Android system applications that can be removed. What applications can be disabled or uninstalled on android without consequences using the Samsung Galaxy as an example. Using third party functionality

Many smartphone buyers can be called inexperienced. Such people do not even know how to uninstall applications. They think that deleting a program's shortcut from the desktop will also eliminate the application itself. But in fact, everything is somewhat more complicated. It is about the removal of programs and games that we will talk about in today's article. We will also tell you how to remove standard applications - those that were preinstalled by the smartphone manufacturer.

The easiest way is to remove those utilities that you previously installed yourself. It doesn't matter if you did it Google help Play or by downloading the APK file from a third-party resource. There are two ways to uninstall programs and games. The first one is the following:

Step 1. Go to the menu.

Step 2 Hold your finger on the icon of an application you don't need. The system will prompt you to transfer the shortcut to the desktop.

Step 3 Instead, move it to the button " Delete” at the top of the window. A pop-up menu will pop up in which you need to confirm your action.

Step 4 Quite quickly, the program will be removed from your smartphone.

As for the second method, it is somewhat more complicated:

Step 1. Go to the section " Settings».

Step 2 Select " Applications».

Step 3 You will see a list of all applications installed on the device. If this is not the case, then click on the item " Application Manager» (usually required on smartphones Samsung).

Step 4 Click on the program you are about to uninstall.

Step 5 In the menu that appears, click the " Delete».

Step 6 Confirm your action, after which the operating system will get rid of this application.

Removing preinstalled apps

Much harder to fix system applications. The fact is that some smartphone manufacturers pre-install some games and programs in order to receive money from their developers. Most often, such programs cannot be removed, otherwise the creators of smartphones would not be able to earn money. But in fact, there are workarounds that still allow you to remove system applications.

However, be careful! You always need to understand which standard applications can be removed and which are better left untouched. The fact is that the elimination of some of them will entail unstable job all operating system. If it is quite possible to get rid of any browser or navigation application, then it is better not to disturb the "Calendar" or "Camera".

You can remove built-in applications only by workarounds, using root rights for this.

If you have superuser rights, then download ES Explorer or some other serious file manager, and then follow these steps:

Step 1. Launch ES File Explorer or equivalent.

Step 2 Activate the Root Explorer item, at the same time granting root access to the utility.

Step 3 Navigate the internal memory along the path /system/app.

Step 4 Select the APK file of the app you don't need. If there is an ODEX file with the same name nearby, select it as well.

Step 5 In the context menu, select " Delete».

Step 6 On Android 5.0 and later versions of the operating system, all standard programs are in folders. This does not change the essence of the matter - you will just need to delete the entire folder, not individual files.

Step 7 Next follow the path /data/app. Updates may be stored here. installed applications. They should also be removed. On Android 5.0 devices, again, updates are stored in separate folders. But this only makes things easier.

Step 8 You can also delete (and even need to) the database of system services and applications along with the cache. All this is stored along the way. /data/data.

Using Root Uninstaller

There is another way to eliminate objectionable programs. It consists in using the Root Uninstaller. This application also works only on gadgets with unlocked root rights.

Step 1. Run the program, at the same time granting it root access.

Step 2 Select the utility or game you wish to uninstall.

Step 3 Click the button Delete". In the same menu, you can make a backup just in case.

Step 4 It is done! In the same way, you can freeze applications. This will not free up space, but the program will definitely disappear from the menu.

Are standard procedures. They can be performed by any user who is at least a little familiar with the operating system itself, but in cases with standard utilities and built-in programs, removal by conventional methods is impossible.

The fact is that the manufacturer sews them into the "body" of the operating system, which, as you know, can only be accessed by experienced users. But still, there is an opportunity to “demolish” unnecessary software or a service. This will free up more space for the programs you really need, and make working with the gadget much more convenient.

Removing system applications cannot be done with a "clean" OS. It is protected by default, and ordinary users are not allowed to access system files. Permission can only be obtained with special rights. They are called root rights. However, they must be complete, not partial. Otherwise, the removal action will fail.

Each gadget has its own programs that provide root rights, but among them the following universal applications can be distinguished:

• Framaroot.
• root explorer.
• Root App Remover.

In addition to one of these programs, you need to have an explorer installed on your gadget that can provide you with access to the file system.

