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Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

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Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#311

Post by culot »

jannes wrote: post #198

Even my Galaxy S7 Edge from 2015 came with an undeletable Facebook app. Why is the article portraying this as a recent development?

I think it's mostly a Facebook hit piece.

And actually since back then Facebook apps have become easier to disable on most Android phones. Used to be that you couldn't delete them nor disable them on most phones. Nowadays is usually possible to disable the apps, and they are usually just stubs, so their impact is minimal to null.

Still would rather not that have them shipped, but when it comes to bloatware I'd say Google was a much bigger culprit.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#312

Post by clairity »

AlexandrB wrote: post #116
LeonM wrote: post #20

It's not just FB, my Samsung S9 came preloaded with 'undeletable' Microsoft apps too. But this is nothing new, Samsung phones have came preloaded with bloat since forever. When buying a new phone I always spend some time deleting all Samsung, Microsoft, Facebook and carrier related apps. Yes, you can delete 'undeletable' apps through ADB, without rooting the device. pm uninstall -k --user 0

> It's not just FB, my Samsung S9 came preloaded with 'undeletable' Microsoft apps too. But this is nothing new, Samsung phones have came preloaded with bloat since forever. I'm old enough to remember when this was standard. Before smartphones almost all cellphones were bought through carriers and came pre-loaded with a bunch of carrier crapware (often unremovable). One of the best things about the first iPhone was t…

> “But what's most surprising is that in an industry where everyone seems keen to copy even Apple's worst ideas (no headphone jack, notches) only a few are copying some of their best.”

this is not surprising at all when you consider the ability to add crapware was a key differentiator for carriers of android relative to ios. ios threatened to disintermediate carriers out of phones, reducing the carriers’ value in the value chain. as iphones became popular, carriers glommed onto android to combat that threat. they continue to do so to keep apple at bay and maintain control over the phone.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#313

Post by komali2 »

vorpalhex wrote: post #129
chrismorgan wrote: post #48

This is nothing new. Google especially has been in this position since the start of Android. I have quite a list of apps that I’ve disabled but can’t uninstall: Chrome, Drive, Galaxy Apps, Gmail, Google Play Movies & TV, Google Play Music, Google Text-to-speech engine, Hancom Office Viewer, Launcher3, Memo, Photo Screensavers, S Planner, Samsung Billing, Samsung Push Service, TalkBack, Weather, YouTube. I’m going to…

Samsung devices are the worst. When I had an S8, I ran a toolkit that would constantly remove (and re-remove when it appeared again) almost all of the Samsung crapware, but even that is subpar since you need some of it like their Health product for basic phone features to work. Samsung is by far the worst at it. I won't buy their phones anymore.

Recently got an s9 and there's a whole button I can't use because it is bound to the "Launch Bixby" function. I'm not exactly sure what Bixby is or does, some sort of voice control (but I already have google now?), but it requires me to have a samsung account to use, which I don't want/need.

So, unused button. Wish I could bind it to camera or something, no such luck.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#315

Post by jessriedel »

Bahamut wrote: post #132

While I like using FB, this is type of behavior by Android OEMs that largely drove me to the iPhone. The main reason I rooted my phone prior was to get rid of crappy apps I don't use from being on my screen. Around 4-5 years ago, Android phone manufacturers started locking down their phones more while not letting them be rooted. They didn't solve the problem of having undeleteable apps waste my time & space with clea…

Google recognizes this issue, which is part of the drive behind bringing Android One to the high-end phone market. This is a branding designation that Google sells to OEMs that requires them to drop almost all bloatware:

> Android One is a series of smartphones that run the unmodified Android operating system. It is a hardware and software technical standard created by Google intended to provide a consistent user experience and improved security through frequent updates and Google Play Protect. Android One was launched in 2014 and focused on entry-level devices for emerging markets, but later evolved into Google's principal mobile program.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_One

I have an LG G7 One (the Android-One version of the LG G7), and I'm very pleased with it.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#316

