Database Develop

Apps that are safe to disable

What apps are safe to disable to improve battery life?
Every app that gets recommended will be put into a list in this thread.
-Facebook
-S health
-Whatsapp

Great

I have disabled S Health, Facebook, Whatsapp. No issues.

Magnesus said:
I have disabled S Health, Facebook, Whatsapp. No issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disable everything... And then no point in having a smartphone.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Is there a difference between the Note 4 built in Whatsapp & the play store one?
I have read some people want to uninstall it.

No difference.
It's same app but configured as system. It will update as any other normal app.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Woods97 said:
What apps are safe to disable to improve battery life?
Every app that gets recommended will be put into a list in this thread.
-Facebook
-S health
-Whatsapp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
disable s health is fine but facebook and whatsapp is the reason why ppl wants a smartphone...why not disable eveything and make it nokia

#Disclaimer: apply at own risk.#
What I've frozen so far, with Titanium backup. Am not getting any errors / reduced functionality.
Freezing / disabling apps is sometimes a necessity, this phone is full of (for some of us) unnecessary apps. Nothing to do with it still being a smartphone or not. It's about being in control of your smartphone.

Please remember that everyone's usage of a device is individual - posting to question or point out that disabling apps somehow stops the device from being a smartphone is a bit short sighted...
We use Android devices for a reason - they're configurable to an insane degree. Having a thread showing which apps can be disabled without affecting the overall system stability is a pretty standard for XDA.

without root i disabled the following without any problems...
blurbcheckout
flipboard
galaxy apps
google play books, movies, music, newstand, search, plus, hangouts
hp print service
live weather
messenger (fb)
samsung account
samsung billing
samsung galaxy app/widget
samsung galaxy life
samsung print service
samsung push service

Much impact on battery life? Noob question, but how did you do this without root?
koppee1 said:
without root i disabled the following without any problems...
blurbcheckout
flipboard
galaxy apps
google play books, movies, music, newstand, search, plus, hangouts
hp print service
live weather
messenger (fb)
samsung account
samsung billing
samsung galaxy app/widget
samsung galaxy life
samsung print service
samsung push service
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

jeccross said:
Much impact on battery life? Noob question, but how did you do this without root?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
Go into settings>application manager>all
Than open the apps listed and click "Disable", some may have updates which will uninstall first before disabling
:good:

Disabled Apps List

I'm starting to disable apps, here is my list so far I'll probably add to it once I can use the phone as my DD later in the week.
Settings, Device Tab, Applications, Application Manager, All
3DTourViewer
Amazon
AT&T Family Map
AT&T Hot Spots
AT&T Live
AT&T Locker
AT&T Mail
AT&T Mobile Locate
AT&T Mobile Transfer
AT&T Navigator
Caller Name ID
Device Help
Dictionary
Digital Life
DriveMode
Facebook
Family Utility
Galaxy Apps
Galaxy Apps Widget
Hancom Office 2014
Instagram
Keeper
Lookout
Memo
Messenger
Milk
Milk Video
Mobile TV
myAT&T
OneNote
Pages Manager
S Beam
S Voice
Samsung account
Samsung Billing
Skype
Smart Limits
Smart Remote
Uber
Voice wake-up
YP
With Root, Apps Frozen:
AT&T Software Update
AT&T Remote Support
Music 6.0
My interests 1.0
My Places 1.0
SysScope 1.3.x
Obviously if you use Facebook, Instagram etc you wouldn't disable these but most of this is pure bloat. Why I wish GPE devices were more common...
Let me know if you have other things you disabled and if it had any side effects.

mrRobinson said:
I'm starting to disable apps, here is my list so far I'll probably add to it once I can use the phone as my DD later in the week.
Settings, Device Tab, Applications, Application Manager, All
AT&T Family Map
AT&T Hot Spots
AT&T Live
AT&T Locker
AT&T Mail
AT&T Mobile Locate
AT&T Mobile Transfer
AT&T Navigator
Caller Name ID
Device Help
Dictionary
Facebook
Family Utility
Hancom Office 2014
Instagram
Keeper
Lookout
Messenger
Milk
Milk Video
Mobile TV
myAT&T
OneNote
Pages Manager
S Beam
S Voice
Samsung account
Samsung Billing
Skype
Smart Limits
Uber
YP
Obviously if you use Facebook, Instagram etc you wouldn't disable these but most of this is pure bloat. Why I wish GPE devices were more common...
Let me know if you have other things you disabled and if it had any side effects.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-Amazon
-digital life
-Google play games
-Google play movies and tv
-Google play music
-Google play newstand
Still testin these out when disabled
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using XDA Free mobile app

