Who has the most bloatware?

[Mustang02]

I guess I don't understand what is bloat? Are all apps that come pre installed now considered "bloat"?

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

I consider bloat all the carrier forced apps.

 

[pc747]

I guess I don't understand what is bloat? Are all apps that come pre installed now considered "bloat"?

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

I consider bloat any app that I can not uninstall that is not required for functionality of the phone.
I am the extreme though.

But to be fair I think @cr6 was more correct in stating the unreasonable bloat being Google play apps and services (ie games, books, newspaper, etc).

We know the carrier bloat (ie vz navigator) or manufacturer bloat (ie blinkfeed).

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[UrbanBounca]

Samsung Galaxy S6, minimal bloat that can be disabled. The only reason I miss root is because I want an ad blocker, but that's not even a necessity anymore.

 

[Sajo]

For years I read that bloat was any app that did not come installed on a Nexus phone. Now we are saying that Nexus phones have Google bloat. If we use that as a measuring stick....then every app on every phone is bloat.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[pc747]

For years I read that bloat was any app that did not come installed on a Nexus phone. Now we are saying that Nexus phones have Google bloat. If we use that as a measuring stick....then every app on every phone is bloat.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Well I gotta call Google out on the bloat. I mean we ragged on the carriers and oems for years. Again stuff like calendar, clock, calculator, camera, chrome, photo galley, messenger, settings, and phone are not really bloat as it is needed (though I will argue some of those have alternative options in the play store). But news and magazines, books, sheets, slides, games, newsstand, keep, docs, drive, music, movies and TV, Google +, YouTube (though I do use), maps, hangouts, and now pay are fair to be considered Google bloat. Especially since some people don't even use any of them. As much as I use a lot of Google apps and services Google +, slides, games, newsstand, books, and news and magazines I don't use at all.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[cr6]

For years I read that bloat was any app that did not come installed on a Nexus phone. Now we are saying that Nexus phones have Google bloat. If we use that as a measuring stick....then every app on every phone is bloat.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

That's what I was questioning about the "original list" because half of them are needed for basic operation. I guess "bloat" doesn't really bother me the way it does most folks. Aside from Vzw Navigator, Google Games, Kindle, and maybe a couple others, I don't mind. As long I can disable and/or hide them from showing up in my app drawer, I'm fine with it. We've always had bloat and I have come to accept that we'll continue to have bloat on every device. (at least to some extent) An app that's considered bloat to one person is a frequently used app for another. Sure, I could do without many of them completely, but it doesn't bother me they come preinstalled. Here's a list of some of the apps I have disabled...

sure they take up space, and while I only have a 16gig device and a 16gig sd card, I still have over 14gb available combined, so it's a non-issue..... at least for me personally.

S5 tap'n

 

[Mustang02]

Baby crying detector? Why would that be installed??

 

[cr6]

It comes stock on the S5, along with Kids Mode & Family Base.

S5 tap'n

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I have to say, I get the point here, but I think you have to look at the average consumer. If my mother-in-law accidentally uninstalled her stock camera app, I'd be getting frantic calls right away about how it just disappeared.

As cr6 said, some of these apps are required for the phone to function properly. Others, I'd imagine, are made to not be uninstalled to avoid confusion for newer users.

 

[pc747]

I have to say, I get the point here, but I think you have to look at the average consumer. If my mother-in-law accidentally uninstalled her stock camera app, I'd be getting frantic calls right away about how it just disappeared.

As cr6 said, some of these apps are required for the phone to function properly. Others, I'd imagine, are made to not be uninstalled to avoid confusion for newer users.

Yeah you guys are correct and when @cr6 posted that yesterday I meant to adjust the list to remove the must have apps. In fact I'll adjust it now.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Other things to consider, even though we may not want some apps on our phone that the OEM put there, there are parts of some of them required for third-party apps to work. For instance, on my Note 4, I disabled the Samsung Calendar so I could use Google Calendar. When I first did so, I also disabled Calendar Storage, thinking that was for the Samsung Calendar. Boy, was I wrong. Haha!

