Top 3 Android performance apps and tips that will speed up your device

1. Android Assistant

With downloads in the 10 to 50 million ballpark, Android Assistant (AA) has managed to score an impressive 4.6 stars! If anything, the non-flashy, conservative interface should be nothing less than an indication that this is a timeless collection of tools that just works. Keeping track of what's important, the first tab features the coveted Quick Boost button. Alike many other similar applications, AA will flush all the unneeded processes and services down the drain, leaving more juice for you to play with. Under the Process tab, you'll get more of an in-depth view of what's running on your system -- killing those is within the tools AA offers, but this is only a temporary solution (more on this later). The other, more important tool, is the System Cleaner, which allows you to free up space by wiping the cache of apps, the web and other. Keep in mind that you're better off keeping the cache of apps that you use daily -- wiping it will actually slow down their launch time in consequence.

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2. Greenify

Remember how we said that killing processes and services is just a temporary solution? It's true, and no amount of aggressive Task Killers will change that. Task Killers (TKs) are a flashy, short term solution that may actually cause more harm than good. Users of such apps sometimes get so vindictive that sooner or later they break the functionality of apps they didn't intend to. There's a much better solution. Enter Greenify, an app that will actually allow you to keep your 250 apps and ensure that by doing so, you aren't slowing down your droid. How? Well, Greenify allows you to hibernate apps and services running in the background. Hibernated processes will be put to sleep,but will still work once you need them. This is unlike the so called "freezing" apps out there, which break apps' functionality altogether until you unfreeze them. We've experienced Greenify's usefulness first hand and strongly recommend you consider the app. The only downside? The app requires *root* privileges.

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3. Fast Reboot

This lightweight miniature app has one simple function that you probably gleaned already -- restart system resources including the UI and also close processes and services, freeing up memory like Android Assistant does. Fast Reboot gets a honorable mention for two reasons. First, a simple click of the app icon is all you need to do to get some free memory -- no heavy widgets required. And second -- Android crashing, especially on older versions, and doubly so with a range of custom ROMs, is a tad more common than we'd like. What's more, some processes simply grow wild every now and then and misbehave for reasons better left for the ages to answer. In all such scenarios, Fast Reboot is the perfect app to have.

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