How-To Stop Android Apps From Starting By Themselves

The Android OS is not a perfect one. In comparison, it’s one of the the youngest mobile operating systems out there. Because of its youth, some features haven’t quite made it over to Android devices yet. One of these features is a startup manager.

Most of you might be familiar with the Windows startup menu. This is is the list of applications which automatically start when you fire up your laptop. On an Android device, it’s more of a free-for-all. Any app can start up whenever it feels like it. If you have a lot of applications on your phone, this can severely slow down the speed of your phone or tablet.

To stop Android apps from starting by themselves, you’ll need help from an app. Startup Auditor is a simple startup manager app NOT requiring root access to manage the app startup list. The following shows how to manage your Android startup list.

Find the running apps

For starters, you will want to find out which applications are running when they shouldn’t be. To do this, go to “Settings -> Applications -> Running services”. The list you’ll see will show all of the applications currently running on your phone. If you see an app running and you haven’t used it for anything, it’s a good one to take note of. Make a list of any of applications (other than system applications) you’d like to stop from starting by themselves.

Setup

Once Startup Auditor is installed and opened, you will see a list of all the applications on your phone. Keep in mind this list also shows system applications. Typically these system applications are not something you want to shut down, especially while booting up or even after starting your device. You could be shutting down a service needed to run the phone.

Tap on the misbehaving application, Google Maps in this instance, and see a screen something like this.

Checking the boxes for “Startup Disable” will stop Android apps from starting by themselves next time your phone or tablet turns on. The “Keep Disabled” option will make sure the app isn’t being sneaky and waits for a few minutes after you restart your device to turn on. This is where a startup manager really comes in handy.

What this does for you

The first thing you should notice is an increase in the speed at which your phone powers up. If you only disabled an app or two, don’t expect your phone or tablet to boot up much faster. You will likely need to disable several apps to notice a huge difference. Another benefit you should see is increased overall performance. Because fewer apps are running, less of the RAM is being used. It should make your phone or tablet run faster.

Conclusion

While this is a quick app install and setup, you could potentially see a huge increase in your performance. For people who love to try out new applications, something like Startup Auditor is a good way to make sure some of those new applications are not trying to take over your phone or slow it down.

Alternatively, for those who want to disable the apps completely without uninstalling them, here is another way to disable them from running in the background.

Do you have another startup manager app you use to stop Android apps from starting by themselves? If so, leave us a comment so we can try it out.