+1. ADB, either directly or indirectly is the only choice to debloat Android devices. This was the case of one of my old tablets (a cheap 10'' Mediacom crap) that resisted every rooting attempt, no matter which tool I could try. Removing unneeded services and stuff became a breeze, although the process is quite dangerous and I ended up with something that can't run Google services anymore, but does run Whatsapp for the 7-8 contacts I couldn't convince to use email, and download from F-Droid, which is enough for me.
Debloat non-rooted Android devices
31–40 of 231 posts
Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope, it is just worst. Want a smart-phone? Get an iPhone. Want a mobile Linux computer you can make calls from? Android. Android does not do the 'phone' part right. I constantly complain of a friend with his new expensive s23 or whatever that acts like a cheap phone whenever he gets in a group call and my whole group complains of the ear shattering noise and artifacts from his side immediately (nothing at all wrong…
I have the opposite opinion. If we want to talk about bugs, I literally left the iPhone world just because of the bugs and the poor quality of the software in general. I had error loops when installing apps and the one of my wife has keyboard freeze for 4 seconds at a time. The internet is full of threads of people with this exact problem but there's never any documented way to fix anything in an iPhone, it either fu…
Never heard of it or seen it documented anywhere. What is an "error loop installing apps" and where did you see that documented?
> The internet is full of threads of people with this exact problem but there's never any documented way to fix anything in an iPhone, it either fully works or good luck.
Is that hyperbole? There's a video of a guy putting a headphone jack in an iphone 7.
Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have the opposite opinion. If we want to talk about bugs, I literally left the iPhone world just because of the bugs and the poor quality of the software in general. I had error loops when installing apps and the one of my wife has keyboard freeze for 4 seconds at a time. The internet is full of threads of people with this exact problem but there's never any documented way to fix anything in an iPhone, it either fu…
Never heard of it or seen it documented anywhere. What is an "error loop installing apps" and where did you see that documented? > The internet is full of threads of people with this exact problem but there's never any documented way to fix anything in an iPhone, it either fully works or good luck. Is that hyperbole? There's a video of a guy putting a headphone jack in an iphone 7.
> What is an "error loop installing apps" and where did you see that documented?
I can't remember the exact error text but any attempt to install or update an app said something about an error setting up payments (even a free app) and the only way to stop this modal loop was to reboot the device. It's just in a drawer now.
That kind of sums up the general experience I had with the device.
For my wife's keyboard issue it's pretty random, you are typing and then the whole screen freezes for 4 seconds, when whatever you typed while frozen unbuffers all at once. I guess it's some bug in the Vietnamese IME since the keyboard needs to buffer diacritics (I'm just guessing)
> Is that hyperbole? There's a video of a guy putting a headphone jack in an iphone 7.
No it's just how it works in iPhone, full of random suggestions in case anything sticks because nobody has an idea on how it works and there's never any debug info.
Another example, I had another error setting up the dev account, nobody knew what to do, even their own support at Apple!
Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was furious when I found out that the default keyboard was infested with Grammarly, sending all my keystrokes without consent. Embarrassing for a $1200 flagship device.
This is a user/psychology problem. No one in their right mind is suggesting Samsung. Heck, similar to Apple, you have swaths of people warning you about Samsung. Samsung lives and dies off their huge marketing budget. Buying their phone is more of a psychology thing, than 'I did lots of research and I bought a high quality phone'.
I have a Samsung tablet (Galaxy Tab S9+) and I not only suggest but downright recommend it. Sure, right away I switched away from their default apps (launcher, notes, keyboard, etc) but it wasn't difficult.
Maybe they got me with their clever marketing but there doesn't seem to be competitive hardware in this class (fast, oled screen, 5g, overall build quality) available from another manufacturer.
Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Never heard of it or seen it documented anywhere. What is an "error loop installing apps" and where did you see that documented? > The internet is full of threads of people with this exact problem but there's never any documented way to fix anything in an iPhone, it either fully works or good luck. Is that hyperbole? There's a video of a guy putting a headphone jack in an iphone 7.
> What is an "error loop installing apps" and where did you see that documented? I can't remember the exact error text but any attempt to install or update an app said something about an error setting up payments (even a free app) and the only way to stop this modal loop was to reboot the device. It's just in a drawer now. That kind of sums up the general experience I had with the device. For my wife's keyboard issue…
I've never heard of it, but it sounds like a very easy fix.