rafael707 said:
-Amazon
-digital life
-Google play games
-Google play movies and tv
-Google play music
-Google play newstand
Still testin these out when disabled
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The google play stuff I'd hope people understand and are IMO, stock, so I won't put them on my list. Amazon I overlooked cause i actually had on my GPE device but its def not stock. Digital Life I just missed, good catch.

If you are not using the samsung weather widget also disable Weather Daemon it uses a lot of location battery.

What apps won't let u disable.. I've read there are a few.

crea78 said:
What apps won't let u disable.. I've read there are a few.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A LOT! More than there should be certainly. Can not disable built-in EMail and it's 4 sub apps for instance

What is this ant + services?? Nevermind just searched and found

_Infamous_ said:
What is this ant + services?? Nevermind just searched and found
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea and one you can't disable. I've updated OP with more i've disabled with no negative side effects for me.

NOTE Edge debloater
I can't find the link, but, someone mentioned that the Edge Note debloater WILL work, and does.
Without root you can only hide apps, but, it allows you to hide some that you cannot using the built-in method, like EMAIL, BROWSER, ETC.

dirtyballoonot said:
I can't find the link, but, someone mentioned that the Edge Note debloater WILL work, and does.
Without root you can only hide apps, but, it allows you to hide some that you cannot using the built-in method, like EMAIL, BROWSER, ETC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right, using the UI you can click disable to disable apps. For the ones that you can't disable you can "hide" with adb shell (or that tool).
That tool I think is only windows but i'd imagine it's simply leveraging the "pm" binary on android.
For example if i drop into an adb shell on my edge and run
pm hide com.sec.android.app.sbrowser
Then that samsung browser is now gone.
Just remember which you hide as they won't show up and the only way to bring them back is to run
pm unhide on it.

mrRobinson said:
Right, using the UI you can click disable to disable apps. For the ones that you can't disable you can "hide" with adb shell (or that tool).
That tool I think is only windows but i'd imagine it's simply leveraging the "pm" binary on android.
For example if i drop into an adb shell on my edge and run
pm hide com.sec.android.app.sbrowser
Then that samsung browser is now gone.
Just remember which you hide as they won't show up and the only way to bring them back is to run
pm unhide on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So if im correct. When i "disable" an app using the actual phone, this will also keep the app from running (or any of its services) But using the Debloater app and i "hide" them the app can still run (or its services) correct?

krolla03 said:
So if im correct. When i "disable" an app using the actual phone, this will also keep the app from running (or any of its services) But using the Debloater app and i "hide" them the app can still run (or its services) correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct but I thought the debloater would disable at least the ones you didn't need root for.

mrRobinson said:
Correct but I thought the debloater would disable at least the ones you didn't need root for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn i thought i was actually disabling them.

I've disabled Samsung Push Services and Visual Voicemail (I use Google Voice for my VM), and haven't run into any problems.

I am having a problem attempting to download a theme from the Theme Store and when I click on the download link, a white box will pop up and immediately disappear. I didn't disable anything I shouldn't have to make this occur. However, the Samsung apps I disabled are 3D TourViewer, Family Utility, Galaxy Apps/Widget, Smart Limits Anyone else have this problem??
Edit: Looks like Samsung Acct. isn't working for some reason. Under "Accounts" there is a grey circle and when I press on it, nothing happens, but kicks me to the previous screen...

crea78 said:
I am having a problem attempting to download a theme from the Theme Store and when I click on the download link, a white box will pop up and immediately disappear. I didn't disable anything I shouldn't have to make this occur. However, the Samsung apps I disabled are 3D TourViewer, Family Utility, Galaxy Apps/Widget, Smart Limits Anyone else have this problem??
Edit: Looks like Samsung Acct. isn't working for some reason. Under "Accounts" there is a grey circle and when I press on it, nothing happens, but kicks me to the previous screen...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you disabled Samsung Account (it is on OP's list), then it won't work. Go to Disabled, find it, and re-enable if you are using things that require it.