Link to conductor

For the procedure for deleting files, you need to grant root access to the explorer at the very beginning. Step by step, using the example of the ES Explorer program, it looks like this:

1. Install and run File Explorer.
2. Swipe right to open the menu.
3. Tap on "Tools".
4. Next, select "Root Explorer".
5. After that, a window will pop up in which you must grant the explorer the rights of the "Superuser" with your consent.
6. Next, another window will pop up. In it you need to specify the item "Connect as R / W".
7. In the drop-down menu, put all checkboxes on "RW" and confirm the action.

The rights for the conductor are granted.

In File Manager, this procedure is even easier. Here you need to select the "Settings" item in the menu, then find "Root Explorer" and check the box next to it, confirm the request for the Superuser and you can delete what you do not use.

Procedure for uninstalling unnecessary applications

Before uninstalling system applications in, it is recommended that you read the following tips:

1. You need to search for all standard programs in the folder at / system / app. This will make it a little easier to find installation locations.
2. To gain access, you must install special application, which will grant root rights, and bind it to the explorer.
3. Be sure to think twice before you start uninstalling. In some cases, seemingly insignificant applications may be responsible for the operation of the necessary and important services.
4. If you do not need programs from Google, which are often stuck in quite a large number, then they can be deleted without hesitation. But services cannot be "demolished" in any case.

Let's proceed directly to the removal.

First, find the /system/app folder. Go into it and delete apk files that have the same name as unnecessary programs. Together with them, it is necessary to delete the file of the same name with the .odex extension. This completes the whole procedure. Programs will be completely removed from the registry and memory of your smartphone or tablet.

Removing preinstalled ones, as can be seen from the method described above, is not difficult. But despite the simplicity, only you are responsible for all actions, and there is something to harm there. For example, by accidentally deleting a service, you can completely lose wireless data transmission, so be vigilant and think a hundred times before uninstalling.

Pros and cons

Having grouped all the above information, we can highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the procedure for removing "wired" programs.

Advantages:

1. Saves a lot random access memory if the program to be removed is constantly running.
2. Expanding memory for installing useful applications.
3. Complete replacement of standard software with applications that will be more convenient and functional.
4. If you remove unnecessary applications, you can significantly expand your knowledge of the work and structure with this OS.

Flaws:

1. Very often, uninstalling unnecessary programs can lead to inadequate gadget operation.
2. Without full-fledged software, the operating system can lose a large number of functions.
3. If you remove the built-in Android apps, this may also affect the operation of some services, for example, you may receive a refusal to send SMS, etc.

Poor quality software for granting root rights comes across very often. It causes applications and services to appear incorrectly, useful ones that you can delete by mistake.

Warning

All users who decide to remove the built-in standard ones need to figure out what can be “demolished” and what is not, because there is a high probability that the device will continue to malfunction if important system programs are affected.

Let's be honest: most of the interesting customization options for Droid devices are hidden and require rooting the device. Nevertheless, not everyone prefers to get root - some out of fear of losing the warranty, others out of banal laziness. We decided to consider alternative ways to speed up devices based on the Google platform, which do not require superuser rights.

Introduction

Google constantly improves the speed of its system. But "pure" Android is now quite rare - manufacturers, as a rule, modify the firmware, which does not always have a positive effect on performance. In addition, in addition to it, it would be good to take care of energy saving, and these are often mutually exclusive things. Nevertheless, there are such opportunities even in non-rooted Android, although there are not very many of them.

Removing/disabling built-in and unnecessary applications

Before the release of the fourth version of Android, disable built-in applications without having root rights, it was impossible. This brought inconvenience to buyers of branded gadgets, because each manufacturer strives to shove as many programs as possible into the firmware that the end user simply does not need and in total they eat a decent amount of resources. In the fourth version of GoogleOS, such an opportunity appeared. To disable any built-in application, you need to go to "Settings -> General -> Applications -> All", select the desired software and in "Application Information" click the "Disable" button (or "Uninstall updates", and then "Disable "). To enable it, you need to go to the "Disabled" tab and follow a similar procedure.

