space, obviously). Certain media files do take up more storage than others, so if you want to be mindful of how much space you’re consuming, avoid taking Live Photos and high-resolution photos and videos. Taking duplicates is also death to your storage, and completely unnecessary. Check your photo settings to make sure these settings are off and occasionally perform mini maintenance checks on this app by deleting old files and then deleting your “deleted” images and videos, as well.