Got it to work by doing a factory reset

So it's been a while with all these apps disabled, my battery life is decent..
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using XDA Free mobile app

The debloater app can actually restore all at once if you mess something up

Now that we have root what would be the best way to remove these apps

How much bloat is there REALLY?

So I've read and seen various reports, including Samsung is allowing you to delete, which from what I've gathered, that didn't actually end up being true.
I'm on a Nexus 6 now, and considering getting an S6 or an S6E as I really don't care for the size of the Nexus. But how much bloatware is there on the phone? The AT&T phone had virtually none, and the rep ensured me that's the configuration of the phone when you buy it. Clearly, I've read differently. So as owners, how much bloatware is really on the phone?

Enough to spend a few minutes disabling it all. Probably 15-20 apps.

It's still pretty bad
I went from an S4 to the S6. The BW on the 4 was terrible and although the S6 is better it's still a lot for techies like us who don't want carriers/manufacturers trying to give us what they think we want.
I got the 64GB version and I am one who doesn't want anything taking up space that I didn't specifically ask for so I'll be checking the Original development forum regularly.

xeni said:
Enough to spend a few minutes disabling it all. Probably 15-20 apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 43 apps disabled on mine but not all of them are AT&T bloat.
DISABLED APPS
- AT&T FamilyMap
- AT&T Hot Spots
- AT&T Live
- AT&T Locker
- AT&T Mail
- AT&T Mobile Locate
- AT&T Mobile Transfer
- AT&T Navigator
- Briefing
- Caller Name ID (AT&T)
- ChocoEUKor
- CoolEUKor
- Device Help
- Digital Life
- DriveMode
- Google Play Games
- Google Play Movies & TV
- Google Play Newsstand
- Hancom Office 2014
- Instagram
- Keeper
- Lookout
- Memo
- Messages
- Messages Backup & Sync
- Milk
- Milk Video
- Mobile TV
- OneNote
- Pages Manager
- Photo Studio
- RoseEUKor
- S Voice
- Samsung Print Service Plugin
- Skype
- Smart Limits
- Smart Remote
- Swype
- Theme Store
- Uber
- Visual Voicemail (AT&T)
- Voice Wake-up
- YP
So 10 AT&T apps disabled... there's really not a lot of "bloat" IMO. Most of the Samsung and other independent apps I disabled won't affect battery or performance either. I just disabled them out of habit.
AT&T apps I could not disable:
- AT&T Remote Support
- AT&T Software Update

KrakaJap said:
I have 43 apps disabled on mine but not all of them are AT&T bloat.
DISABLED APPS
- AT&T FamilyMap
- AT&T Hot Spots
- AT&T Live
- AT&T Locker
- AT&T Mail
- AT&T Mobile Locate
- AT&T Mobile Transfer
- AT&T Navigator
- Briefing
- Caller Name ID
- ChocoEUKor
- CoolEUKor
- Device Help
- Digital Life
- DriveMode
- Google Play Games
- Google Play Movies & TV
- Google Play Newsstand
- Hancom Office 2014
- Instagram
- Keeper
- Lookout
- Memo
- Messages
- Messages Backup & Sync
- Milk
- Milk Video
- Mobile TV
- OneNote
- Pages Manager
- Photo Studio
- RoseEUKor
- S Voice
- Samsung Print Service Plugin
- Skype
- Smart Limits
- Smart Remote
- Swype
- Theme Store
- Uber
- Visual Voicemail
- Voice Wake-up
- YP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not all of us consider some of those apps bloat, there are a couple on there that are actually useful and some that you actually need if you want to perform certain tasks.
The following I don't consider bloat because I use them:
- Google Play Games
- Google Play Movies & TV
- Google Play Newsstand
- Instagram
- Messages (Guessing you are using a different app for messaging)
- Samsung Print Service Plugin
- Skype
- Smart Remote
- Visual Voicemail

xeni said:
Not all of us consider some of those apps bloat, there are a couple on there that are actually useful and some that you actually need if you want to perform certain tasks.
The following I don't consider bloat because I use them:
- Google Play Games
- Google Play Movies & TV
- Google Play Newsstand
- Instagram
- Messages (Guessing you are using a different app for messaging)
- Samsung Print Service Plugin
- Skype
- Smart Remote
- Visual Voicemail
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct. I didn't call them bloat though But I did update my reply.
I don't personally use the ones you listed and I use Hangouts in place of Messages and Visual Voicemail. Smart Remote is pretty lame IMO and much prefer Smart IR Remote - AnyMote. But to be fair, none of these apps need to be disabled at all, not even the AT&T ones.