However, not everything is as rosy as it seems at first glance. First, disabling does not affect persistent memory - the application remains as it was installed. Secondly, not everything can be turned off. Only a few applications allow you to do this trick with yourself. I won't give many specific tips for disabling apps, as each device has a different list of apps. Here is a short list of what most users do not need, but constantly hangs in the system and takes up memory:

• "Browser" - why, if there are more convenient and lightweight alternatives?

• "Calendar" and "Calendar Memory" - did not notice that someone actively used them.

• "Email" and "Exchange Services" - it seems that everyone is already sitting on Gmail.

• "Google Search" is a fairly useless feature when you have a browser (careful, disables Google Now as well).

• "Google Keep", "Google+" and other not always needed applications from Google.

In addition, I recommend turning off (removing) widgets and live wallpapers. In addition to the fact that this functionality requires memory and processor time, it also eats up the battery. So to increase the speed it is better to cut down such things. You can also turn off effects on the lock screen. In my case (Samsung with stock firmware) they are in Settings -> Device -> Lock screen -> Unlock effect.

Callouts: INFO

How app disable works. After pressing the "Disable" button, the setApplicationEnabledSetting() method of the PackageManager class is called, which changes the application state to COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED_USER (by the way, it appeared in the first Android).

Power saving settings and using developer options

To speed up the gadget, you can also adjust the power saving settings. Of course, this will reduce battery life, but it can speed up quite significantly. To do this (in my case) you need to go to "Settings -> General -> Energy Saving" and either move the switch located in the upper right corner, or remove the necessary checkboxes.

It works differently on different platforms, and there is no public API - there is, of course, the PowerManager API, but this has only a very indirect relation to energy saving. However, on samsung galaxy Note 10.1 (however, as for the rest of the Droid devices of the South Korean giant) energy saving is controlled through DVFS - Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling, the very one with which Samsung "falsified" the benchmark results (I note in brackets that this was not a real falsification - just for some benchmarks and applications, the device worked at the limit of its capabilities).

To disable system animation (animation in applications will remain), you need to go to the developer options menu, which is hidden by default. To access it, tap the "Build number" item seven times, which is located in the "About device / About phone" menu. Then go to the menu that appears and turn off all animation: set the parameters "Window animation scale", "Transition animation scale" and "Transition duration scale" to "Animation disabled" (in firmware from other manufacturers, these options may have a slightly different name).

In the same menu, you can limit the number of background processes. The latter, however, should be done with caution - instead of speeding up, work may slow down due to the fact that frequently used processes will be killed and restarted. Therefore, by the way, all sorts of task killers are not recommended.

Application Acceleration

To speed up individual applications, you can clear their cache. This is done in the same place where they can be disabled / deleted, that is, "Settings -> General -> Application Manager -> All", select the application you need and click the "Clear cache" button.

It also makes sense to install less resource-intensive applications - for example, in my case, Smart Launcher takes less memory than native Samsung TouchWiz does. The sidebar will give specific advice, but I don’t recommend following them especially, because it all depends on your needs. The main thing in this case is to choose the right size / functionality ratio.

To determine the memory consumption, you can use the following method: install some terminal with Busybox, determine the PID desired process(with 'ps w') and look at /proc//status. In this case, however, it is necessary to take into account the architecture of Android - the application can be spread over several processes.

If this method is too difficult for you and you do not want to bother with each application, there are several graphical analogues of the top utility in the market. I liked one of them, called Process Explorer, the implementation of which, however, seemed incomprehensible - why use a browser to view the list of processes?

By the way, at Google service Play has a habit of suddenly updating a bunch of applications, which, understandably, eats up resources. It is not possible to disable this service, but you can disable the update itself. To do this, go to the Play Store, call the menu (hint: if it doesn’t come out using the soft keys, “pull” from the left edge), select “Settings” and set “Never” to “Auto-update applications”.

Similarly, it makes sense to turn off account sync (which, in addition to the possible increase in performance, will amuse your paranoia). To do this, go to "Settings" and look for where the item "Accounts" is located, then select account and disable synchronization (as an option, you can disable only individual and unnecessary types of synchronization, such as, for example, Google+ contacts or a calendar. - Approx. ed.).

Disable media scanning

By default, Android scans all external drives (SD cards) for media files. This function, although useful, slows down the system quite a lot. You can turn it off. For new drives, create an empty .nomedia file at the root. But in order to disable the display of existing files in Android 4.0 and later, in addition to creating given file in the folder you need, clear the data and cache for the Gallery and Media Storage applications and forcibly stop them. After the next launch, all multimedia files will be indexed taking into account the created .nomedia files.

