From unlocking extra storage to protecting devices against bank-raiding attacks – essentials to improve your online life

YOU don’t need to wait for spring to reorganise your online life – and doing so can not only unlock extra storage, but protect your devices against bank-raiding attacks.

Here are five essential tips you need to know to improve your tech health.

Tone down the notifications

Notifications, with their badges, banners, and pings, can be overwhelming when there are too many of them.

Plus, they can also lose their meaning if your iPhone or Android is constantly being bombarded.

Say you have 45 notifications from 17 apps – it’s hard to know which notifications are worthwhile and which are simply junk.

Fortunately, you can disable notifications for non-essential apps – so you only see the alerts that matter.

iPhone owners can do this in Settings:

1. In the Settings app, tap Apps.
2. Tap the app you want to turn notifications on or off for.
3. Tap Notifications. If Notifications doesn’t appear, the app may not be able to send notifications.
4. Turn Allow Notifications off or on.

While Android owners should follow these steps:

1. Open your device’s Settings app.
2. Tap Notifications > App notifications.
3. Under ‘Most recent’, find apps that recently sent you notifications.
   • To find more apps, in the drop-down menu, tap All apps.
4. Tap the app.
5. Turn the app’s notifications on or off.
   • You can turn off all notifications for a listed app or choose from specific categories.

Sky’s the limit

Moving your pictures and videos from your iPhone or Android to the cloud is the easiest way to free up storage.

iPhone users can do this via iCloud, which Apple outlines here.

While Android owners can use the Google Photos app, which is also available on iOS.

Google Photos gives you 15GB of free storage, whereas only 5GB is offered by iCloud.

To back up your precious snaps using Google Photos, follow these steps:

1. Open the Google Photos app on your iPhone or Android
2. Sign in to your Google Account
3. At the top right, tap your profile picture or initial
4. Tap the Google Photos settings > Backup
5. Turn Backup on

iPhone owners may get a message asking them to give the app access to your photos, in which case:

1. Open the iOS settings app and tap Privacy > Photos
2. Turn on Google Photos

Clean up your weak passwords

There are a few password faux pas worth leaving behind in 2024, like using your birth date, name, username, or phone number.

Ideally, each password for every account you have should be unique.

That way if one account and password is compromised, it remains an isolated incident rather than a catastrophic chain event.

This is why using a password manager can be a lifesaver.

iPhone owners can use the new Passwords app that was introduced with iOS 18, which keeps all their usernames and passwords locked away in iCloud.

Google has its own Password Manager for Android and Chrome users, which not only stores all your unique passwords securely, but checks each one to see how secure they are.

That’s old news

Do you remember the last time you deleted your web browser’s cache and history on your PC or smartphone?

It takes just a minute to do, but can really speed up your tech.

Safari users on iPhone can clear their cache and history with these instructions:

1. Open the Settings app, then select Safari.
2. Scroll down, then select Clear History and Website Data.
3. Tap Clear History to confirm.

Chrome users on either iPhone or Android can do so by following these steps:

1. Open the Chrome app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap  at the bottom, then select Settings.
3. Tap History, then tap Delete Browsing Data… at the bottom.
4. Tap Cookies, Site Data and Cached Images and Files. Make sure you see a check beside them.
5. Tap Delete Browsing Data at the bottom, then choose Delete Browsing Data to confirm.

Tap ‘unsubscribe’

Now is also a really good time to review your recurring subscriptions, and cancel the ones that you don’t want.

If you’re a collector of TV subscription services, it might be time to consider ‘stream swapping’.

Instead of having multiple services on the go, such as Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video all at once, you could just view and pay for one at a time.

Once you have watched the content you want to see on Netflix, you can switch to Disney+, then Prime Video.

There are tons of free TV apps out there that don’t require any piracy – and just involve the odd advert or two.

Here are some of the more popular free TV apps worth trying:

• Pluto
• Tubi
• Plex TV
• The Roku Channel
• Kanopy

Although, this snippet of advice isn’t only for streaming services, but for the language, fitness and gaming apps that pull us in too.