HTC's new Boost+ app is one of the least useful things they've ever made

HTC has made their Boost+ app available for everyone today. It's also a pre-installed application on the HTC 10. And it's something they never should have spent time to make, and that you should never use.
To be fair, there are a couple good things happening in the Boost+ app. You can lock apps away from prying eyes if you give the app access to track what apps you use and how often you use them through the security settings on your phone. You can unlock those apps with a pattern or fingerprint access. I can see how people would find that useful.
There's also a quick way to delete "junk" — cache files, app installation files, ad tokens and temporary files. It's not exactly difficult to delete those files through the system itself if you really need to do so, but having that all in one place and done with the press of one button makes it convenient. People like convenience.
Beyond that, though, things turn south.
The manage apps portion of the program uses 78MB of your memory to show you a list of apps and give you the option to uninstall the ones that are uninstallable. The very same list you'll find in your device settings. Well, it's not a complete list. System apps are not visible, and neither is the Boost+ app itself. Nobody needs this. This does the exact opposite of what HTC claims the app will do — improve performance on your phone.
And then, we get to the part where HTC wants to be Clean Master.
Yes, a feature of the Boost+ app is the ability to kill running processes and apps that are using your precious RAM, because for some reason someone thinks RAM not being used is a good thing. But not the 78MB of RAM used by Boost+, which is absent from the list of apps and processes you can kill.
On my Nexus 6P, the first time I fired it up it wanted to close 18 apps by default. 14 of those will instantly start back up, because they need to run in the background to do things like listen for incoming messages or control the lights in my house, or talk to my Huawei Watch. Three of the remaining four are apps I don't want closed — I wouldn't have installed them if I didn't want to use them. The remaining app is the keyboard, which will probably start right back up, but if not will need to start before I do anything smart with my smartphone. This means your RAM once again gets used (which is what is supposed to happen), your CPU is used to start these services which uses more battery power, and you get a chance to use Boost+ to close them all again because it didn't get pushed out of memory.
Apps not selected by default are things like Play Services and a handful of other system apps that you should never close, but you're able to choose to kill them. And set up a schedule to kill them when Boost+ thinks you need to through the automatic boosting settings.
The Boost+ app only works with phones running Android 5.0 and up. The versions of Android that have a pretty damn good track record of keeping what needs to stay running and closing what needs to be closed on its own. If you tried to tell me that your old phone running Froyo would benefit from this sort of thing, I'd disagree but see why you think that way. When you try to tell me that your Jelly Bean phone needs anything like this, I'd be more than willing to tell you why you're wrong, throw a few hundred links at you and tell you to never trust any company who tells you such things.
HTC, I'm not sure why you're doing this. I imagine you have reasons, but I doubt I'll agree with any of them. What I will do is tell people that they don't need your Boost+ app, that they shouldn't download it from Google Play and it should be one of the first apps they disable when they get their new HTC 10.
Get the Android Central Newsletter
Instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.
Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.
-
Clean master is my favorite. Everyone stay away from every battery saving App and cleaning App. Android does just fine on its own Posted via Nexus 6 running on any data plan I want
-
Maybe the Twins need to use Clean Master! I use to use Clean Master along time ago. Don't use it anymore.
-
Fun fact. First time since late 1800's two teams have started 0-9. Posted via Nexus 6 running on any data plan I want
-
I know. That is kind of scary. I think it's time for the Braves to move on from Gonzalez. He's overstayed his welcome there. I'm sure the Braves really wanted to hire Dayton Moore as GM from the Royals, doubt he would have wanted to go into 6 more years of rebuild as compared to what he has with the Royals now. For the Twin they just need a find a way to hit the ball and produce runs. Their pitching isn't the problem. 0-9 is a big whole to start with especially with how close the Royals, White Sox and Tigers are starting off.
-
Trade stafford
-
I do not use it, one of the worst apps ever Posted via Nexus 6 running on any data plan I want
-
It really doesn't help anything. Just spam advertising on the page and tries to get you to add more useless junk.
-
"And it's something they never should have spent time to make, and that you should never use."
This is why I read Jerry. First paragraph and I know where he stands. -
But then he lists the useful features it has... Posted via my 5.9inch Nexus 6
-
The first few features you listed Jerry makes the app worth keeping. So it's not a total waste. Maybe if those features are added in the settings , then the app may not be needed. Posted via the Android Central App
-
Definitely something to stay away from and it's really odd HTC would be pushing this. Posted via the Android Central App
-
All these clean and boost apps are garbage and a waste of space and resources on your phone. Posted via the Android Central App
-
Agreed.
-
Ikr.... Posted via LG G4 H811
-
I would bet they app is built by someone else, or there is a monitization in there somewhere. If so it would prove just how much financial trouble HTC is in. They are willing to sell their soul to keep alive. Unused RAM in android is wasted RAM... fill it up, the more the merrier. This isn't 1985 any more. Its android, not windows xp.
-
I was thinking the same thing! This app is probably a repackaged 3rd party app, with HTC add ons. At least HTC goes the extra steps to theme and make the app fit into their Sense UI. With that being said, I agree with most commenters, Android's native RAM management does a beautiful job of keeping the most used apps ready, this kind of app is redundant and unnecessary. Just after AC had an article applauding HTC on reducing the redundant apps. HTC I want to believe!
