I had been using Samsung for the longest time before my current device and lemme tell ya, even with their flagships they pull this shit, I’m always having to go in and delete whatever shit they download, like, no, I have no desire to play fucking ROYAL MATCH please stop asking me
Switched to fairphone and could root it without installing twrp, there was only one extra app and I could just disable the google apps and switch to foss ones.
When people ask why I switched to and stuck with an iphone, I always go back to “Google doesn’t know how to do text messages”, but I forgot about this lovely issue. You can’t truly own an Android that isn’t a Pixel and expect software OS updates on a regular basis without bloatware. Additionally, the update does not need to go through your carrier, something that is the largest red flag for me to stop buying non-unlocked Android phones (at least the last time I looked this was a thing).
Imagine if you went to a dealership, and go to buy a brand new car, but the dealer says they have to do some “improvements” to it before you can drive it off the lot. Only, you don’t know what they did or why, and the car manufacturer doesn’t know either. It’s fucked up.
That’s why I only ever bought one Samsung phone (a galaxy 6 I think) . They do have a tendency to install shit on phones that you will never use but can’t delete.
There were a few ways of deleting those apps from Samsung on the web but I focus on buying clean phones with no shite loading (like OnePlus and Pixel). Although my first Pixel send to be bullying me to put my everything on their cloud servers - where all your datas are belong to them 🤣😂 via EULA.
I love my Pixel with Niagara launcher for the love translation. Wtf Google with that locked-down home screen. I’ll live with the removed call record even though it’s legal in the free world.
Disable “Mobile services manager”. Samsung phones are lousy with crapware these days so I would avoid them like the plague. An eldery relative asked me why he kept seeing ad popups and his device had something called “Samsung Free” that cannot be disabled or completely turned off which pushes news articles, ads and other shit at him. I just turned off as many “interests” as I could and attempted to opt out of the software but it’s still there and swiping left on the home page re-enables it. Samsung phones are absolute dogshit these days. I wouldn’t go near one unless they could be rooted and flashed out of the box.
An alternative launcher might help with the swipe left bit. I know it’s another big corp but I’ve been running the Microsoft launcher on my pixel 2 for years now, and It’s been pretty well behaved
So I don’t know about Samsung specifically but most commonly this whole “installing random apps by developers you’ve never heard of” is most commonly not from the manufacturer but caused by purchasing a carrier variant of the device. Traditionally Verizon did that a lot, but they’ve shaped up some in recent years.
Make sure to buy direct from the manufacturer or otherwise ensure you purchase the manufacturer unlocked variant to avoid this (there’s also an unrelated “carrier unlock” which is a carrier variant that has had the modem unlocked to allow you to use it on other carriers than the one it’s branded to, but your still stuck with the carrier’s variant of the software and hardware.)
Also worth noting carrier models will in some cases actually have differing hardware from the unlocked model too. Traditionally this was usually related to the modem for carriers using uncommon cellular network technologies but some large carriers will even cut down the memory or storage just to squeeze a buck or two off the price!
TLDR don’t buy direct from the carrier and make sure to buy manufacturer unlocked phone!
This happens on mine with facebook book being installed by samsung themselves, i dont think i get the mobile services manager thing. And mine isnt from a carrier or locked to one
You don’t get any of this crap with the Pixel Android phones… I believe Motorola used to be good about not loading up junkware also, but that was years ago and I dunno if they’re still like that.
I’ve stuck with the Pixel since they came out and won’t go back until they really screw it up. Every couple of years Verizon will run a special where you get the previous model for free, which works for me.
Ive had a couple Nokias now (Nokia is Finnish) and find them pretty robust and both have been Android One phones so there is basically nothing on them which isn’t just stock android. Plenty fast enough for me. Note: I only buy low end phones (~$300) so YMMV
It’s better to sort by New or Hot than Active, I’ve found. Hot tends to be 90% memes though (I should probably hide some of the meme communities), New is a bit more balanced.
A SIM card doesn’t have that kind of power over your phone. I’ve gone through 4-5 MVNOs on Pixel phones and not once has a SIM card done anything except provide cellular service.
They do have a lot of power over the device. They run the Oracle Java card standard and are a complete computer that can even run a webserver. They can interact with host events like call starting and call ending. Not sure if they can install user apps. But I have had a carrier push a voicemail shortcut into my app draw that would auto call the voicemail number when pressed. I couldn’t remove it unless I removed the Sim.
I worked in support for a phone manufacturer for a while. I have once seen an app get pushed by the SIM. I also however have seen plenty of really sketchy apps preinstalled or installed with updates by the carrier on carrier branded phones.
Some years ago I forget if it was Ting or Cricket would preinstall the Wish app and it received an update that added ads that would pop up at random while using the device including on the home screen (and fairly frequently at that) so for a while we’d get calls about that and pretty quickly get the Wish app off of those folks phones
Then one of the TracFone brands preinstalles a bunch of advertising directly on the home screen. It was something called app box or something like that and it would literally show an app icon on your home screen so you’d click it and maybe choose to install it
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