Why you should restart your phone on a regular basis (and how to do it)

For iPhone, you'd think that tapping and holding the right-side power button would prompt you with the reset settings, but that's sadly not the case.

Instead, you'll need to tap and hold both the power button and the volume down key on the left side. After three seconds, a power-off slider should appear on the screen. Swipe across to confirm the action.

Also: How to restart every iPhone ever made

For Android, tapping and holding the power button may follow a similar behavior as the iPhone, activating the built-in voice assistant instead of the reset prompt. If that happens, press both the power button and the volume down key for three seconds or until you're given the option to power off or restart the phone.

Note: On most Android phones, you'll have the ability to modify your power button so that it triggers the reset options by default instead of the voice assistant. You can't do this on an iPhone though.

If you're feeling lazy, there are several ways to restart your phone with even less effort.

On iPhones running iOS 16, you can now tell Siri to restart your device. It'll ask for your confirmation before doing so.

Also: How to clear the cache on your iPhone (and why you should)

For Android, manufacturers like Samsung give you the option to set optimized restarts, meaning the phone will automatically reset itself when it notices slowdowns and you're not using it. You can turn the feature on by going to your Settings > Battery and device care > scrolling down to Auto optimization > and toggling it.

From my experience, auto optimization typically occurs in the middle of my sleep. You'll know it happened when you unlock your phone and it asks you to use your pin or pattern instead of the biometric security.