Post by zanny »

chrismorgan wrote: post #48

This is nothing new. Google especially has been in this position since the start of Android. I have quite a list of apps that I’ve disabled but can’t uninstall: Chrome, Drive, Galaxy Apps, Gmail, Google Play Movies & TV, Google Play Music, Google Text-to-speech engine, Hancom Office Viewer, Launcher3, Memo, Photo Screensavers, S Planner, Samsung Billing, Samsung Push Service, TalkBack, Weather, YouTube. I’m going to…

I'd only consider a device in 2019 that has really strong LineageOS support. The OEM will never support the phone for more than a few years, but well cared for devices (especially with replacable, if not easily removable, batteries) can last a decade or more.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#317

Post by Rebelgecko »

reaperducer wrote: post #229
simulate wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All phones have undeletable apps provided by their manufacturers. For example, on iPhones you cannot delete Messages, Phone, Safari, Clock, Photos, Health, App Store, and Camera in a conventional way.

Phone Not much of a phone without a phone app. But Apple does sell an iPhone without a Phone app. It's called an iPod.

Does iOS not support 3rd party dialer and SMS apps?

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#318

Post by EpicEng »

habitue wrote: post #213

I'm not a huge facebook fan but this thing about only being able to disable but not delete the app is misleading about how sinister it is. All it means is that the app comes installed by being part of the ROM image. It can be disabled which is essentially the same as deleting it, except you don't get the space back (which is fine since it's the rom, you can't use it without reflashing anyway). Once disabled, the Face…

Agreed, but from what I've been reading/hearing, the primary concern is "can FB track me even if the app is disabled?" These are non-technical people who don't trust FB. It's a valid question.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#319

Post by propogandist »

crashedsnow wrote: post #179
propogandist wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I didn't have microsoft apps on my S9, if you install netguard (firewall) [1] you'll see that most samsung apps are constantly trying to get a connection with facebook servers and Samsung HQ. Apps that have no reason to have internet connectivity, like the dialer, clock app, the finder (search functionality within the stock launcher) are phoning home [!] Unfortunately Samsung phones have locked bootloaders, so…

I'm often surprised by the number of totally valid reasons apps need to connect to the interwebs where you'd think they have no business. Clocks need to sync with time servers, dialers want to get updated lists of spam callers.. not sure what "finder" is but seems plausible that a search operation would need an index to search and even more reasonable that it be server-side. Not to mention reporting telemetry, analyt…

I would understand if the clock was connecting to a dedicated service to sync the time, but the clock app is just an interface where I can set alarms, use stopwatch etc. The system time is managed (and synced) at the Android OS level and so there is no need for apps to connect to the internet, nor for it to have updates.

For the finder app, the index should be local. There is no way I want my apps, documents and file metadata to be sent to some samsung server to be indexed so that I can do a local search -- that would provide no value and it's also features that I've never asked for as a user.

The calls from most of these apps (especially samsung apps) to facebook servers also serve no purpose other than to try and datamine. I understand there may be cases where telemetry is valuable, but it's unacceptable to have apps (in many cases that haven't been opened) to try and connect to a remote server behind the scenes, especially when you cannot remove them easily.

Re: Samsung Phone Users Perturbed to Find They Can't Delete Facebook

#320

Post by cududa »

mancerayder wrote: post #291

This story (and from different outlets) is now all over the press, which is great. Can I add another qualm in a similar vein? It involves Samsung TV's. I'm convinced Samsung is increasingly mean. I only use streaming services (Netflix, et. al.), and for the past year I've been pretty pleased with "Smart TV" functionality, which makes life easy. That is, until the following happened. After a recent update, the TV: * N…

I was exceptionally displeased to find this functionality on all the Samsung TVs at my vacation home this winter. Threw a FireTV Cube on all of them and couldn’t be happier with the experience. IMO, it’s cable box integration is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. But I’d suggest you checkout the FireTV 4K if you don’t have cable
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