Pre-installed apps are like free little gifts that Apple bestows upon its users — for better or worse. In some cases, you’ll find pre-installed apps helpful and convenient. They can save you time and enhance your everyday life and user experience. But the usefulness of an app all depends on your personal need for it and how often you use it. And, unlike all of the apps that you download because you want them there, those pre-installed apps you aren’t using are still taking up storage space and battery power, without giving anything back in return.
Pre-installed apps don’t take up as much space as some other apps, so it’s important to remember that if your goal is to free up major amounts of storage, deleting a few pre-installed apps likely won’t help all that much. But every little action counts. Here are five pre-installed apps that could be taking up unnecessary storage.
1. Health
The Health apps is either one of the best apps you use, or completely worthless — there’s no in between. The only way it can be helpful to you is if you set it up and use it to track things like your workouts and fitness goals, sleep, and nutrition. If you’ve never tapped on this app and don’t see a need to store your health data in it, you can easily delete it to conserve some space.
2. News
The News app provides a personalized news feed for you that consists of aggregated content based on your interests and the past stories you’ve read. Sounds great, but all of that news accumulates and takes up storage space. If you’re actively using the app, it may be worth it, but if you get your news from other sources, you can get rid of this app.
3. Podcasts
Never listen to podcasts? Or maybe you have a favorite podcasts app, like Spotify. Whatever the case, unless you’re using the Podcasts app, it is useless. And if you do use Podcasts, remember to delete old episodes and be mindful that it could be downloading episodes of shows you no longer listen to — both of which take up storage space.
4. Reminders
The Reminders app is a good one for task management. But there may be other apps that you prefer (there are dozens of them in the Apps store). If Reminders doesn’t serve you, you can delete it.
5. Books
Like Podcasts, the Books pre-installed app allows you to purchase, organize, and store audiobooks. The app provides customizable reading features so you can do things like adjust font size and brightness. But this app is only useful and worth the storage space if you use it. Deleting it can give you back a bit of storage space.
