What the Tech: A smarter way to clean up apps on your phone
BY JAMEY TUCKER, Consumer Tech Reporter
Spring cleaning usually means closets, garages, and maybe that junk drawer in the kitchen. But your phone probably needs it just as much.
Take a look at your home screen. How many apps are on there that you haven’t opened in weeks or even months?
The average smartphone user has somewhere between 60 and 80 apps installed. But most people only use a handful every day. The rest just sit there, taking up storage, running in the background, and sometimes collecting more data than you realize.
And a lot of those apps were only needed once.
Maybe it was an airline app for a trip. A restaurant you ordered from. Or a website you wanted quick access to.
Instead of downloading an app for everything, there’s a simple trick that can clean up your phone without losing access to what you need. You can turn almost any website into an app.
How to add a website to your home screen
On an iPhone:
Open the website in Safari
Tap the share button
Scroll down and tap “Add to Home Screen”
On Android:
Open the website in Chrome
Tap the menu button
Tap “Add to Home Screen”
That’s it.
The website will appear on your home screen just like an app. Tap it, and it opens in a clean, full-screen view that feels just like the real thing.
Why this works better for many apps
This trick is especially useful for things you don’t use every day. Airlines, restaurants, event tickets, and even some shopping sites work great this way.
There are a few advantages. It saves storage space since you’re not installing a full app. It doesn’t run in the background, which can help performance and battery life. You don’t have to deal with constant app updates.
And it typically requires fewer permissions than downloading an app.
A real-world example
I even did this with my own site, Delayze.com, which tracks TSA wait times much like the traffic app Waze. Instead of downloading anything, I added it to my home screen. Now it opens just like an app, but without taking up extra space or adding clutter.
A smarter way to clean up
If your phone feels crowded or slow, you don’t have to delete everything to fix it. Sometimes the better move is replacing apps you rarely use with simple website shortcuts. It’s an easy way to keep what you need while clearing out what you don’t.
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