You can get debug info. I have copied my crash logs.
If your wife's using a 3rd party keyboard they are treated worst and may crash. Android has always gotten better with their interface but they are locking more and more stuff. I would use Android if i didn't always get audio issues, I would rather use a computer with a phone, but not if the phone makes me unlistenable. Hope your Android issues are nonexistent or manageable.
Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What is an "error loop installing apps" and where did you see that documented? I can't remember the exact error text but any attempt to install or update an app said something about an error setting up payments (even a free app) and the only way to stop this modal loop was to reboot the device. It's just in a drawer now. That kind of sums up the general experience I had with the device. For my wife's keyboard issue…
I've never heard of it, but it sounds like a very easy fix. You can get debug info. I have copied my crash logs. If your wife's using a 3rd party keyboard they are treated worst and may crash. Android has always gotten better with their interface but they are locking more and more stuff. I would use Android if i didn't always get audio issues, I would rather use a computer with a phone, but not if the phone makes me…
> You can get debug info. I have copied my crash logs.
Maybe you can, it just seems harder than adb since I only have Linux machines now.
> If your wife's using a 3rd party keyboard they are treated worst and may crash
No this is the standard iphone keyboard which is freezing the screen, I didn't even know you could have third party ones on iphones, I thought they were not allowed by Apple. I guess that changed.
> I've never heard of it, but it sounds like a very easy fix.
Yeah sure it can be done technically, I would have to factory reset the iPhone again and it might fix it but I really didn't want to fiddle with it anymore to make it work though, I was already tired of it.
> Android has always gotten better with their interface but they are locking more and more stuff. I would use Android if i didn't always get audio issues, I would rather use a computer with a phone, but not if the phone makes me unlistenable.
Personally I never encountered audio issues on Android. Except if we're talking about Bluetooth but I'm convinced it's impossible to make a Bluetooth device that works, I had Bluetooth bugs on Windows, Linux, Android and iOS.
Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices
#37I bought -- full price, retail -- a midrange Samsung phone for a relative recently. The amount of bloatware was incredible. Various social networks and shopping apps were preinstalled. In addition to all the Samsung apps that more or less duplicate the Google stack, poorly. The entire setup process was full of dark patterns designed to extract as much data from you as possible. No way a regular person gets through th…
Could it be that it's a US-specific thing? My last three phones have been EU-sold Samsung S series, and the only things I'd consider "third party bloat" were pre-installed versions of Facebook and MS Office, both easily removable.
The Samsung replacement apps is down to personal preference, I find them easier to use than Google "originals".
Having casually interacted with phones from other brands, I consider Samsung among the best Android options as far as software and UX goes.
Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices
#38I bought -- full price, retail -- a midrange Samsung phone for a relative recently. The amount of bloatware was incredible. Various social networks and shopping apps were preinstalled. In addition to all the Samsung apps that more or less duplicate the Google stack, poorly. The entire setup process was full of dark patterns designed to extract as much data from you as possible. No way a regular person gets through th…
Could it be that it's a US-specific thing? My last three phones have been EU-sold Samsung S series, and the only things I'd consider "third party bloat" were pre-installed versions of Facebook and MS Office, both easily removable. The Samsung replacement apps is down to personal preference, I find them easier to use than Google "originals". Having casually interacted with phones from other brands, I consider Samsung…
This was in Germany, so no. It's probably a midrange vs flagship thing, or it has gotten worse over time. I had an S10 and I don't remember it being so bad.
Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was furious when I found out that the default keyboard was infested with Grammarly, sending all my keystrokes without consent. Embarrassing for a $1200 flagship device.
This is a user/psychology problem. No one in their right mind is suggesting Samsung. Heck, similar to Apple, you have swaths of people warning you about Samsung. Samsung lives and dies off their huge marketing budget. Buying their phone is more of a psychology thing, than 'I did lots of research and I bought a high quality phone'.
I've had multiple Samsung Android devices before buying the midrange phone. The hardware, I found, was universally pretty good. They were one of the few manufacturers with a moderately sized flagship device (the new Pixel 8 also qualifies, which is great). I bought the midrange device because it was one of a few phones priced around 300 EUR with more than two or three years of updates.
Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices
#40Where one can find an up to date list of obscure packages on an Android device with short description what it actually does and the impact if it was disabled/uninstalled? I'm especially interested in possible dependencies between such packages, when uninstalling one seemingly unrelated package might break something else.