When I got my s6 32gb, it had right over 24gb left with basically no space that can be recovered. So there is a significant amount of bloatware... Disabling several apps helped a bit with ram but there is still a lot running in the background.
Xeni, just because you use the bloatware does not mean its not bloatware. If its not installed on vanilla version of Lollipop... Not required to allow hardware to work... And you cant delete it... Its bloatware.

I don't think anything available in the Play Store or Samsung's app store should be pre-installed, period. Unless you can "uninstall" it completely. This includes AOSP.

Like i said, some of us don't consider some of these apps bloat because we would install them anyway.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using XDA Free mobile app

Freezing apps
So please correct me if I am wrong, disabling the apps frees no space on the
phone? If disabled are some of them still running services in the back round?
I am on the fence about International or ATT S6. The International seems NOT to
have all the LTE bands that the ATT version has.
CC

cc999 said:
So please correct me if I am wrong, disabling the apps frees no space on the
phone? If disabled are some of them still running services in the back round?
I am on the fence about International or ATT S6. The International seems NOT to
have all the LTE bands that the ATT version has.
CC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disabling the app doesn't give back any space since these protected apps run in the system partition which is a separate partition from your regular partition where all of your apps/pictures/videos/etc are stored. If you disable the app it doesn't consume any CPU or Memory since it can't run or launch.
Read this: http://www.androidcentral.com/bloatware-galaxy-s-6-sucks-not-reasons-many-think

cc999 said:
So please correct me if I am wrong, disabling the apps frees no space on the
phone? If disabled are some of them still running services in the back round?
I am on the fence about International or ATT S6. The International seems NOT to
have all the LTE bands that the ATT version has.
CC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Disabling" does not... however when I disable apps I generally clear their app data as well and that is what frees up some space. But it's not really that much. With all my listed apps disabled and app data cleared I'm sitting at 21.74GB of free space. When you're talking about ~20GB of available storage, that 1 extra GB isn't going to mean much... if it is, then the 64GB model should have been considered instead. I suppose it's pretty relative but I'm personally not going to complain about ~1GB of (what some might refer to as) bloat.
EDIT: I should also mention that I have a lot of other apps installed taking up quite a bit of space. The 1GB increase I saw might be completely different for someone else as some of those disabled apps I had loaded and played around with, thus accumulating more app data and cache.

Disabled and Data-Blocked Apps still sending data in the background

Edit: I posted this question two days ago in the general Q & A section of XDA, got no response. Since it is happening on my E4 plus, I am posting it here, hoping to get some insights.
Long story short, I installed Net Monitor (from Play store) to check data usage on my Moto E4 Plus (Verizon), though the question below is probably not limited to this particular device.
I was surprised to see some of the apps that were sending data somewhere even when they are disabled. For example,
1, Gboard (by Google), this app has been disabled in Settings since the beginning. Why is it still sending data? Worst nightmare is an app collecting keyboard entry log and upload it to where??? Why???
2, Some Apps, such as below, I have disabled their background data usage, but they still show up in Net Monitor.
Astro File Manager (an old version that I love to use),
ML Manager,
Photos (by Google)
Youtube
I am sure I did not use these apps during the time that Net Monitor was running as I was testing the whole concept of Net Monitor.
[Edit: I can confirm that these apps show up without me running them in forefront.]
I can understand some communication apps such as Gmail that uses data because I did not block their background data usage.
Some of the apps in the screenshot are presumably system apps though I am a bit suspicious. Knowing recent cases with One Plus and Blu, and Elliot Anderson:
https://www.androidpit.com/elliot-fs...rson-interview
I just wish some experts can help explain or provide some insights, thank you in advance,
BTW, can someone recommend clean Open Source apps that do not abuse permissions and do not send data secretly behind the users? I got a few, but need more. My app sources:
https://www.secuso.informatik.tu-dar...friendly-apps/
https://simplemobiletools.github.io/
https://guardianproject.info/apps/

