Android phones usually come with pre-installed apps that can be useful or drain your phone’s processor and battery. If you want to delete pre-installed apps on Android for good, you can get rid of it in a few easy steps.
Bloatware is the common name used to refer to pre-installed software on phones. There’s software suites installed by your network provider and those installed by the device manufacturer. These range from standard apps like voicemail or streaming services and health trackers.
There are even other apps you may not realize until they’re shown to you like those that customize how your Android phone works, or third-party apps for music and more that pay to be pre-installed in the phone.
Bloatware can cause your battery, WiFi signal or other phone resources to run whether you open the app or not. If the phone slows down or drains fast, you’re better off deleting or disabling the bloatware to restore it.
In some cases, bloatware can be dangerous to your security, as it could offer loopholes that hackers can exploit to control some aspects of your phone or even lock you out of it. What’s worse, some bloatware can refuse to be deleted or disabled.
We’ll show you how to delete pre-installed apps on Android so you can have peace of mind.
How to delete pre-installed apps on Android
Use Settings
The first step is to check how much of the apps can be removed. To do this:
- Open Settings>General
- Tap Apps and Notifications and tap the problematic app
- Press Uninstall to remove the app, or Disable if the uninstall button is grayed out
Through Play Store
You can also uninstall the apps via Google Play Store. To do this:
- Open Google Play Store and tap Menu
- Tap My Apps & Games>Installed and tap the app you want to delete
- You’ll go to the app’s page in Play Store. Tap Uninstall
Sometimes the Uninstall button will only uninstall updates and not the app, so in this case, disable the app as well.
How to disable pre-installed apps on Android
If you won’t use an app, you can limit security loophole risks by disabling them. This means it can’t run or wake up automatically. Plus, the background processes for the app will be shut down.
To disable bloatware from your Android phone, do this:
- Uninstall the app’s updates using the instructions on how to uninstall via Google Play Store as above
- Open Settings>Apps & Notifications
- Tap the app you want disabled and tap Permissions
- Disable any permissions
- Tap Disable button. A warning that disabling the app may affect other apps’ functionality will appear. While it is rare that it will affect your daily usage, it isn’t to be ruled out completely. Press OK to disable the app.
Elsie is a tech writer with 8+ years professional experience. For Tech News Watch, she brings rich experience contributing to topics such as Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS among others. In her spare time, she loves checking out the latest tech trends, gadgets, and news, listening to music and cars.
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