There's a hidden way you can check which services are running on your Android phone

Android phones, much like desktop PCs, come equipped with a built-in task manager that allows users to monitor running services and manage memory usage. However, this feature is often hidden from users, requiring a bit of exploration to uncover. To access the task manager, you must first enable developer mode on your Android device. Navigate to the Settings menu, scroll to the bottom, tap About Phone, and find the Build number. Tap on it repeatedly until you see a message indicating that developer mode has been enabled.

Once developer mode is activated, return to the main Settings menu and look for Developer options, or navigate to the System submenu to find it. Within Developer options, select Running Services to view all the processes currently running on your phone, along with their respective memory usage. Take note that unlike a desktop PC, many of these processes are managing essential features like Bluetooth, keyboard, and location settings. Closing these processes could severely impact your phone's functionality.

The task manager on your Android phone is more of a diagnostic tool than a means to free up memory. If you encounter issues with your device, you can use this feature to check if any single process is consuming an excessive amount of memory. If so, you may consider stopping the related process temporarily for troubleshooting, but be prepared to restart your phone afterward.

For better control over background processes, limit their use through the Developer options menu. Under the Apps heading, find Background process limit. This setting triggers an automatic limit based on your phone's RAM capacity, which is crucial for older Android devices to maintain performance. However, you can adjust this limit between one and four to free up more memory.

Be aware that reducing the background process limit may hinder multitasking capabilities and cause a noticeable performance hit when you reopen apps, as the phone will need to restart them. Additionally, you can also limit the background behavior of specific apps. In the Settings menu, go to Apps, select an app, and tap Battery. Choose the Restricted option to limit the app's activity when suspended.