Disabling apps does't really do much but keep them from updating. I suggest that you use the Amazon Fire trick, I use this for every Android device that I don't root.
- To restore apps you simply factory reset.
- This doesn't uninstall apps, but blocks the app so they don't run.
-- Connect Device
Enable USB debugging in developers options
Code:
adb shell
-- List Apps
Code:
pm list packages
Alternatively, you can search for packages by name
-- Example
Code:
pm list packages amazon
-- Disable Apps
Code:
pm uninstall -k --user 0 [COLOR="Red"]"package name"[/COLOR]

Question [CLOSED]Hidden google apps

I recently found some hidden google apps on my Zenfone 8 that I had not heard about before...
Settings > Apps & notifications > See all apps > click 3 dots upper right corner of screen "Show system".....
I uninstalled these that I don't have a use for:
Companion Device Manager
Basic Daydreams
Google Assistant
Syndor Flipfont
And I force stopped many other apps (that could not be uninstalled) that I didn't see a use for.
There were other apps that I disabled wi-fi and mobile connections to.
I also use Netguard to control which apps have internet and mobile access. However Netguard shows vastly more system apps that I have no idea what they do - I leave these alone. It the moment I'm only trying to reduce the amount of surveillance built into a normal android phone.
I haven't heard of a published an up-to-date rundown of system apps that have no business sending data out of the phone? I know you can just disable all data out connections using Netguard and then spend the rest of your life figuring out which ones to enable to get a useable phone. Perhaps such a list is impractical as it may have to be tailored to each phone and OS? But there might be system apps common to recent android systems that could have the wi-fi and mobile data disabled?
Anything would help if I didn't have to fiddle around so much. The alternative is a degoogled phone. Many google play apps can work on these but there are several important ones I use that don't work and so far I have found no viable open source apps to replace them.

Tom100% said:
I recently found some hidden google apps on my Zenfone 8 that I had not heard about before...
Settings > Apps & notifications > See all apps > click 3 dots upper right corner of screen "Show system".....
I uninstalled these that I don't have a use for:
Companion Device Manager
Basic Daydreams
Google Assistant
Syndor Flipfont
And I force stopped many other apps (that could not be uninstalled) that I didn't see a use for.
There were other apps that I disabled wi-fi and mobile connections to.
I also use Netguard to control which apps have internet and mobile access. However Netguard shows vastly more system apps that I have no idea what they do - I leave these alone. It the moment I'm only trying to reduce the amount of surveillance built into a normal android phone.
I haven't heard of a published an up-to-date rundown of system apps that have no business sending data out of the phone? I know you can just disable all data out connections using Netguard and then spend the rest of your life figuring out which ones to enable to get a useable phone. Perhaps such a list is impractical as it may have to be tailored to each phone and OS? But there might be system apps common to recent android systems that could have the wi-fi and mobile data disabled?
Anything would help if I didn't have to fiddle around so much. The alternative is a degoogled phone. Many google play apps can work on these but there are several important ones I use that don't work and so far I have found no viable open source apps to replace them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe the apps that are not available are accessible as a web app? I personally never encountered an app that does not work on Lineage and OmniRom (currently on onmirom). Maybe thats because of MicroG. A bonus to roms is better battery life, I think thank to MicroG

Adaoh said:
Maybe the apps that are not available are accessible as a web app? I personally never encountered an app that does not work on Lineage and OmniRom (currently on onmirom). Maybe thats because of MicroG. A bonus to roms is better battery life, I think thank to MicroG
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you use Waze and google translate? I've tried the open source alternative to Waze but in the country I'm living in it's too clunky to use. I haven't found an open source alternative to translate (that can scan documents and items in the supermarket, translate them and do all the other things. I might buy a degoogled phone in the future as I don't want to get into the technicalities.

Mod Edit
Thread closed per [OP] request.
jackeagle
Forum Moderator