5 ms·

"if we focus on the user, all else will follow" Hysterical laughter! Reader, Inbox, Google Play Music, ... Who is the user? Ad buyers? "It should be easy f

"if we focus on the user, all else will follow" Hysterical laughter! Reader, Inbox, Google Play Music, ... Who is the user? Ad buyers? "It should be easy for users to disable or uninstall software." Does that include Android Auto, Google TV, and Youtube Music on my Pixel 5? I would love to delete them, but I am unable to.

alpanka 6y ago
Wait, these are not removable on pixel? You can't even disable them?? I am pretty sure I have none of these on any of my android devices. I have even removed the Google app.
- thesuperbigfrog 6y ago
  I have a Pixel 5 running Android 11 and cannot delete those apps.
kevincox 6y ago
Unless I am mistaken you should be able to disable the apps which is effectively equivalent to removing them. They can't be removed because they are on the read-only system image but they should be treated the same was as if they weren't there if they are disabled. I agree that it would be nice if these weren't preinstalled at all but I don't find disabling to be that bad. Better than iOS for sure where the best you can do with most pre-installed apps is stuff them in a folder.
- emayljames 6y ago
  I have never understood why there is no system by Google, where abandoned system apps are removed by the Play Store updater.
- thesuperbigfrog 6y ago
  >> They can't be removed because they are on the read-only system image My question is: WHY are they part of the read-only system image? Is Google TV, YouTube Music, or Android Auto essential to making the phone work? If not, why can't I delete them? It seems like monopoly power in action to me.
- xg15 6y ago
  > They can't be removed because they are on the read-only system image but they should be treated the same was as if they weren't there if they are disabled. The "just pretend I'm not here :)" of software development. It was a conscious decision to mark them as "system apps" and put them on the system partition. They didn't have to do that. Also note that android apps are more equivalent to plugins or shell extensions than executables. An app can register various OS hooks and callbacks that can trigger behaviour even if no process of that app is running. I'm not sure all those hooks are unregistered if an app is deactivated.
  - edoceo 6y ago
    It seems to me they are, I've disabled youtube and all youtube links open in Firefox, just as nature intended.
    - xg15 6y ago
      Ah, fair enough - I wasn't aware of that. If that's indeed what "deactivate" does, it's an option. It still seems wasteful for space to me and more prone to bugs (e.g. if some hook is forgotten in the disable routine).

alpanka 6y ago

Wait, these are not removable on pixel? You can't even disable them?? I am pretty sure I have none of these on any of my android devices. I have even removed the Google app.

thesuperbigfrog 6y ago
I have a Pixel 5 running Android 11 and cannot delete those apps.

kevincox 6y ago

Unless I am mistaken you should be able to disable the apps which is effectively equivalent to removing them. They can't be removed because they are on the read-only system image but they should be treated the same was as if they weren't there if they are disabled. I agree that it would be nice if these weren't preinstalled at all but I don't find disabling to be that bad. Better than iOS for sure where the best you can do with most pre-installed apps is stuff them in a folder.

emayljames 6y ago
I have never understood why there is no system by Google, where abandoned system apps are removed by the Play Store updater.
thesuperbigfrog 6y ago
>> They can't be removed because they are on the read-only system image My question is: WHY are they part of the read-only system image? Is Google TV, YouTube Music, or Android Auto essential to making the phone work? If not, why can't I delete them? It seems like monopoly power in action to me.
xg15 6y ago
> They can't be removed because they are on the read-only system image but they should be treated the same was as if they weren't there if they are disabled. The "just pretend I'm not here :)" of software development. It was a conscious decision to mark them as "system apps" and put them on the system partition. They didn't have to do that. Also note that android apps are more equivalent to plugins or shell extensions than executables. An app can register various OS hooks and callbacks that can trigger behaviour even if no process of that app is running. I'm not sure all those hooks are unregistered if an app is deactivated.
- edoceo 6y ago
  It seems to me they are, I've disabled youtube and all youtube links open in Firefox, just as nature intended.
  - xg15 6y ago
    Ah, fair enough - I wasn't aware of that. If that's indeed what "deactivate" does, it's an option. It still seems wasteful for space to me and more prone to bugs (e.g. if some hook is forgotten in the disable routine).