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> The reason why I bought a Pixel from Google directly is because I do not like the adware and bloatware that comes pre-installed on phones from other carriers.
by dingo_bat 9y ago
> The reason why I bought a Pixel from Google directly is because I do not like the adware and bloatware that comes pre-installed on phones from other carriers.
Bloatware mandated by google on all android phones:
1. Google+
2. Google Duo
3. Google hangout
4. Gmail
5. Google play music
6. Google play games
7. Google play movies
8. Google play newsstand
9. Google drive
10. Google sheets
11. Google chrome
12. Google maps
13. Google assistant
14. Google app
15. Google photos
16. Youtube
Seems like the author made a decision diametrically opposite to his desire. I literally use 4 of these 16 pre-installed apps. Keep in mind that these are non-removable too. You can disable them, but they will forever sit in the flash storage you paid for.
- Invictus0 9y agoIt almost feels like satire; he trusts one of the world's largest advertisers to not advertise to him?
- lern_too_spel 9y agoTo be fair to the author, the only other option (iPhone) doesn't even let you disable the bloatware or replace it with better alternatives. Recent Android phones (including the author's) install most of the bloatware from the Play Store on first use instead of storing them in the system partition with the OS, so you actually can remove them.
- aroman 9y agoYou can "delete" many default apps on recent versions of iOS. (It doesn't actually delete them, it just hides them — the same as disabling an app on Android).
- gggvvff 9y agoUntrue, if you reinstall them they will be redownloaded from the App Store. So it’s likely they’re actually deleted. Apple do love pointless animations so you might be right though.
- aaomidi 9y agoTry doing that and then opening a location through iMessage.
- firloop 9y agoThe removed apps are deleted, not just hidden. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208094 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208094
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- aroman 9y agoI don't think that document is entirely accurate. The apps "re-download" immediately, suggesting (to me at least) that they are still on-disk, somewhere. I believe that they delete associated user-data, though. EDIT: Apparently things are different in iOS 11? Huh. TIL — will have to try it out!
- lucaspiller 9y agoThat’s not true anymore. Since iOS 10 you’ve been able to remove most of the built in Apple apps. https://www.imore.com/how-delete-apple-apps-ios-10 https://www.imore.com/how-delete-apple-apps-ios-10
- 9y ago
- Larrikin 9y agoThe silliest part of this is that Google phones specifically do not have removable storage so you're forced to use a cloud service, most likely Google's, for extra storage. Before the removal of the headphone jack this was one of my main reasons for avoiding the Nexus/Pixel line.
- gempir 9y agoDo you really need a SD card when your phone has 64 or 128gb? That's so much space for stuff
- Jonnax 9y agoWell the phone manufacturers are the ones advertising things like 4k video recording.
- aaomidi 9y agoAre we blaming phone manufacturers for putting new technologies in phones now? Also to be honest at least on android phones you can use various solutions, like plugging into your pc. On iPhone you’re essentially stuck with iCloud or iTunes.
- csydas 9y agoNo, the above comment is specifically referring to the idea that 64 GB or 128 GB is enough when a heavily advertised and useful function of modern phones is 4k video, which uses a lot of space, making 64 GB/128 GB last not nearly as long. It's not blaming them for anything, just stating that internal only memory when modern features easily use more space than is included may not be sufficient. > at least on android phones you can use various solutions, like plugging into your pc. On iPhone you’re essentially stuck with iCloud or iTunes. I know what you're hinting at (taking a stab at iTunes), but this is still the same thing. You plug the phone into a computer and offload the data, with the difference being the required software.
- thisacctforreal 9y ago
- gggvvff 9y agoWhy is this the top comment? Are you an idiot? Dude, you bought a Google phone. It comes with Google’s crap. What you want is a CtanogenMod/LineageOS/whatever phone. I dunno, Google literally gives away AOSP which they paid wages to make and you bastards are still bitching that the flavour of the free shit you’re getting is not to your liking. Christ.
