Cleaning Our Phones (Once In A While)

We download a host of apps constantly, and most of them use a host of permissions like camera, microphone, location, storage, etc. In the phone that I had earlier, I used to discover how I have apps that I almost never used. They were just sitting there, occupying the space and accessing all permissions, even when I had no use for them. Since that day, I have made it a point to check now and then what I really use, and try to keep just them on my phone! This brings more space, and also saves a lot of battery, apart from ensuring that your settings are safe. So, here's a checklist for you, too!

1. Check what apps you have, and filter out the ones that you need.

2. Go to your phone settings once in a while to just check and learn which apps have access to what permissions. If something looks unnecessary, you can turn it off or uninstall.

3.  I have found that a lot of apps that I used sometimes had a default setting for running in the background irrespective of whether I used it or not. So, you can change these settings and turn it off for apps that you don't require to keep running. This definitely saves on your battery, especially if your phone is a couple of years old.

4. I am a person who likes only the most necessary, basic notifications on my phone. So, most of the apps have the notifications turned off, so I can see them only when I go into the app. If you get distracted constantly by the notification of any particular app, maybe going through the list of apps in your settings can push you to turn it off!

5. Clean caches, unwanted/spam messages- not everyday, but at least once in a while, maybe?

6. Use google photos, and backup all your device photos. I have found some people having ten thousand or more all on just their phones. I think apart from taking up all that space, your phone crashing can leave you with losing all of it! Just turn on auto backup! Google photos app also has a cool "free up space" option that can delete the photos on your device after safely backing it up on cloud. 

How you have your phone is definitely your choice, but these can help you be better ready in case your phone crashes, or you have important data on your phone. So, this is more from the perspective of the safety of you and your data!

Why don't you pick up your phone and look through it? Weed out those unnecessary apps!

Can You Live Without Your Phone?

No, this is not a post where I am going to lecture you on the beauty of life without your eyes constantly glued to the phone. Nope, I am not your mom. But, hey, once in a while, maybe listen to her? 

Can you live without your phone? Interesting question. Well, technically yes. We are all so consumed with our lives, an integral part of which is our phone, but we can very well stay alive without it. However, what I meant through the question is whether other devices can compensate the functionalities of your phone? If not a phone, could all other necessary activities be completed through your laptop, or any other device at home? And, the answer to that question differs from person to person. I am here to only talk about my experience. 

For a start, let me introduce you to my Lenovo K8 Note, a ragged looking two year old that I dropped way more than once, and she has deep scratches and chips all over her screen. However, like a lady wearing make up, she has over her broken screen a nice layer of the finest tempered glass (which I have successfully managed not to break yet). She has been working fine, until one day she just went off. She went a little cranky, and hard reset herself and I lost all data. The phone just powered off for reasons that is beyond my technical comprehension. And, truth is, this can happen to any device, anytime, anywhere, and is just beyond control.

Of course, this entailed a whole day of fervent prayers, and repeated attempts to boot it up, in vain. The phone has been off for the past few days. And, could I live without a phone? At first, I needed a couple of messages that was supposed to go to the phone number, and the phone was off. Solving that was easy, I just had to remove the sim and use it on my dad's phone that had a dual sim. And, the rest? Whatsapp is the only other app that I need a phone for. Otherwise, everything just works fine on the web. And also, Whatsapp thankfully is not an essential for me.

Since young, my dad had always insisted that we back up everything on the cloud. And, that has always stood me in good stead. While the hard reset erased all the data from my phone, I did not in the real sense lose anything. 

have to say google accounts with sync across all devices is pretty cool- especially when your phone crashes in less than a second stubbornly refusing to power up again

— Sandhya Varadharajan (@sandhya_varadh) April 2, 2020

I also happen to own Asus Chromebook that supports android applications. So, for me, life has always been on the cloud with Google. I can tell you from experience that backing up on a cloud platform is the best thing you can do to keep your data safe and accessible all the time. 

Also, the phone crash obviously brought about some basic lessons lectured by my dad, who has a knack of coming up with the right opportunities to teach you something that might be necessary as a basic life lesson. This phone crash can happen anywhere, anytime. I was at home, so it was easier to handle it. It can happen during travel, in a new city that speaks an unfamiliar language. It is always important to be prepared for such situations. Always carry important numbers/addresses with you on a physical copy of paper. Always know by heart the numbers of your closest contacts that you might want to reach out to anytime- which could be your children, parents, spouse, anybody. 

It is so easy for us today to be completely under-prepared when a gadget fails, especially one as important and integral in our lives as a phone. 

So, the moral of this story: essentially, and always, be prepared.