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Removing Pre-installed Apps from Droid Phone

I am told by my local Verizon Wireless store that I can not remove pre-installed apps from my Samsung Galaxy S Droid phone. He said it was because Verizon is paid by the software provider to insure these apps are present. It is absolutely unconscionable that Verizon would force me to put up with these totally unwanted apps. They clutter up my screens and make the things I do want hard to find. I get the fact that the apps were pre-loaded. However, I would gladly have paid a few extra bucks if necessary to have the ability to choose the ones I want to see on my phone.

I urge other Verizon Android customers to voice their strong opinion and encourage Verizon to correct this terrible policy.

Comments

Ann154

Sorry to tell you, but this is old news. This question has been asked many, many times in the Android section. You can do a search and find several threads.

http://community.vzw.com/t5/Android/ct-p/DROID

mightymaude

Thanks. Doesn't make me any less angry, however.

Spiral

mightymaude wrote:
I am told by my local Verizon Wireless store that I can not remove pre-installed apps from my Samsung Galaxy S Droid phone. He said it was because Verizon is paid by the software provider to insure these apps are present. It is absolutely unconscionable that Verizon would force me to put up with these totally unwanted apps. They clutter up my screens and make the things I do want hard to find. I get the fact that the apps were pre-loaded. However, I would gladly have paid a few extra bucks if necessary to have the ability to choose the ones I want to see on my phone.

I urge other Verizon Android customers to voice their strong opinion and encourage Verizon to correct this terrible policy.

If you are so angry, why don't you just return the phone and leave Verizon? Hit them where it hurts the most, by canceling your service. Make sure you tell them why you are canceling.

TominqueBo_VZW

Hello mightymaude,

I do understand the want to have only the apps you would like on your device. The information provided at the store was correct, but I do want to share something with you. You may be aware of this already, but I did want to remind you that you do have the ability to organized your screen(s) with your desired apps. You can do this by pressing and holding the app icon and moving to desired screen. This will help minimize the difficulty of finding the things you want to find. I know this does not resolve what you would like to be resolved, however, I do believe this will help you see and organize the apps you want on the appropriate screens.

mdram4x4

TominqueBo_VZW wrote:
Hello mightymaude,

I do understand the want to have only the apps you would like on your device. The information provided at the store was correct, but I do want to share something with you. You may be aware of this already, but I did want to remind you that you do have the ability to organized your screen(s) with your desired apps. You can do this by pressing and holding the app icon and moving to desired screen. This will help minimize the difficulty of finding the things you want to find. I know this does not resolve what you would like to be resolved, however, I do believe this will help you see and organize the apps you want on the appropriate screens.

this only works when bringing apps to the home screens, i think ou can have up to 7 of thems

you cannot remove the icon(hide the icon) from the app drawer

Jax_Omen

Sure you can. install ADW Launcher or LauncherPro (I like ADW) and use it, both let you hide applications in the drawer from being displayed, and both are far better than the touchwiz launcher.

mdram4x4

Jax_Omen wrote:
Sure you can. install ADW Launcher or LauncherPro (I like ADW) and use it, both let you hide applications in the drawer from being displayed, and both are far better than the touchwiz launcher.

i actually like touchwiz

Dogface

Spiral wrote:
If you are so angry, why don't you just return the phone and leave Verizon? Hit them where it hurts the most, by canceling your service. Make sure you tell them why you are canceling.

And just hand them over a couple hundred dollars to get out of your contract? Then spend another couple hundred bucks for another smartphone and contract with another carrier? I'm pretty satisfied with my Verizon service overall. These forced apps through are something that really irks me - but not enough to drop service and go to another carrier that likely forces similar apps on whatever device you get from them.

Dogface

TominqueBo_VZW wrote:
Hello mightymaude,

I do understand the want to have only the apps you would like on your device. ... You may be aware of this already, but I did want to remind you that you do have the ability to organized your screen(s) with your desired apps. You can do this by pressing and holding the app icon and moving to desired screen. This will help minimize the difficulty of finding the things you want to find. I know this does not resolve what you would like to be resolved, however, I do believe this will help you see and organize the apps you want on the appropriate screens.

This is a bad answer for the whole issue of these forced apps. If the apps are installed and can't be uninstalled, I'm not too irked by this as I can always ignore them. What irks me is the forced apps that are installed as a service and take up CPU RAM. Take the Samsung Charge. Out of the box, the Task Manager only shows 328 MB of available RAM - 2/3 of it already consumed by running processes. That's before I've had a chance to install my apps.