Here are some tips for the most famous brands. It should be noted that these tips are only suitable for official firmware, so if you have a modified firmware - you can safely skip the section.

Samsung

If you are the owner of any of the devices of this brand, then you probably noticed that the transition to the main screen by pressing home buttons slows down a bit. This is due to the fact that double-clicking starts S Voice - a speech recognition system. If you do not use it, you can disable this feature by unchecking the “Open. the "Home" key. In addition, if you accidentally enabled the wake command, it's better to disable it - using this option affects battery power quite a lot.

In addition, on some Samsung devices it is possible to disable the effects of the launcher. To do this, make a long tap on an empty space on the home screen, select "Home screen settings" (Home screen settings) and in the submenu "Transition effect" (Transition effect) select "None" (None).

HTC

In some cases, the error reporting service may slow down on HTC devices. Although it is not recommended to touch such things, you can disable this option by going to "Settings -> About phone -> Send HTC" (Tell HTC) and uncheck the appropriate checkboxes there.

Sony

On the Sony Xperia SP there is a situation when the phone suddenly starts to slow down. You can try to fix the problem by uninstalling updates for Google Chrome: "Settings -> Applications -> Chrome -> Uninstall updates".

greenify

The Greenify app allows you to forcefully put unnecessary processes (which you can choose) to sleep while the device is sleeping and prevent third-party processes from calling them. In this it differs from task killers, which do not prevent background applications from restarting from external events (by timer, another application request, or a system event). Unfortunately, some of the functionality is only available on rooted phones - in particular, the most important feature of putting apps to sleep a few minutes after the device goes to sleep.

The reason is that the forceStopPackage() method, which allows Greenify to make applications idle, is internal and only available to system applications or those running as root. In non-root mode, it remains to use only the killBackgroundProcesses () method, which does not completely unload the process from memory, so that system events continue to come to it and “wake it up”, which is not at all in line with the Greenify ideology.

Therefore, to implement the functionality in non-root mode, the Greenify developer took a completely different and very inventive path. When installed, the application registers as an Accessibility Service, thus gaining access to the system interface, and then simply calls the application manager and clicks on the necessary buttons to kill the application through the standard Android settings menu. During sleep mode, this operation is unfortunately not possible, therefore, on non-rooted smartphones, Greenify can only put applications to sleep after the user presses the appropriate button.

art

Android 4.4 introduced a Dalvik replacement - ART, Android Runtime. It provides AOT compilation. In order to understand what it is and what is the advantage of ART, you will have to make a brief digression into history.

At the time when the foundation was laid for Android, Java was chosen as the programming language - to the greatest extent due to the fact that it was supposed to use the OS on a variety of platforms. And it was good for everyone, except for one thing - the speed of Java applications was rather low. This happened because the code was actually being interpreted.

Time passed. In Android 2.2 virtual machine Dalvik added JIT compilation. This made it possible to achieve a fairly significant increase in speed, but did not solve all the problems. And now, in the KitKat version, ART appeared, which allows you to compile applications not even at runtime - during installation. You can enable it in the same developer menu where we disabled effects. On the one hand, this increases installation time and size, and it also takes a significant amount of time to convert all already installed applications to native code when first turned on. On the other hand, the increase in speed after turning it on averages 50%, and even more for some applications (in particular, scrolling has become much smoother).

But ART also has disadvantages. Some of them are obvious - for example, incompatibility with certain obfuscators and applications. Individuals simply do not concentrate attention, although it would be worth it. I will refer to these possible problems with security. Experiments conducted relatively recently (at the May HITB conference) show that if a specially crafted DEX file is slipped, the translator (dex2oat) crashes. In addition, if you find vulnerabilities in ART itself, it will be possible to create user-mode rootkits. In addition, the boot.oat image generated by the translator has a fixed base address (0x700000), which allows you to bypass ASLR under certain conditions.

At the same time, from the point of view of reverse engineering, static analysis of OAT files is still difficult - for the reason that there are simply no method names familiar to us in the code. It is understandable. On the other hand, since the OAT file format is actually ELF, you can use tools designed for the latter, such as GDB. As for the dynamic... There is no toolkit for it as such.

