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I disagree, Google and Motorola branded phones most certainly DO come with bloatware. The Google app is not necessary for the phone's functionality(this is, if
by farisjarrah 7y ago
I disagree, Google and Motorola branded phones most certainly DO come with bloatware. The Google app is not necessary for the phone's functionality(this is, if you don't use google assistant) and I can not uninstall it from my Pixel 2. This is true for many Google apps that Google would have you believe is necessary for the functionality of the phone. These are all the google apps that came preinstalled on my phone that I can't uninstall normally that are absolutely non-essential to have on a phone:
Google Chrome( I use firefox)
Google Drive (Fastmail)
Google App (I can use Firefox as a search provider on
android)
Google Play Movies and TV
Google Play Music
Google Play Services for AR
Google VR Services
Playground
Youtube (Frankly, with the amount of advertisements on Youtube these days, Firefox on android with ublock origin installed is a few better user experience then the actual YouTube app for android)
These are just the apps that I personally have disabled, I am a fastmail user, so Gmail is getting disabled soon as well as Google Calendar.
Even Google's "stock" Android on the Pixel phones has plently of blaotware. LineageOS has much less bloatware.
- lern_too_spel 7y agoYou can disable them, which is the same thing as far as the user is concerned. Uninstalling from a read-only partition doesn't make sense.
- jackewiehose 7y agoThen installing/deploying these apps on a read-only partition doesn't make much sense in the first place.
- lern_too_spel 7y agoWhy? As far as the user is concerned, the end result is the same. The app doesn't appear in the app drawer, and none of its entry points are exposed to the OS. The user who just bought a phone gets a fully functional phone right out of the box instead of having to wait for downloads. A factory reset to get back to the initial state is as simple as wiping all writable partitions.
- rhizome 7y agoPresumably the person you're replying to is a user too, so apparently the end result isn't the same for all of the people you're thinking of.
- lern_too_spel 7y agoThe person I'm responding to hasn't given any reason why the end result is meaningfully different. As far as we can tell, they just don't like the word "disable." If Android replaced the word with "uninstall," they would presumably be happy, which sounds like a minor complaint.
- saagarjha 7y agoThey take up space.
- throw_14JAS 7y agoIsn't it in a read-only partition, where, by definition, you wouldn't be able to reuse the space? Wouldn't it only be users at their storage capacity who would be affected?
- ajnin 7y agoThe fact they they are installed in a read-only partition is what makes them non-removable, if they were installed in the regular partition then the "system" partition wouldn't need to be so big, they would be removable and you could reclaim the space.
- lern_too_spel 7y agoThen you couldn't factory reset without access to a network, as I pointed out.
- MiracleUser 7y ago
- kelnos 7y agoThe idea is that they should survive a factory reset, so the read-only partition is the right place for them. Obviously many of us would be fine if they didn't survive, but that's not really the point.
- randyrand 7y agoDoes that mean these apps can't be updated? Or are only updated when the OEM updates android? That's a crazy design deciscion, especially for Chrome!
- izacus 7y agoNo, it means nothing of the sort. They're updated as usual from Play Store.
- kmonsen 7y agoAlso updates can be uninstalled (since they are on the user partition).
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoThey update but the original copy on the system partition hangs around. The only way to clean them out is with a rooted phone.
- ajnin 7y agoThey still take up significant space, and they often are re-enabled automatically whenever the device gets updated.
- lern_too_spel 7y ago> They still take up significant space Not usable space. > they often are re-enabled automatically whenever the device gets updated This has never happened for me.
- kmonsen 7y agoThat's your opinion, but most users want a phone that comes with reasonable apps that makes it easy for them to do what they want. I hope you see this is not black and white, there is a grey area here where apps are bloatware for some people but legitimate useful for some people. To take Chrome for example, for Google to ship an Android phone without what they consider the best browser for the platform would be borderline insane.
- boutad 7y agoI think most people would be fine with them shipping them, at least on their own devices, so long it can be fully removed (not disabled) by the end user.
- ehsankia 7y agoI don't know why you're downvoted. If I, as an average consumer, bought a phone that didn't come with a browser, maps and music software, I'd think there was something wrong with it and would return it. There may be an argument to make about allowing the user to pick their browser during onboarding, but calling the browser "bloatware" is completely ridiculous. You may not want Chrome, but 99% of people buying a Pixel are perfectly happy with having it bundled, so by definition, it's not bloatware. You can't just redefine "bloatware" to be apps you don't like.
- jay_kyburz 7y agoBut that is the definition of bloatware. Software that you don't want on your device. Might not be bloatware for you, but it is for me and the op.