Is your Android device getting sluggish? Find the culprits in our list of performance-draining apps

Sandro Villinger 14 Aug 2017

Avast reveals the Android apps that drain your battery, eat up your storage and use the most of your monthly data plan.

Our Q1 2017 report looks at the top performance-draining apps and the latest app and smartphone trends.

Does your phone’s battery die mid-day on you?  Don’t blame your Android-based hardware.  Take a look at your performance-hogging apps.

In a global study, we gathered anonymous data from more than three million random Android smartphone users to find out which apps really hit your phone hard. Many are some of your favorite apps, others come preinstalled on your phone (and you probably aren’t using them).  You might consider using AVG Cleaner by Avast to clean up your phone so they don’t drain your battery in the background.

CHECK OUT THE FULL REPORT & THE TOP 10 LISTS (PDF)

Beware if you use these 10 apps

The following list shows overall performance impact on three fronts, all at the same time. These apps drain the most battery life, mobile data, and storage. Topping the list are apps like Samsung WatchON, SHAREit or Video Editor which really shouldn’t surprise anyone. But an app like Google Docs might surprise you in the #2 spot—perhaps try an alternative app like Microsoft Word.

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Top 10 background apps that are draining your phone’s battery

Next are the apps running in the background that are resource-heavy. Apps in this category are Samsung’s AllShare, ChatON and Push Service as well as Google Plus, Hangouts and Maps. If you use these apps sporadically, we recommend you stop or uninstall them if you no longer need them.  Or, find alternatives apps to replace them altogether.
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Most-installed Android apps

Moving on to the key trends in installed apps on Android phones, we looked at the top 50 and found that not much has changed in the list since last year except for Google Instant Apps. This is Google’s technology to help test drive apps without fully installing them. Another newbie to the list was AliExpress—allowing users to shop across multiple online stores worldwide.  Both Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook also made it into the top 50 apps as the most used text editing and email apps aside from Google pre-installed apps.

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Samsung phones still dominate the Android world

In hardware trends amongst millions of anonymously sampled users worldwide, we found a shift to newer smartphones especially within the Samsung offering. Samsung held 6 of the top 10 spots for Android phones and saw a big shift away from the Samsung Galaxy S3. The Samsung S6 and S7 phones continue gaining market share with the Samsung S7 becoming the 5th most popular smartphone in the Android world. At the same time, Sony lost approximately 30% market share between Q1 2016 and Q1 2017.

Check out the entire report to see all the key trends and insights into which apps had the most overall impact on Android mobile devices, including information on the most popular apps and some mobile gamer information too. Plus get recommendations on how to boost battery life, free up storage and use less data.

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