For example, Samsung Media Hub consumes 9.3 MB - almost 3% of my available 328 MB. That's resources I'll never get any use out of because I don't have any intention of paying what I consider too much for the service. Since it is software I didn't install, is taking up my resources, and is something I get no value out of - that places the Samsung Media Player into the same category as Malware (only somewhat worse because one can usually clean malware off).

In this case, both Samsung and Verizon are doing their customers a disservice. Themselves too since they get blasted in this forum and others. They are also unnecessary impairing the perfomance of their devices. Truth in advertising should be the Samsung Charge comes with a whopping 110 free MB of RAM (rather than the misleading 512 MB in the spec).

I just don't understand.....

Jax_Omen

Spoken like someone who doesn't understand Android. Android views unused RAM as BAD and will fill it with apps no matter what's preinstalled. As you use the phone, it'll realize that you don't launch those apps, and preload the apps you DO launch into memory instead. It's the same thing that the newer versions of Windows and OSX do (and what Linux has been doing for years).

Those apps in RAM are *not* consuming any system resources unless they are a running SERVICE (which uses CPU).

PRW69

Ihope I am not stepping on any Verizon toes, but does this also happen with the Iphone? How about the Iphone on AT&T?

Ann154

Apple controls which applications are pre-loaded on the i*hone.

jroal

Very much agree we need the ability to uninstall apps we don't use. Here is another reason:

Pre-loaded Android apps leave phones open to attack

Some contain serious glitch that attacker could exploit, researchers say

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45527229/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/t/pre-loaded-android-apps-leave-phones-open-attack/#.T2SUmPWAbgE

Backhaus

My issue with the nuisance of pre=loaded apps that cannot be removed is also associated with the updates. I did not understand that the "Uninstall" feature of updating Apps in fact had nothing to do with the actual App itself, but simply removed that particular update. Subsequently, even though the App is not in use, every time I start my phone another prompt for the update occurs. I guess I should go ahead and maintain the current status to avoid that aggravation, but I completely concur with the conclusion that the phone owner / user should have the capability to remove pre-loaded apps they do not wish to have for the range of reasons cited in these prior discussions.

BTW, I don't care if Verizon paid or received payments from the App sponsors for these items to be pre-loaded. They've long since recovered their costs via their sales / charges and the sponsors can treat the costs as advertising expense in their operational reporting and write it off their taxes. It is not a financial question, just a protocol that Verizon should own up to on behalf of their customers.

mortb

My take on this neverending complaint is that since the smartphone is a minicomputer, it should be treated like any computer. Since we can uninstall any and all pre-installed apps on a new computer, we should be able to do the same thing with our smartphones. I notice that on the Droid Razr Maxx which I recently received, it not only gives you the opportunity to hide pre-installed apps, it also gives you the option to uninstall two of the preinstalled games. That's a start.

By the way, I am not impressed with the Razr Maxx. Fastest phone I've ever had, but that's it. I like my LG Spectrum a lot more. But Razr does give you an option.

cattibri25

My complaint with these apps that I never use nor intend to use is that they keep opening and running in the background and eating up my battery life. I have an app killer and have it set so that every time the screen goes black that it kills the apps but it is still not helping. I have looked at the apps and done everything I can to disable them so they cannot run in the background like this. I am up for a new phone and I think I am going to get an iPhone because people say the battery lasts longer. I don't even get on the web with mine much. Just texting and calls but it sucks the life right out of it....sigh

unknown

Get the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx if you're looking for battery life.

mortb

Two complaints on the same subject in one day. Wow! That must be a record. Usually there is one complaint per day on the bloatware. Cattabri25, a lot of these programs restart themselves, and the apps eating up your battery is NOT the bloatware apps, its the task killer apps. Ask anyone who knows about these task killer apps. As for longer battery life, Jimfitzgerald recommended one, which is a great phone, I have one. But another great phone with a long battery life is the LG Spectrum with the extended battery. Both phones are really great phones.

But getting back to the bloatware bloatcomments...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Wake me up when it's all over.

KnoxStile

Then don't read the posts - it is pretty simple. Then you won't be bored by crapware discussions.

donaldkunze

If you dont like these apps/bloatware, get rid of them. Pretty simple. if you don't know how, the verizon messageboards are not the place to look.

jrh4054

BORING!!!!

DJ80

TRUE, you cannot uninstall but you can disable it.

If you don't want to get rid of pre-installed apps

PAY ATTENTION because I will share what I do...

1. Click on the menu from the home page and go to "Manage Apps"

2. Use the "All" Tab and find the apps that you want to stop working.

3. Select the app and press "Disable"

Though it is true that the app cannot be uninstalled... It can be disabled so that it does not work.

This should jroal to sleep more easily and no one has to give up their over priced cell phone.

<Comment deleted per the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service. This discussion is now locked.>

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

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