There’s a simple smartphone rule to always keep in mind: the less storage space your phone has, the less functional it becomes. Storage space is needed to do many tasks on your phone, including taking photos and videos, storing files, and downloading new apps. Unfortunately, some of the apps that you use on a regular basis can take up more storage space than others, and you may not be aware of this inequitable distribution of space.
These five storage-hogging apps are among the worst on your phone. This doesn’t necessarily mean you should delete them all — some are also among the most popular apps. But, for the sake of storage, you may decide it’s worth it to delete a few or change how you use the apps themselves, including regularly deleting files like photos that are associated with the app and that can consume mega amounts of storage space.
1. Games With Intense Graphics
You may be shocked to learn how much storage space games can take up, especially if the games feature intense graphics and complex animations. Because of their advanced capabilities, these games take up lots of space on your phone, and the more games you have, the worse your issue will be.
2. Photo Editing Apps
When you think about all that is required of photo editing apps, the fact that they take up storage space makes complete sense. For starters, these apps gather your photos and usually store them — that alone takes up space. If the apps also edits videos, that’s an even bigger storage hog. Try not to download too many photo editing apps and always delete old files from the apps you use.
3. WhatsApp and Messaging Apps
Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram don’t just retain your texts, which also take up space. They also hold onto all of the photos and videos that you send and receive, and when all of those files add up, you can easily see why they’re storage space hogs.
4. Social Media Apps
There’s no need to call out one specific social media app because all of them take up more storage space than a lot of other apps. Whether your favorite social media app is Facebook or Snapchat, these apps rely on a constant stream of messages and media files that take up tons of space. Learning to live without all of the apps can be helpful, but it’s equally important to delete old files on these apps to free up space.
5. Streaming Apps
Streaming apps are similar to social media apps in that it doesn’t make sense to make an example out of any of them. From Netflix to Hulu and every streaming app in between, all of these apps work by taking up resources to stream media content and then taking up storage space when they save those media files. You can make your phone more functional by deleting a few streaming apps and only keeping one or two favorites and by regularly deleting old media files.
