Once you’re confident enough in your bridge game to play one, there’s pretty much only one thing that can go wrong: Your smart device.
Smartphones and other devices were built to be good, great, or maybe excellent. What they are not is without flaws – and sometimes, things go wrong right before you’re meant to play a game.
Many of the things a smartphone does wrong can be corrected. If you find your bridge games going slower than they should (or your phone goes crazy whenever you try), something might be affecting the device itself.
Here are 5 things that are making your smartphone worse at bridge (& how to fix them)
1. Chargers & batteries
Chargers or batteries that are older or worn can cause a whole list of device malfunctions.
The first sign is that your device takes longer to charge, or runs down sooner than it should. A device that heats up might also be a sign of the issue.
Replace the charger (or battery) with the manufacturer-recommended option and see if your smartphone’s bridge performance improves.
2. Outdated OS
An outdated operating system or other software could slow a device down (or stop important things from working). Don’t let it slow down your bridge game.
When your device needs an update (or when software gets a new version), go with it.
Updates are for security reasons, and generally, the point is device improvement. Waiting with updates and version changes can render your device vulnerable to attacks and malfunctions – that’s what the update was for.
3. Browser clutter
Clear your browser’s history and things like cached images often. If you don’t, it’s an automatic way to fill up a lot of space on your device – and space is one of the things that makes it much slower.
You’ll find it under your browser settings.
As a last note, untick the things you don’t want to clear (like any logged in accounts, bookmarks, or saved passwords).
4. App caches
An app cache isn’t anything threatening, it’s the saved information the apps on your device keeps over time.
This information is usually useless, and usually wastes a considerable amount of space if you haven’t thought to remove it in a while. Clear your cache by visiting Settings > App Settings, and usually going to each app.
The most-used apps are likely to have the largest cached information files.
An added tip: Clearing the cache is one way to rid your device of any “loops” like perpetually appearing to upload something, or syncing to no avail.
5. Moisture & dust
Moisture and dust are two enemies of good smartphone bridge.
When you have it anywhere near your screen, it affects its ability to read where your fingers are going – and everything from clicking to scrolling is hard (or impossible).
Always carry sanitizing spray, and the same type of soft cloth you would use for cleaning glasses.
It keeps your bridge game clean, and your smartphone working more efficiently.