ART will be included by default in the fifth version of the OS from Google (and Dalvik, accordingly, will be removed). In my opinion, given the potential security problems, it is too early to completely abandon Dalvik, so here I do not agree with Google's policy. However (with this in mind) it is all the more worth enabling ART on KitKat in order to test the desired applications.

Conclusion

Despite the flexibility of the Android platform, without the use of custom and / or rooted firmware, it is difficult to speed up your device. But it is not impossible, as this article proves. Finally, I will give you universal advice: install only those applications that you will actually use, and say a firm “No” to everyone else.

Lightweight Android Apps

I will give a short list of lightweight analogues of the necessary programs for Android. This list is minimal, including only the most, in my opinion, necessary:

• You can use RMaps instead of Google Maps. Not only is this application lighter, it is also much more functional.

• The cumbersome Adobe Reader can be replaced by Mupdf.

• There are quite a few readers. From lightweight I can advise AlReader and FBReader.

• Of the browsers, you can install Lighthing Browser, which de facto is a lightweight standard.

• The extremely heavy client of the Feedly RSS reader should be replaced with a lightweight FeedMe (careful, only for smarts).

What gives root? (editor's word)

About a year ago, I wrote an article about speeding up new android versions on older devices. In it, I talked about several tricks that require root rights, with which you can increase the performance of your smartphone by unloading all non-critical system components from RAM. In short, five main methods were given in the article:

• Tuning the Low Memory Killer mechanism in order to teach the system to unload background applications from the device's memory faster than it does by default. The trick requires modification of the kernel parameters, and therefore is only available on a rooted device. Applications used: Auto Memory Manager or MinFree.

• Removing all unnecessary system applications from the /system/app and /system/priv-app directories. Can be done with any file manager with root support.

• Disabling unnecessary system applications using Bloatware Freezer, disabling their startup using Autostarts.

• Installing an optimized custom kernel and activating the Zram mechanism, as well as the TCP westwood congestion control algorithm. Processor overclocking.

• Tuning the kernel virtual memory subsystem to ensure faster data unloading from caches.

The era of the unprecedented flourishing of computer technology sets its own pace for life. And now a person of the 21st century cannot imagine his existence without a smartphone, tablet and other such useful and irreplaceable devices. Sooner or later, the owner of a fashionable gadget has a question that worries hundreds of users of one of the most popular Android operating systems, how to remove unnecessary applications. Sometimes such a seemingly simple task can become a serious problem. This article will tell you how to uninstall an application on android, while saving your time and nerves.

How to uninstall an app on android

Very often, in the process of using the device, owners find that the device’s memory is littered with a large number of unused applications. This inevitably leads to clogging of RAM, an increase in power consumption, and simply to an elementary mess in the files and inconvenience of use due to the heap of "extra" icons. If you want to get rid of an application that you installed yourself, then it will not be difficult. There are several options:

1. Method "for dummies".
If you're new to using Android devices, the easy way is the way to go. You need to open the tabs "Menu" / "Settings" / "Applications" (the latter may also be called "Application Manager", "Application Management"). Select the application you want to delete and click the appropriate button.
Attention: when using this method, the inconvenience is that all applications are presented in the list, including system ones. If there is no “Delete” button on the screen, then most likely the selected application is standard, and the algorithm for working with it is somewhat different. (For information on how to remove standard Android applications, read below).

2. Usage special programs
Programs such as or allow you to quickly and easily remove applications that have been installed on Android by the user. They are more convenient in that they do not include standard applications in the list.

3. Using the file manager.
The menu of file managers usually contains a tool with which you can remove installed applications. For example, suitable for this, etc.

4. Through "Google Play Market".
You need to launch the Market app. Downloaded programs can be seen in the "My applications" tab. There is also a delete function available.

How to uninstall stock apps android

If in most cases there are no problems with removing user applications, then there are some nuances in answering the question about android how to remove system applications.
Be prepared for what you need with access to the system files folder. (Note: obtaining Superuser rights is possible with the help of various special programs, for example, Kingo Android ROOT or Unlock Root). If there are any, you can clean your Android device from unnecessary applications without any extra effort.

