Just lately, I needed to arrange a cellphone for my getting older father or mother, and a number of the pre-installed apps have been a tad too bloated for his or her use, particularly on their older Android cellphone. I primarily wanted to discover a light-weight browser, a primary keyboard that suited their hunt-and-peck typing type, and, in fact, a messaging app that was a bit extra customizable.
Android telephones include loads of Google apps pre-installed that may gradual your cellphone down and really feel unnecessarily bloated, whereas others, like Google Maps, are extremely well-made and a lower above their opponents. After a little bit of trial and error, I settled on three apps that made a noticeable distinction in efficiency when used solely for shopping and texting.
Firefox Focus
A stripped-down browser constructed for pace and privateness
Tashreef Shareef / MakeUseOfCredit: Tashreef Shareef / MakeUseOf
The very first thing I changed was Chrome. Firefox Focus is Mozilla’s light-weight, privacy-first browser for Android, and it is a very totally different expertise from the common Firefox app. The place commonplace Firefox offers you tabs, extensions, and a full shopping toolkit, Focus strips all of that away. You get one display, one web page at a time, and a trash can icon that wipes every thing in a single faucet.
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I mixed Safari with Firefox Focus, and it’s the right browser
Safari with a contact of Firefox is what you want
That simplicity is the only real purpose why it exists. Focus allows Enhanced Monitoring Safety by default, blocking advert trackers, analytics trackers, and social media trackers with none setup. You’ll be able to go additional and block net fonts and JavaScript solely if you’d like even much less knowledge utilization. On an older cellphone with restricted RAM, this makes an actual distinction. Pages load noticeably sooner as a result of the browser is not pulling in monitoring scripts and heavy advert frameworks alongside the content material you really need.
The trade-off is that Focus does not block YouTube adverts or different embedded in-page adverts the best way a full browser with an extension like uBlock Origin would. It additionally does not have tab help, bookmarks, or an extension system. However for somebody who simply must look one thing up, learn an article, or verify a web site with out Chrome consuming into their cellphone’s assets, Focus does the job and does it quick.
OS
iOS and Android
Worth mannequin
Free
Firefox Focus offers you superior adverts and tracker blocking characteristic, which it’s also possible to combine with iPhone’s default Safari browser.
Easy Keyboard
A no-frills keyboard for primary typing
Personally, I want SwiftKey over Gboard, which comes pre-installed on many Android gadgets. Each are glorious keyboards, however they’re additionally feature-heavy. Autocorrect, GIF search, AI recommendations, clipboard managers, voice typing — all of it provides up. For my father or mother who varieties slowly with one finger at a time, most of those options simply get in the best way.
In the event you’re privacy-conscious and desire a keyboard that does not cellphone house, FUTO Keyboard gives an important stability of options and value. Its offline voice typing engine is quick, correct, and does not ship your audio to any server. However FUTO nonetheless carries a good quantity of weight for somebody who simply wants the fundamentals.
Easy Keyboard takes a unique method. It is an open-source keyboard with no web permission, no monitoring, no adverts, and no autocorrect. All the app is tiny, makes use of nearly no RAM, and launches immediately. You get a clear structure with adjustable peak, long-press symbols, an optionally available quantity row, and an area bar that doubles as a cursor management while you swipe throughout it. That final characteristic is surprisingly helpful for fixing typos with out exactly tapping between characters.
The plain draw back is every thing it does not have. No emojis, no GIFs, no swipe typing, no clipboard historical past. In the event you want any of these, you will have to change to a different keyboard quickly. However for a cellphone that is primarily used for texting and primary searches, Easy Keyboard retains issues quick and distraction-free.
OS
Android
Worth mannequin
Free
Easy Keyboard is a light-weight Android keyboard app targeted on minimalism, privateness, and pace. It gives important typing options with out adverts, pointless permissions, or superior customization, guaranteeing an easy expertise.
Samsung Messages
Extra customization than Google Messages gives
Relating to messaging apps, it is arduous to suggest something over Google Messages. It is the default RCS consumer on most Android telephones, and RCS help is what makes texting between Android customers really feel trendy — learn receipts, typing indicators, high-quality media, and end-to-end encryption. Changing it means giving up options that most individuals count on from a messaging app in 2026.
That mentioned, Google Messages nonetheless lacks the customization that Samsung Messages has supplied for years. Samsung helps you to set particular person backgrounds, bubble opacity, and textual content distinction for every dialog individually. Google Messages solely offers you a worldwide gentle or darkish theme. In the event you’re somebody who likes their messaging app to really feel private, Samsung’s per-chat customization is a transparent win.
Samsung Messages additionally features a trash bin that holds deleted conversations for 30 days. Delete a chat by chance in Google Messages, and it is gone instantly with no technique to recuperate it. Samsung’s method offers you a security internet. The search perform is healthier, too, with Samsung exhibiting the total message in outcomes so you may learn the whole context with out opening and scrolling by way of a number of conversations.
The catch is that Samsung Messages does not help RCS on most gadgets until you are on a Samsung cellphone. If RCS issues to you, and it in all probability ought to, this app works finest on a Galaxy gadget the place Samsung’s RCS implementation is baked in. On different telephones, you would be restricted to SMS and MMS, which is a big step backward.
Lighter apps, sooner cellphone
These apps will not be excellent for everybody, as they have a tendency to want usability and efficiency over options, however for the particular drawback I used to be fixing, which is making an older Android cellphone usable for somebody who browses often, varieties slowly, and principally texts, these three apps did greater than sufficient. The cellphone feels snappier, the interface is much less cluttered, and there is much less taking place within the background. Generally the perfect improve is not a brand new cellphone; it is eliminating the apps that have been slowing the outdated one down.
