Change the wallpaper: Tips to speed up your Android smartphone

If you want to make your Android smartphone run a bit faster, turn off live wallpapers, both for the lock screen and the home screen. — Andrea Warnecke/dpa

If you want to make your Android smartphone run a bit faster, one thing you can do is to turn off live wallpapers, both for the lock screen and the home screen.

Live backgrounds are animated, making them quite resource-hungry. The alternative is to use a still image, which might not look quite as impressive, but will help you squeeze out more minutes of battery power every day.

To make the switch, long-press the home screen and from the menu navigate to Wallpapers. Then select a static image from Wallpapers or a photo from the phone's Gallery.

Another tip is to shorten the duration of animations. Firstly you need to enable developer options by going into Settings > About phone and tapping several times on the build number until the options are unlocked.

Then under Settings > Developer options, scroll down to Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale and set each to 0.5x.

This change won't actually make your phone any faster, but the quicker animation as you open windows and switch between screens will make it seem snappier. – dpa