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I think calling Chrome bloatware is a bit much. Is Safari bloateare on an iPhone? Is the Play store bloatware? How would you even get anything on your phone th

I think calling Chrome bloatware is a bit much. Is Safari bloateare on an iPhone? Is the Play store bloatware? How would you even get anything on your phone the first time without the Play store or Chrome being installed?

hadrien01 7y ago
Chrome is bloatware when Samsung Internet is a much better browser included with my phone. The Play Store is not bloatware. The Play _stores_ are bloatware (books, games, movies, etc.)
- robbya 7y ago
  Is Samsung Internet better than Chrome? I've always assumed it was bloatware since it's preinstalled and I haven't heard of people using it. I personally use the Firefox mobile browser, which I think works great.
  - nkurz 7y ago
    I tested about a bunch of browsers on my Samsung phone (including Chrome, Firefox, Maxthon, Dolphin, Cheetah, Brave, Puffin, Opera, and Yandex), and eventually decided that the "Samsung Internet Browser Beta" was the best of them for me: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sec.android.app.sbrowser.beta https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sec.androi... My main demands were a browser that had a reliable "reader mode", a black background "night mode", allowed reasonable ad blocking, and had a full screen mode with minimal clutter. The Samsung browser isn't perfect, still occasionally makes me mad, but definitely is worth trying if aren't fully satisfied with what you are using.
    - VistaBrokeMyPC 7y ago
      Dolphin! Man, I haven't heard someone talk about that browser in YEARS. I used that ten years ago back when the play store was called Android Market because it had addons and I thought it was the bee's knees. I still rotate through chrome, chrome canary, Firefox, Firefox focus, opera, and sometimes nightly builds of Firefox just to see what's getting tinkered with lately. Firefox still my daily driver though.
    - pcurve 7y ago
      thanks for the recommendation. I really appreciate the boost in performance or the samsung browser (even if it is based on chrome, it is much faster)
  - notatoad 7y ago
    samsung internet is an outdated chrome so most browser stats reports don't break it out seperately - it just shows up as an oddly large number of people using chrome 71. but it has a few extra usability features that people like and definitely a big userbase.
  - pcurve 7y ago
    I just tried Samsung Internet Beta on my old One Plus 3+ based on this thread. In terms of performance, it's much zippier than either FF or Chrome. Give it a go.
- thiagomgd 7y ago
  I think Samsung Internet is bloatware... And all samsung apps. I can't get rid of Bixby, internet, the calendar, etc...
  - EastSmith 7y ago
    Both of you make the point that we should be able to uninstall - not just disable - anything that is not OS. (for the record I've disabled a lot of stuff on my Galaxy)
    - thiagomgd 7y ago
      YES. But with samsung is worse. I can't disable the calendar app, or not add my google accounts there. Your account is added, and the only thing you can do is de-select the calendar to not sync/display notifications...
      - vunie 7y ago
        That's why I never use my real google account with my phone. Android phones offer too little control over what is perhaps one of the most important digital asset I own: my google account.
- usepgp 7y ago
  Other apps use the chrome webview, which is why it can't be uninstalled.
  - dredmorbius 7y ago
    A/K/A Chrome is (illegally) tied to system functionality. Microsoft was sued for antitrust violations for much the same thing: https://www.justice.gov/atr/chapter-5-antitrust-issues-tying-and-bundling-intellectual-property-rights https://www.justice.gov/atr/chapter-5-antitrust-issues-tying...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
asdf21 7y ago
>Is Safari bloateare on an iPhone? It is when you only use Firefox..
joncp 7y ago
If you could theoretically uninstall something without bricking the phone but you're blocked from uninstalling it, then it's bloatware.
noisem4ker 7y ago
Android isn't intrinsically tied to Google, unlike iOS is to Apple. Once upon a time, Android had its own, neutral Browser app. It was then replaced with Google Chrome, just like Email was replaced with Gmail. A pointless branding exercise in my opinion.
- ehsankia 7y ago
  > Android isn't intrinsically tied to Google Except Google spends billions in both engineering and infrastructure to develop, test and maintain it. Including those apps is part of how they fund said development. But these days, people expect everything to be completely free and tech companies to do things out of the goodness of their heart for no financial benefit.
  - Cougher 7y ago
    This response says everything it needed to say in the first sentence without the gratuitous snark of the second.

