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Cleaner Apps on Android 7+ - Useful, Useless, or Potentially Harmful?

C

consultant

Well-Known Member
Google Software Engineers have made improvements to the operating system over time to the point I believe the necessity and usefulness of these utilities is questionable especially if you are on Android 7 or later. Many people post their experiences with these apps without acknowledging their operating system version which could be significantly different than many other users.

This article on Adroid Pit (you can Google it) recommends you get rid of these types of apps.

https://www.androidpit.com/android-apps-you-should-remove-immediately

But there are lots of other articles, forum posts, article comments (mostly older) that swear by these apps.

Maybe out of the dozens of functions in these apps there's one or two useful ones on Android 7 (although my LG G6 already comes with a Smart Cleaner app) Has anyone done any serious testing to see if each function makes a difference and can rule out other causes for seeing an improvement in phone performance? Or are most people's experience based on a "guftfeel?"

Are the majority of Android 7 users using these apps basically blindly using them because they feel good to use and aren't actually getting the significant benefit they think they are getting? Could many of them, especially the ones that may "try to do too much" actually be hampering your Android 7+ phone more than helping it?
 
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Remember that one of the things these apps do is tell the people who install them how much they have done to improve the performance of the phone. By and large these statements are total garbage, but doubtless lead to many users believing that they are useful.

They have been unnecessary, and in most cases counter-productive, for many years now. There are many threads here about this.
 
psionandy said:
For an in depth conversation about task killers and cache cleaners see this thread...


https://androidforums.com/threads/p...k-killers-ram-optimizers-and-the-like.896663/
Click to expand...

While useful, that thread is mostly old posts and a lot has happened with the O/S since it was started. I believe there was some utility to the cleaner apps in earlier versions of Android. But that's why this thread is focused on version 7 or later.

Maybe the more interesting question then becomes, why would fairly recent articles on a reputable website still be claiming these types of apps are good? Is the Author just ignorant and didn't do their research? Are they getting paid off by some of the app makers? Are they just trying to write about topics of interest to get traffic to the site even if they are posting inaccurate information?

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/708-android-optimization-apps.html
 
Actually the information, arguments and principles in that thread are still sound. In fact there isn't anything fundamentally different in android 7 that changes that information.


In fact it also contains answers for the questions you asked in the previous post



If you'd like to spell out any fundamental differences in memory management between 6 and 7 that negate that thread I'd be only to glad to hear them
 
psionandy said:
Actually the information, arguments and principles in that thread are still sound.
Click to expand...

I think you misunderstood my comment about that thread. I wasn't questioning if the conclusions were still sound. I was just questioning whether or not there had actually been more use cases where those apps provided more utility at the time the thread was started because at that time most users would have been on Android 4 and 5.

But this thread isn't to discuss the details of another lengthy thread. I'd be much more interested to hear people's comments regarding my last comment about recent articles still promoting these apps. Even better, I'd love to hear the article author's response to your response.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/708-android-optimization-apps.html

Is the Author just ignorant and didn't do their research? Are they getting paid off by some of the app makers? Are they just trying to write about topics of interest to get traffic to the site even if they are posting inaccurate information? Or do they have valid points and the point of view these apps are unnecessary isn't necessarily as correct as I and others assume?
 
psionandy said:
If you want the authors answer.. You're asking on the wrong forum. We aren't toms hardware guide.

Newer information about newer use cases is, for obvious reasons, towards the end of the the thread https://androidforums.com/threads/p...k-killers-ram-optimizers-and-the-like.896663/
Click to expand...

I'm asking everyone else (not the author), including you, what do you think about the accuracy of the information in the article and if you think it isn't accurate, why did the author write it, 3 days ago! (For the record I think the cleaner apps are unnecessary - so don't take this as me trying to prove a point - I'm just interested in people's opinions, now, specifically about this article (and any other similar recent ones like it.)
 
The first on their list is Clean Master. That tells me it's either a sponsored article or the authors are pandering to the tinfoil hat crowd. Clean Master is an insidiously intrusive suite of "utilities" whose prime function (according to Clean Master themselves) is data mining.

The saddest part of the whole scenario is that these developers (and blogs) are preying upon the fears of the least informed, and in some cases are they, themselves the wolf in sheep's clothing.

The author threw in a few useful apps like Greenify and Tasker for legitimacy, but these aren't "optimizers" or "cleaners". The rest are crap ... or worse. But, most users are convinced that deleting caches and freeing RAM will boost performance. Push a button and get a big green thumbs up graphic and they feel empowered. The problem is they've really done very little to alter the performance of their phone.

The best app to maximize Android's performance is Android.
 
Pretty much my take on the article as well.

I haven't delved into the intricacies of Android 7 Battery management, but am surprised to hear that Greenify is still useful as of late?
 
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