When’s the last time you’ve kept track of all of your RAM usage? I don’t know usually look at mine until other apps start to crash, or things start to slow down, but it’s important to monitor. Everything on your Android eats up the limited amount of RAM you have, even your Android OS takes up a sizable chunk. Your OS is responsible for everything on your phone running smoothly, but how does it use up so much or so little RAM on any given day? It isn’t the only thing on your Android that constantly changes how much RAM it uses either. If your RAM is already highly limited, this is seems concerning, but let me tell you why it isn’t.
Why You Don’t Want “Free” RAM
There’s sometimes a misconception about what you want your RAM taken up by with Android, so if you ever see your System taking up more than 50% of your RAM, don’t panic. The way Android is designed is to make effective use of any available RAM, so if the RAM is “free” Android will step in and put the RAM to work doing something useful.
If there’s nothing useful for your RAM to do yet, the space will remain free for whatever you need. However, in almost every case, if you need more RAM for something else other than Android systems, anything that isn’t integral will be halted to give you the RAM you need. At the same time, this is why you don’t have to worry about using task killers.
The only time you need to worry about too much RAM being used is when other apps start to crash, which I’ll get into later.
Why Does the OS Use So Much RAM?
To make sure the Android ship is sailing smoothly, a good chunk of your RAM is taken up by Android OS doing multiple things. These things include storing soon to be used information, optimizing processes, and in general making sure things aren’t set on fire.
If you have any free RAM sitting around, your OS will usually put it to work doing anything it can to make your entire experience smoother. This is why you’ll sometimes see it take up an incredible amount of space. With that said, there are still RAM hogs that slow the experience down that aren’t your OS. Unlike Android itself, these can be closed to help allocate more RAM to where you need it to go.
Is There Anything That Uses Too Much RAM?
While I’ve talked about RAM not being free is a good thing, there will still come a time where you simply don’t have enough depending on how many processes are running at once. This will either mean apps and services will crash, will run much slower than normal, or won’t even start in the first place.
When you’re done with an app, and are sure you won’t use it again for the rest of the day, make sure to close it. If you have the RAM, that app will still run in the background while it waits for you to come back. If your Android absolutely needs the RAM, it’ll take it where it can, even going as far to stop leaving certain services on hold. If you get into the habit of closing something when you’re done with it, you won’t need to go around killing tasks to make everything run smoother.
The RAM Difference Between iPhones and Androids
In most comparisons you’ll see an iPhone’s OS taking up far less RAM than Android OS, but this is because of how the two systems handle their respective tasks differently. Even when it isn’t concerning RAM, the same is said about other data between the two phone operating systems.
In general, an Android will use more RAM than iPhone because they’re performing more processes in the background to either optimize, or load more of an experience. You may end up with more RAM “free” on an iPhone, but that’s just space that isn’t being used to its full potential. Remember that RAM that isn’t being used may as well be wasted space on Android. That doesn’t mean you should open as many processes as possible, but that you shouldn’t get worried if you only see a couple hundred megabytes of RAM available.
Conclusion
Android’s OS makes full use of how much available RAM you have, and how much RAM it needs for essential functions at the same time. Not having enough RAM will make apps sluggish, result to a slow Android phone, or force them to close, but your OS isn’t at fault. As long as you close an app when you’re done with it, your Android will take care of the rest. If you have any questions about RAM usage please leave them down below! Featured Image Credit