-
"Android's native RAM management does a beautiful job of keeping the most used apps ready, this kind of app is redundant and unnecessary." Yeah, if you LITERALLY have a Nexus. I know Samsung has a checkered reputation about this, but I can tell from experience Android does an AWFUL job at RAM management.
-
It's last year all over again. Posted from my Nexus 6/Nexus 7 2013/Surface Pro 3
-
Nice article and useful Posted via the Android Central App
-
They had to give their developers something to do now that the duplicate basic apps were discarded in favor of Google Apps.
-
I read it can set frequency limits to reduce battery drain while playing games. Probably only available on the 10. That is the only thing that sounded useful to me. Posted via the Android Central App
-
I read an article written by an android developer from a reliable website that said phones are the exact opposite of pc's. Pc's benefit from clean master type apps but smartphones do not. U want data stored on the ram, it makes it more efficient.
Since reading it I've stopped using them and unfortunately my note got an update that came with a Samsung version of clean master that can only be disabled. I wish I could delete .
My phone is definitely not sluggish since I stopped using a clean master app either Posted via the Android Central App -
F-Droid! One of my favorite apps. Posted via the Android Central App edit: oh, and 38 google apps/functions/features that came stock on my M7 4.4.2 are disabled.
-
All preloaded apps that I don't use are immediately disabled/uninstalled. Ain't nobody got time for that! Posted via Xperia Z5
-
Kind of figured this app was the dog's unmentionables. Thanks for the confirmation, Jerry.
-
I tried it as well and uninstalled it quickly when it wanted to delete such data as the one stored in my "dictionary" and various other system apps (think I even saw the dialer in there). Pretty sure I meant to store that data there...
-
Not something anyone should install, but HTC 10 owners have an extra benefit that you forgot, Mr. H. The game boost feature which is a part of this app on the 10 allows you to run games at 1080p instead of the battery hungry full QHD resolution. This absolutely is useful. HTC 10 owners should keep it just for this. HTC, on the other hand, should separate the game boost feature into its own app so people don't have to keep this even enabled. They know better. But people still install this and similar apps by the hundreds of millions, so I guess HTC saw a "hole" they needed to fill, and instead of you installing one of the (essentially) spyware and aware filled Play Store behemoths, they are offering at least a relatively safe alternative. Even if it hurts performance at times, some people, make that hundreds of millions of people, believe that they need this snake oil. It's sort of like the whole methadone clinics for heroin addiction situation. They're GOING to get it somewhere, so you may as well try to make it as safe as you can. I just hope that they separate the game boost part out so informed users can disable or remove this app.
-
I've been using CCleaner that seans to be ok. Posted via the Android Central App
-
As NoNexus would put it, unused RAM is wasted RAM. The whole RAM cleaner thing should have been killed off some time ago. They kinda made sense in the old days of Donut and such when Android was still making a mark of its own and you wanted something to help manage resources. But these days, RAM cleaners really don't do anything as whatever apps that are killed will have to start back up again, so you're essentially back to square one. Android these days is able to manage memory just fine by itself (unless you count Lollipop 5.0 and it's memory leak issue), so it's best to just leave it alone. I've been using phones without a RAM cleaner and they've performed just fine. I suppose these apps might be useful to clear out junk and cache files easily, but then, you can already do so in the settings app or any file manager on the Play Store. The only reason I can see myself using the Boost+ app is to lock certain apps with my fingerprint. That's useful. Thing is, I can already do the same with another app that does the same thing without the whole "Clean Master" crap that's an extra. And I guess the Game Booster thing on the HTC 10 is useful. Wish they added it as part of the system settings like what LG did. Posted via the Android Central App
-
I mean, if you have a phone with 2-3-4GB RAM, you absolutely DON'T need this. But try using a phone with 1GB RAM and then tell me that "cleaner apps" are as pointless with 2-3-4GB RAM phones. And NO, "Use fewer apps" is not a valid excuse. That's like complaining about heating bills of your house on Winter and someone tells you "Get a trailer, it's smaller and easier to warm there."
-
If you're using a phone with 1 GB Ram and you're having memory issues that lead you to believe app killers are "useful" because you need to keep all of the apps that you installed and use frequently, then it means you've out grown the 1 GB Ram phone. Time to get a 2-4 GB Ram phone. Posted via the Android Central App
-
I think the whole "unused RAM is wasted RAM" is an absolutely asinine comment. It's akin to saying unused space in your minivan is wasted space. So, what, am I supposed to keep my van full and only dump stuff if I need to seat people? Posted via the Android Central App
-
Wow, not sure where to start. Actually, never mind - just keep running your RAM manager and enjoy.
-
Agreed!! Posted via the Android Central App
-
Would it be possible to install the app and disable its permission to read all the other apps installed so that we can still use its app locker functionality?..
Thanx for the useful info, though I'm not surprised because I never liked those kinds of 'RAM·cleaning' apps either -
Samsung has the exact same app on my s7e, and note 5. Totally useless.
-
Great article Jerry. Steve Palmer - Posted via Android Central App
-
Root. . . . bye bye app. Posted via the Android Central App