- teen 9y agogoogle now feed
- fwn 9y agoI had the very problem yesterday evening, so in case you did not figure it out: To disable the Google feed if the disable toggle disappeared just clear the App data of the Google app to make it reappear. To disable the Google feed if the disable toggle is present but has no effect anymore you can log out of the Google app by deselecting your Google account in the "search" settings menu. I'd spend hundreds to avoid any kind of feed in my os.
- pqs 9y agoIt doesn't work for me. It is so frustrating. I live in Catalonia (Spain) and politics has been so intense here these last months that I want the right to disconnect from politics, but I can't, because I can't disable the news cards in Google Now.
- fwn 9y agoBoth methods did not work? Not even the deselecting of your Google account in search -> accounts & privacy? That was the nuclear option in my case. It only affects search. Good luck.
- daxfohl 9y agoIt's surreal to me that Microsoft faced years of legal repercussions worldwide for including a browser in their OS.
- LeoPanthera 9y agoMicrosoft had a monopoly. Google does not.
- JetSpiegel 9y agoSo both Apple and Google control the market, and each uses the "not a monopoly" excuse because of the other company. There's no practical difference.
- tehwebguy 9y agoMany (or most?) bundled iOS apps can be removed https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204221 https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204221
- Nullabillity 9y ago> Removing built-in iOS apps doesn't free up storage space on your device. So it does the same as disabling them on Android.
- lumisota 9y agoThe linked article was for iOS 10. iOS 11 deletes the apps properly: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208094 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208094
- Fnoord 9y agoHate to burst the bubble for you but Android has had this feature for a long, long time. I remember doing this on Android 4.3.
- 9y ago
- Chriky 9y agoI don't think this is accurate, I have an android phone and I had to download a lot of these manually
- dingo_bat 9y agoI've tried to not include apps that have to be manually installed, eg, Allo. But do you think I've included any of those here? Which ones? I remember having to disable all these as soon as I bought my phone.
- tkazec 9y agoThe following apps are not included, or are optional during setup and uninstallable afterwards, on my Pixel 2 XL: 1. Google+ 2. Google Duo 3. Google Hangouts 4. Google Play Games 5. Google Play Newsstand 6. Google Sheets 7. Google Assistant
- CannisterFlux 9y agoI remember it changed at some point. On my ancient Moto G I can't remove Games, Google+, Newsstand, or Hangouts for example. I don't have Duo or Assistant installed and have others like Books and Movies & TV that I can't remove. I use Sheets all the time, it's the only one of that list I'd keep. And checking, I actually had to install that one manually.
- Fnoord 9y ago1) You can disable and remove them. If you do not use them, and plan on not using them, do disable them. Example: I use Firefox, not Chrome. I don't have Chrome installed (I do have Webview installed, obviously). Example: I use Spotify, not Google Play Music. I disabled that instead. 2) You can install Android without GApps (and even with microG). For example LineageOS. You can even decide to use minimal GApps such as the nano variant.
- davedx 9y agoCan you uninstall them without flashing your phone?
- Fnoord 9y agoYes, but not everything. Everything mentioned in the list of GP, yes. However something like GCM or Google Play, no. That's why you decide when you're flashing say LineageOS whether you want GApps yes or no. I'd also like to note that disabling them does save up space. Not sure its all completely removed though. From memory, it reverts to an old version which was bundled with that Android version. On old phones, such space can be vital. Especially if you don't have microSD or pref not to use it.
- jacquesm 9y ago> I literally use 4 of these 16 pre-installed apps. Someone at Google HQ is thinking: "It works as intended".
- gruez 9y ago>You can disable them, but they will forever sit in the flash storage you paid for. That's true, but preinstalled apps sit on the /system partition, which is a separate partition from where your data is stored. The size is fixed so having it there or not doesn't affect how much data you can store.
- sowbug 9y agoThis list is absolutely incorrect.
- jasonkostempski 9y agoI have a 5X. Of all those, only the Google App is not removable.