Why Is Your Android Phone’s RAM Full, and Should You Clear It? - MUO - MakeUseOf

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RAM is an integral component of your Android phone’s hardware. So it is natural to feel concerned when it is almost full every time you check its status. But should you?

RAM management has evolved significantly over the years. With Google continually optimizing Android, your phone is now well-equipped to automate RAM management to a great extent. So, let’s answer some of the common questions you might have about your Android phone’s RAM and the best ways to go about managing it.

How to Check What’s Consuming Your RAM

Before discussing the advanced stuff about RAM management, let’s figure out how to check the memory consumption by each app. You can do so from within your settings menu, or you can go for a third-party app.

Here's how to check the RAM consumption from the settings menu. You might need to enable Developer options first.

Go to Settings.
In the Search bar, type “Memory.”
There might be two search results: Memory and Storage. Tap on either of them, and it will take you to the RAM menu.

In this menu, you can view the overall memory consumption and can also check how much memory each app is eating up. You also have the option to set the duration for the statistics like the last three hours, six hours, 12 hours, or day.

Alternatively, you can also check the RAM consumption with a third-party app like Memory Info or Simple System Monitor. However, the information you get from within the settings menu should be enough.

How Does Android Manage RAM?

Android’s RAM management has improved a great deal over the years. The system now intelligently decides which app to close and which one to let run.

The algorithm that the Android OS uses figures out which apps you use frequently and keeps those apps in the memory for faster performance—they will load much quicker next time you need them. The system then removes the rest from the memory whenever more RAM is required for some other task.

Does It Matter if Your RAM Is Full?

So, this brings us to the question: does it even matter if your RAM is full. The short answer is a no. RAM is there to be used by the system. It is not meant to be kept empty all the time.

As mentioned above, your Android phone has automatic RAM management in place. It keeps your apps in the memory so that those apps open faster, making your whole Android experience better. If you open an app and there is a shortage of RAM to run it, your system will clear some RAM for it automatically without requiring you to take any action.

The only time full RAM is likely to be a problem is if you don't have enough of it, which can be a problem on old or budget devices, or if you're playing very high-end games. In these cases, the system will do its best to juggle what's available, but if your phone doesn't have enough RAM for the task you're doing, you will see a hit on performance.

Should You Remove All Your Apps From Memory?

Closing apps will technically remove those apps from memory, but the question is whether you even need to free up your RAM. As we have discussed in our past article, closing apps all the time is not a good idea.

Removing apps from the RAM is counterproductive for the system. You hardly get any benefits from it. It doesn’t increase your battery life, and the foreground apps don’t run any faster by closing the background apps.

How Much RAM Do You Need?

The answer to this question mostly depends on what you use your phone for. If you play heavier, resource-hungry games, you need more RAM. As of this writing, the flagship phones by companies like Samsung and OnePlus offer up to 12 GB of RAM. However, anything around 8 GB should be enough if your phone has a solid CPU, with 4GB being the absolute baseline.

Don’t Worry About RAM Management

As we have discussed, your Android phone is now smart enough to manage the RAM for you. There is hardly ever a need to do it manually. In case you come across such a situation, simply closing a couple of unnecessary apps will do the trick.

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About The Author

Ali Arslan (69 Articles Published)

Ali has been a tech enthusiast since 2005. He is a power user of Android, Linux, and Windows. He has an Advanced Diploma in Business Management from London, UK, and is an English Literature graduate from Punjab University, Pakistan.