1y ago

Updated my Samsung phone and it installed unwanted apps

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There are a lot of negative things that I will say about Apple and iOS, but this would NEVER EVER fly on an iPhone. The fact that we just kind of accept it on Android is infuriating.
- Apple once put a U2 album onto everyone's phone so they certainly aren't squeaky clean
  
  Or the App store or iTunes or iCloud...
  Apple fans typically enjoy being locked down and having apps forced on them.
  
  They should buy Samsungs than!
  
  iTunes hasn't been a thing for a while, but both its' successors, Podcasts and Music, can easily be removed. iCloud is considered a core part of the OS so that is sorta forced on you, yes (not that you have to use it at all, you just can't remove the support for this functionality).
  Removing the App Store would kinda brick your phone and most Androids don't allow you to delete that or other Google services either (despite the fact that those phones CAN still install new apps even if you remove the play store).
  It's only first party apps on iOS, and most are removable. Ya know what I didn't get with my iPhone but have gotten with many Androids? Facebook, YouTube. I hear Samsung preinstalls TikTok as an essential app now on some models? All ad delivery platforms. The apps Apple preinstalls on your phone are all first-party apps that add value, much like the apps that you get on base Android before the manufacturer adds their bloat. Yes, Music and TV require a subscription, but they don't show you weird ads. Other than that, everything is free and ad-free.
- Android itself is a great thing, and bloatware is not inherently a part of it. SAMSUNG, who makes Android phones is a whole different story, though.
  But just way too many conflate Samsung with Android. Android is like the Linux of the phone world. Everyone can have their own distro, tailored to their needs. Samsung just happens to tailor the more AIDS type Android system.
  
  That'd be true if it were only Samsung doing this. The reality is that the vast majority of Android phones are this way, to various degrees.
  
  I have only ever tried that and (the also Android based) MIUI on Xiaomi phones, but the latter is just as much of a cancer as Samsung ones, in terms of bloatware.
  You can't even uninstall some of those, like the Emoji keyboard, for example. You can use something else but you can't remove it (without rooting your phone, at least). So then you get this notification about the update for the Emoji keyboard. Then you don't tap it, because you don't want to install it. So you swipe the notification away.
  Then, a day later you wake up to the notification that it has been installed successfully. Without even asking you. So yeah, I'm not saying Samsung is the only one. But try a Pixel phone. Or so they say.
  
  Been using Pixel phones for years for that reason (among others)
  
  It's a consequence of retail. Because carriers in the US determine which phones most of us can access, with the exit of LG from the market the Android landscape in the US was effectively reduced to Samsung. Other manufacturers may as well not exist for all the average shopper is led to believe -- the brick and mortar store where you pick out your phone gives you two options: iPhone or Samsung.
  
  This is weird. I would get that, but even in England people often refer to Android phones as a Samsung, or - which makes me even more mad - to micro USB cables ( OR Type C!) as Samsung cables. I'm fuming just from simply typing this.
- Not everyone on Android just accepts this. I use a Pixel precisely for this reason. It might install some system apps, etc., but it will never install some bullshit games like this.
- Which is why the first thing I do when I get a new Android phone is to install LineageOS.
- Oh no, no one accepts this at all. In fact, it was much worse just a few years ago.
- The modern dilemma: do you, the consumer, prefer to have apps installed that you don't want? (Android) or to not be able to install the ones you do (Apple)?
  
  That's deep.
- For the exact same reason, I've only been using Pixel devices for years now. Before that, Nexus devices.
  Every now and then, I get interested in what Samsung has to offer, and their top end devices are without a don't often among the very best out there.
  But it's shit like pre-installed apps, Samsung's tooth-and-nail fight against unlocking the bootloader, bloatware that re-enables or installs itself with system updates, and generally Samsung's attempts to pull users into it's ecosystem and sell them more Samsung stuff that makes me keep it at arms length.
  
  The reason Samsung does crap like this is because it's like 20% of the GDP of South Korea, they practically own that country. If Companies had Egos I don't know where Samsung would be in the list of biggest but I know it would be high up.
- [This comment has been deleted by an automated system]
  
  This is mostly true however there are sometimes discounts on phones without all this shit. I just got my son a Pixel 7 yesterday (my wife and I already have one). T-Mobile took $400 off the phone and waved the activation fee. It came out to $4 a month.
- This is mostly for cheap phones. People don't accept it on Android.
  Pixels are essentially the default android phone, and they're mostly a great software experience, little bloat ware and no strange ads like this.
  It's likely this is the carrier anyway.
  
  Not quite true. I have a cheapo Doogee and there is 0 bloat. Super happy with the little brick.
  Depends on company. I know from experience Samsung and Xiaomi are obnoxious with ads and unwanted software so I just avoid their stuff.
  
  I recently got a cheap Doogee X97 as a backup phone. It was pretty much AOSP except for the launcher and 2 extra apps. I was impressed by the value of the $60 phone. 16 GB flash was too little for me though. I handed it to a friend and got the sturdier, waterproof S51.
  No holes in my screen, 5 days of daily use battery and 4GB/64GB + dual SIM + NFC + microSD + headphone jack for $100 is pretty sweet. Also OEM unlock is possible from the dev menu without extra steps. Firmware is available as a zip from their forums.

482 comments