hadrien01 7y ago

Chrome is bloatware when Samsung Internet is a much better browser included with my phone. The Play Store is not bloatware. The Play _stores_ are bloatware (books, games, movies, etc.)

robbya 7y ago
Is Samsung Internet better than Chrome? I've always assumed it was bloatware since it's preinstalled and I haven't heard of people using it. I personally use the Firefox mobile browser, which I think works great.
- nkurz 7y ago
  I tested about a bunch of browsers on my Samsung phone (including Chrome, Firefox, Maxthon, Dolphin, Cheetah, Brave, Puffin, Opera, and Yandex), and eventually decided that the "Samsung Internet Browser Beta" was the best of them for me: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sec.android.app.sbrowser.beta https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sec.androi... My main demands were a browser that had a reliable "reader mode", a black background "night mode", allowed reasonable ad blocking, and had a full screen mode with minimal clutter. The Samsung browser isn't perfect, still occasionally makes me mad, but definitely is worth trying if aren't fully satisfied with what you are using.
  - VistaBrokeMyPC 7y ago
    Dolphin! Man, I haven't heard someone talk about that browser in YEARS. I used that ten years ago back when the play store was called Android Market because it had addons and I thought it was the bee's knees. I still rotate through chrome, chrome canary, Firefox, Firefox focus, opera, and sometimes nightly builds of Firefox just to see what's getting tinkered with lately. Firefox still my daily driver though.
  - pcurve 7y ago
    thanks for the recommendation. I really appreciate the boost in performance or the samsung browser (even if it is based on chrome, it is much faster)
- notatoad 7y ago
  samsung internet is an outdated chrome so most browser stats reports don't break it out seperately - it just shows up as an oddly large number of people using chrome 71. but it has a few extra usability features that people like and definitely a big userbase.
- pcurve 7y ago
  I just tried Samsung Internet Beta on my old One Plus 3+ based on this thread. In terms of performance, it's much zippier than either FF or Chrome. Give it a go.
thiagomgd 7y ago
I think Samsung Internet is bloatware... And all samsung apps. I can't get rid of Bixby, internet, the calendar, etc...
- EastSmith 7y ago
  Both of you make the point that we should be able to uninstall - not just disable - anything that is not OS. (for the record I've disabled a lot of stuff on my Galaxy)
  - thiagomgd 7y ago
    YES. But with samsung is worse. I can't disable the calendar app, or not add my google accounts there. Your account is added, and the only thing you can do is de-select the calendar to not sync/display notifications...
    - vunie 7y ago
      That's why I never use my real google account with my phone. Android phones offer too little control over what is perhaps one of the most important digital asset I own: my google account.
usepgp 7y ago
Other apps use the chrome webview, which is why it can't be uninstalled.
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  A/K/A Chrome is (illegally) tied to system functionality. Microsoft was sued for antitrust violations for much the same thing: https://www.justice.gov/atr/chapter-5-antitrust-issues-tying-and-bundling-intellectual-property-rights https://www.justice.gov/atr/chapter-5-antitrust-issues-tying...
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

asdf21 7y ago

>Is Safari bloateare on an iPhone? It is when you only use Firefox..

joncp 7y ago

If you could theoretically uninstall something without bricking the phone but you're blocked from uninstalling it, then it's bloatware.

noisem4ker 7y ago

Android isn't intrinsically tied to Google, unlike iOS is to Apple. Once upon a time, Android had its own, neutral Browser app. It was then replaced with Google Chrome, just like Email was replaced with Gmail. A pointless branding exercise in my opinion.

ehsankia 7y ago
> Android isn't intrinsically tied to Google Except Google spends billions in both engineering and infrastructure to develop, test and maintain it. Including those apps is part of how they fund said development. But these days, people expect everything to be completely free and tech companies to do things out of the goodness of their heart for no financial benefit.
- Cougher 7y ago
  This response says everything it needed to say in the first sentence without the gratuitous snark of the second.