Anyway, I think the more telling list of bloat would be from the app manager list instead of the app drawer. In there, you've got background things that don't show up where the average consumer is looking for apps on their phone and there are a LOT more in there that you'll wonder what the heck they're for and what they're doing there.

 

[pc747]

Other things to consider, even though we may not want some apps on our phone that the OEM put there, there are parts of some of them required for third-party apps to work. For instance, on my Note 4, I disabled the Samsung Calendar so I could use Google Calendar. When I first did so, I also disabled Calendar Storage, thinking that was for the Samsung Calendar. Boy, was I wrong. Haha!

Anyway, I think the more telling list of bloat would be from the app manager list instead of the app drawer. In there, you've got background things that don't show up where the average consumer is looking for apps on their phone and there are a LOT more in there that you'll wonder what the heck they're for and what they're doing there.

That was my initial issue with bloatware with both Blur with the D2 and touchwiz with the note 2. At the time they looked much better than stock android but you will look and see all these services running in the background. Phones now have the ram so it can handle it but the droid 2 would stutter badly and get hot because it was working so hard to run all those extra services to get the app to work.

For the average consumer the main thing they should be able to remove are the things like games, carrier apps, google apps like games, books, newsstand, news &magazines, etc.

I understand that Google is trying to push many of their apps and services but I hate that they are going the route of carriers and are only allowing your to disable it (stock). Especially since newer nexus devices are going to put up an extra block for those that root.

 

[kixfan]

My AT&T Note 3 had a ton of crap pre-installed. This list may not be complete since I've removed/disabled most of it using Titanium Backup and am relying on it's listing of system apps. I do use some of these so I don't consider all of them bloat. I'm not including things like calculator or calendar that I feel are a standard part of a phone.

1. Action Memo
2. Ant Radio Service
3. AT&T Locker
4. AT&T Protect Plus
5. Chrome
6. Dashlight
7. Drive
8. Drivemode
9. Dropbox
10. eBay
11. Gmail
12. Google Search
13. Google Play Books
14. Google Play Games
15. Google Play Movies
16. Google Play Music
17. Google+
18. Group Play
19. Hangouts
20. Magazine
21. Maps
22. My Music
23. My magazine
24. My AT&T
25. Photos
26. Polaris Office Viewer
27. S Beam
28. S Finder
29. S Health
30. S Note
31. S Translator
32. S Voice
33. Samsung Account
34. Samsung Apps
35. Samsung Billing
36. Samsung Hub
37. Samsung Link
38. Share Music
39. Share Video
40. S Pen Keeper
41. Video Player
42. Voice Recorder
43. Weather
44. YouTube
45. AT&T Code Scanner
46. AT&T Family Map
47. AT&T Smart Wi-fi
48. Evernote
49. Kids Mode
50. Knox
51. Trip Advisor
52. Scrapbook
53. Easy Chart
54. Flipboard
55. Google Play Newsstand
56. Kids Camera
57. Kids Media
58. Kids Video Player
59. Help
60. User Manual

I may be getting picky calling some of those bloat but regardless, that's a lot of crap to force onto someone's phone! This is a Note 3. A 2 year old phone. I can't imagine how much extra crap is loaded on the Note 4 and 5.

 

[Sajo]

Excluding the Google apps that come pre-installed, here are the apps I consider bloat on my Droid Turbo. Many of these have been of every Droid I have owned, several Moto X phones and my Samsung work phone also.

NFL Mobile
Amazon Appstore
Kindle
Verizon Cloud
Verizon Family Base Companion
Verizon Message +
Verizon Backup Assistant
Verizon Support & Protection
Verizon Navigator
Verizon Location Agent
Quickoffice

There may be apps on my list that other folks use all the time and do not consider bloat. I guess the definition is up to the individual user? These are the apps I disable on every phone and never use.

 

[johnomaz]

I use PackageDisablerPro on my Note 5 WITHOUT root and all my bloat is disabled. Good enough for me.