So, let's look at 2 ways below how to remove pre-installed android applications:
1. Using a file manager that supports displaying hidden system files. One of the most sought after is. After installing it, you just need to enter the / system folder, find the required application in the / app subfolder and delete it. (Please note: many applications have not only an .apk file, but also an .odex file. In this case, you need to delete both of them).
2. With the help of special programs, such as or. You need to install the program on your device and follow the instructions.

Attention: it should be noted that experts do not advise deleting system applications forever, but resorting to “freezing” them. This can be done in the standard "Settings". Select the "Applications" tab, then click on the desired program icon and "Disable". These steps will prevent the app from appearing on your device, but you can activate it at any time.

If you did not know how to remove Android system applications, or thought that it was impossible, this information will tell you the main ways to solve this problem.

Mobile applications significantly expand the functionality of Android devices. They allow you to play games, work with email, send instant messages, make purchases, and more. But sooner or later, many users face the question - how to remove unnecessary applications on Android? You can deal with the removal in several ways at once, which will be discussed in our review.

Removing through the main menu

Programs accumulating in memory take up space, slow down Android devices, and consume battery power. Moreover, the expense is manifested even when (albeit not fully) when the programs are not running. Therefore, unnecessary software must be removed. To do this, you need to look at android device and soberly assess the need for the presence of a particular software.

If something has become unnecessary or you use some applications too rarely, you should get rid of these unnecessary things. The easiest way to uninstall apps on Android is to go to the main menu of your smartphone. Here we will see many shortcuts of installed Android applications. For to remove an unnecessary program, you need to hold down its shortcut with your finger for a few seconds.

A small menu should appear at the top of the screen, in which the “Delete” item (with a trash can) will be visible. Without releasing your finger from the shortcut, we transfer it to this item, release it and confirm the deletion - the application is uninstalled.

After removing a particular program, you must use the software to clean up the operating Android systems- uninstalling software leaves behind a bunch of junk files. This applies to any method of uninstalling programs. A good degree of cleaning is provided by the Clean Master utility.

How else can you erase junk programs from memory on Android? Open the main menu and go to "Settings - Application Manager". Here, in the "Downloaded" tab, you will see all the software that is in the system. In order to start deleting, you need to tap on unnecessary program finger and click on the "Delete" button. After that, unnecessary software will be removed.

Please note that if you want to clear the internal memory, but do not want to delete applications, move unnecessary software to the memory card - instead of the "Delete" button, click on the "To SD memory card" button (this functionality is not supported by all smartphones and tablets).

Removal through the Playmarket

We have already figured out how to remove unnecessary software through the menu of a smartphone or tablet. Now let's try to remove the software through the Playmarket - launch the software store, wait for it to download, go to the "Games and applications - My applications and games" section. In this section, we will see all the software installed on this device.

The removal process goes like this - select an unnecessary program, click on the "Delete" button and confirm your actions. After a few seconds, the selected program will be deleted.

Does this method have any advantages over other methods? Absolutely none - all methods have the same mechanism of action.

Removing built-in apps

Buying new smartphone or a tablet, we see various pre-installed software in it - banking clients, toys, instant messengers, etc. There is also a part of the basic software, such as Youtube, Google Press, Maps, Play Games and much more.

Which apps on Android can be removed, and which ones are better left? It should be said that it is not worth deleting basic programs owned by Google - this can lead to a system malfunction. Moreover, you simply cannot uninstall these programs.

If you do not want any of this to work, update, waste traffic and battery power, go to "Settings - Application Manager", tap on an unnecessary program, then click the "Stop" and "Turn off" buttons. The system will issue the last warnings, after which it will remove the software updates and disable the selected programs.

Keep in mind that disabling some basic applications may cause a violation of the functionality of the Android operating system.

If you want to remove obviously third-party software, then you may encounter a lack of uninstallation option - phone manufacturers block their uninstallation. How to remove such software? You have two options:

• Select a program in the "Application Manager", then click on the "Stop" and "Turn off" buttons - the application will be stopped and even disappear from the main menu;
• Get root rights (superuser rights) and completely clean your phone from unnecessary programs.

The latter method is complicated by the fact that in order to obtain root rights, you will have to find a special software. Also gaining superuser rights will void the warranty. To avoid voiding your warranty, simply disable unnecessary Android apps through Device Manager.