One of the most contentious matters when it comes to maintaining your Android phone is probably clearing the app cache. Many users automatically remove their app cache in an effort to free up more space on their phone or—true or not—to prevent their phone and apps from becoming slow over time. On Android, should you erase the app cache, though? How, if so? Does it really work, or is it just a placebo effect?
Many users think that Android should take care of app cache on its own and that changing default caching behavior will only lead to problems. However, the truth is much, much murkier. A situation you might be able to fix by deleting the aforementioned cache is that some apps don’t use cache space responsibly, others break outright when they use too much-cached data, and some can even crash or refuse to run totally after an update. In this case, generalizations are not very helpful. We can talk about what an app cache is, why it’s important, and when you might want to clear it on an Android phone, though.
What is a cache?
In the realm of computing, a technique called caching enables programs like browsers, video games, and streaming services to cache temporary files deemed necessary to speed up load times. Numerous additional applications like YouTube, Spotify, Google News, and others save content as cache data. To reduce the need to repeatedly solicit the user’s input or draw up information from the internet, this can be done by temporarily storing video thumbnails, search histories, or short clips of videos.
Why should the app cache be cleared?
To free up storage, which might affect the phone’s performance, is the main motivation for clearing the application cache. However, wiping data is a considerably more dramatic action that is typically only taken when an app is glitchy or refuses to launch. It can be due to an app update gone wrong that corrupted earlier cache files, untested server-side changes, acting up software, or a fresh Android OS upgrade.
Source: AndroidPolice
