Clean Up Your Phone Apps and Check Their Permissions

Most phones carry apps that have not been opened in months, and many can still see your location, microphone, camera, contacts, or photos. A muse can walk you through finding the unused apps, deciding which ones to remove, and checking what each app you keep is allowed to reach.

What it does

The muse works through your phone with you, in plain steps. First it shows you where your phone lists apps by last use, so the ones untouched for months are easy to spot. For each one, it helps you decide: keep it, remove it, or check whether an account or saved data is tied to it first. Then it moves to permissions. For the apps you keep, it shows you where to check which ones can use your location, microphone, camera, contacts, and photos. It recommends which to switch off, and which to set to only while using. It ends with a short list of the five changes that matter most.

How to use it

1. Open your phone settings and tell the muse whether yours is an iPhone or an Android phone. Menu names differ, and the steps have to match your phone.
2. Ask the muse to walk you through the apps you have not opened in months. Go one app at a time and say keep or remove before tapping anything.
3. Before removing an app used for bills, travel, or health, ask what to check first, such as saved documents or a subscription that keeps charging after the app is gone.
4. Move to permissions, one kind at a time: location, then microphone, camera, contacts, photos.
5. For each app, choose off, only while using, or on. Ask what breaks if you choose off.
6. Ask for the final list of the five changes that matter most, and save it.

What you need

• Your phone, with enough charge to work through settings without rushing
• A muse account
• About twenty quiet minutes for a first pass

What to watch for

• Removing an app does not always cancel a paid subscription tied to it. Check subscriptions in your app store account separately.
• Some apps stop working well when a permission is off. A map app without location will just ask again. You can turn it back on for that use.
• If a step on your screen does not match the step the muse describes, say so. Phone makers move these menus between models and updates.
• You make every tap. The muse guides and explains, you decide what stays and what goes.