WATCH: Disabling iPhone animations can actually speed up your device!

Compared to desktop computers, iPhones run very lean and very mean, but that's not to say they can't seem to operate slowly at times. One of the bugbears that irritates people are the subtle animations that get in the way of loading apps – but with this handy little trick discovered by 9to5Mac, you can get rid of those animations entirely. Doing this makes your iPhone feel extremely quick and responsive, almost like a brand-new device.Everything you need to know to do this is outlined in the video above, but we've summarised the steps for you below so you can jump right in.

Before trying this particular trick, which actually seems to be a software glitch (Apple hasn't confirmed anything yet), you can easily reduce the amount of app launch animations via a simple setting.

If you go to Settings > General > Accessibility, and turn on Reduce Motion, this will get rid of the 'zoom in' animation when you switch to or open another app, replacing it with a more subtle 'fade in' animation.

Both of these 'zoom in' and 'fade in' animations might be aesthetically pleasing, but they also take time to play out, which frankly gets in the way of you using your apps – and getting the most instantaneous functionality out of your device.

To get rid of both animations entirely, you need to invoke the glitch, which can be done by performing the following steps.

Step 1. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Assistive Touch, and turn on the Assistive Touch switch.

Step 2. Once you've done that, the Assistive Touch icon appears. This icon can float around the screen and be dragged to anywhere. When you click on it, it gives you another way of controlling your device (although we won't need it for the purposes of the trick).

Anyway, go to the Home screen, and drag the Assistive Touch icon to the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, where it will stick.

Step 3. This is the tricky bit. If it doesn't work the first time – it didn't for us – keep trying. Swipe your finger downwards on the Home screen, which brings up Spotlight search. When you do this, you'll note that the Assistive Touch icon quickly springs up on the screen and settles above the virtual keyboard.

What you need to do is tap anywhere on the screen to dismiss the Spotlight search (at the same time as the Assistive Touch icon moves upwards). Then repeat: swipe down again to bring up the Spotlight search, then tap again to dismiss it again, and so on, and so on.

It's not easy and might take a bit of trying (don't give up!), but if you keep doing this and get the timing right, you'll notice that the Spotlight search starts appearing almost instantaneously. Once that happens, go to the Home page and try opening any app that you've got running in the background.

If the trick has worked, the app will appear instantly without any animation, making your phone feel super-fast and letting you access your apps much more quickly than if the animations were playing. It kind of feels like your iPhone is turbo-charged, with nothing getting in the way of your apps and content.

If the app you're switching to isn't already running in the background of your device, it's likely you'll still see a delay as the app loads up – that's normal. But for apps already running, you'll feel like a speed demon – kind of like Neo in The Matrix, totally in control of your code!

Once you've got the glitch running and apps appear instantaneously, you can then disable the Assistive Touch icon. The animations will be enabled again once you reboot your phone – although once you now how to kill them with this trick, it only takes a second to disable them again (at least until Apple updates iOS, if they decide to remove this little glitch).

Here's hoping they don't, because this simple trick is an awesome little time-saver!