Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Debloat non-rooted Android devices

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 231 posts

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#191

Post by as1mov »

xnx wrote: post #188
morsch wrote: post #18

I 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…

What are the reasons someone would want to buy any Android device beside a new or used Google Pixel?

The bloat depends on the manufacturer. I've used a bunch of Android phones over the course of the last 15 years.

Sony Ericsson, Motorola - Pretty much stock Android. Though this was almost a decade ago, so not sure what's their state now.

Xiaomi - Absolutely filled with bloat, but really cheap + flagship specs. Easily fixed by flashing LineageOS.

Pixel 1st gen - No bloat, stock

Asus - My current phone. No bloat, though it has a lightweight skin + QoL stuff that I don't mind. I use it non-rooted + stock OS

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#192

Post by as1mov »

rapnie wrote: post #75
morsch wrote: post #18

I 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…

Bloatware, dark patterns, opted-in privacy invasions, and unavoidable privacy infringement.. I feel that Samsung is somewhere in the top of that spectrum. Which commodity Android device vendor has the least of that out-of-the-box?

Asus? Though I'm not sure what's it sending in the background, but there was no legal jargon that I had to agree to, to use any of the apps. There were barely any custom apps, it pretty much relies on the stock Android apps.

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#193

Post by Nullabillity »

throwaway11460 wrote: post #154
Nullabillity wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blocking root is definitely not an EU thing. BankID runs just fine on my Magisked phone, the only payment app I've had issues with was Google Pay.

The regulation says that system integrity has to be verified. Some banks don't comply, but many (every one I use) do. BTW magisk has a way to hide from the apps, so that might be the reason - that doesn't mean there isn't a problem with the regulation. But 2 of my 3 banks see through that. And one of them doesn't want to load on LineageOS even if it's not rooted because it's compiled in some dev mode that might allow…

Every single bank in my country uses BankID, along with several governmental services.

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#194

Post by autoexec »

daghamm wrote: post #169
Charlie_32 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He goes on to explain it was in the keyboards About menu

But there is no "privacy policy" on the Samsung keyboard about page. The Samsungs privacy policy on the web states this: Samsung Keyboard information: The words that you type when you enable “Predictive text”. This feature may be offered in connection with your Samsung account to synchronise the data for use on your other Samsung mobile devices. You can clear the data by going to the “Predictive text” settings. Sourc…

I wouldn't doubt if it's changed a few times. The phone was a 2016 Galaxy J3 V. I no longer remember the name of the 3rd party they were using for predictive text at the time, but I know that in the past they've used SwiftKey and Grammarly

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#195

Post by throwaway11460 »

naasking wrote: post #162
TeMPOraL wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Buying their phone is more of a psychology thing, than 'I did lots of research and I bought a high quality phone'. For me it's more of "I'm no longer a kid so I don't have time to do lots of research". Samsung gets my money because their flagships are reliably good.

You can't spend a couple of days researching an essential, expensive device you're going to use for at least the next 2-3 years?

What better hardware is there?

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#196

Post by throwaway11460 »

xnx wrote: post #188
morsch wrote: post #18

I 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…

What are the reasons someone would want to buy any Android device beside a new or used Google Pixel?

Don't want to give money to Google. And the hardware is sad compared to any recent Samsung flagship.

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#197

Post by npteljes »

morsch wrote: post #18

I 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…

Same experience with Samsung, only several years behind. The build quality is excellent, but the bundleware level is unbelievable. And the Samsung software seemed like a cheap bolted-on thing, on top of the perfectly good Android base.

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#198

Post by npteljes »

rchaud wrote: post #141
Almondsetat wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closed source device drivers. The mobile phone market is like the desktop market in the 90s

Didn't use to be that way. Android phones with Qualcomm SoCs used to be incredibly easy to modify with alternative versions of Android. That changed around 2014-15, can't remember why. Now it seems only Google's own Pixel phone is the only one that's hackable enough to run LineageOS or /e/ or other de-Googled distros.

LineageOS has active support for 200 devices, and many more if you're up for some hacking, and download the ROM from the XDA forums. /e/ sells phones preinstalled with /e/OS, Pixels, Samsungs, and the Fairphone [0]. CalyxOS can also go on a bunch of phones.

[0] https://murena.com/products/smartphones/

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#199

Post by npteljes »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #89

If, according to this thread, Samsung is so bad and I don't t want buy a Chinese phone... What are my options for an Android phone? Is there any Android phone brand/model that is not exploiting its users?

Pixel is quite good. Android, straight from the source, and the support is long. Can be made even better with GrapheneOS if you so choose.

Re: Debloat non-rooted Android devices

#200

Post by npteljes »

switch007 wrote: post #138
Lyngbakr wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Friday, I switched to the Pixel 7a with GrapheneOS and it's costing me CAD$1 per month for the phone on a 24-month contract and I got a better deal on my monthly phone plan. So far, it seems like an awesome phone and the installation of GrapheneOS via the web installer was incredibly easy.

Nice! How's the battery on GrapheneOS? I heard on the stock OS it's pretty bad. I'm considering buying one as I'm paying £16/mo for just a SIM but I can get a 7a on a contract for the same price!

I was worried too before buying, but with my usage patterns, battery lasts 2 days. Pixel 7a, international edition, GrapheneOS.
Post reply on HN