8mo ago

Why are we still fighting smartphone bloatware in 2025?

www.androidauthority.com

Android @lemdro.id

Blaze (he/him) @lemmy.zip

8mo ago

Why are we still fighting smartphone bloatware in 2025?

www.androidauthority.com /fighting-bloatware-2025-3505475/

81 comments

Because money.
- and the most delicious kind of money of all: dark money! ooooh it's so good because the sources of the dark money offer you a lot of it, and they specifically ask you not to ask questions, which is so good for you because these bloatware programs make your device sell worse and provides no value as a sales platform because it turns out that billboards and radio spots are, surprisingly, the most effective form of advertising.
  but! you have a sense of solidarity. you have faith that by never offering a phone without bloatware, your entire industry will ensure that all phones won't have bloatware. you rest easy at night knowing your phone won't sell poorly, at the end of the day, because every phone is like this. your contributions to a surveillance and propaganda machine that should punish you in the market because won't because all your peers are your allies in this.
  and it gets better! every time someone else's phone gets more bloatware and more dark money attached, then everyone else appears comparatively better, allowing them to get worse. ooooh you love it so much when you get to take more dark money. and all it costs you are several thousand lives far away from your big mansion. you don't even have to see the suffering
  
  adb device
  adb shell
  pm list packages | grep 'packagename'
For the same reason we have every fucking other problem in the world right now.
Capitalism.
You cannot align incentives towards growing the wealth of a microscopic yet astronomically lecherous group of monsters and expect society to not just crumble under the weight.
It's 2024 though?
- you suggestij we win this fight within this month?
  press X to doubt
- If you're still in 2024, you're already behind. Get on with the times and start grinding. DM for a link to my weebinar and 5% discount on my eebook.
Because people keep buying Xiaomi and Samsung shit that's loaded with crap (at least over here, I understand this varies massively by region).
- Base Android is also loaded with crap, directly from Google. Android is the worst mobile operating system, with the exception of all the others.
  
  Base Android (AOSP) is not, what you probably mean is Google Android.
  Look at GrapheneOS, that is a usable, privacy-focused Android without bloat.
- I mind the Google crap more than I mind the Samsung stuff. At least Samsung's browser supports ad blockers since ages. That Chrome POS is just useless.
- i buy samsung cause parts aka easier to source parts.
  
  fixing phones is the biggest scam ever. once you open the phone you are always going to have problems with the phone. they are not made to be opened and repaired.
- you can argue that iphones and pixel phones etc... have bloatware/spyware/malware as well.
Because it's profitable to include.
Why would companies care as much about the minor brand value decrease in the eyes of more technical users when they can make more money right now by making things shittier?
And laptops, desktops, televisions ...
- buy a laptop/desktop
  boot up windows and setup with fake shit
  download and flash your favourite linux distro
  disable secure boot
  boot from usb.
  ???
  profit!
  
  Most mainline Linux distro work pretty seamlessly with secureboot these days.
- ugh. wanted to get a oled tv but will not buy a smart tv.
  
  Honestly ... Just don't connect the TV to the Internet.
We're not. It's 2024.
- You mean it'll all magically go POOF! come the new year?!? I'll wait until then to set up my new phone, then!
It's called enshitification. Deshitification isn't so much a thing.
- Is it really enshitification if it was like this from essentially the start?
  Outside of like literally the very first few android phones when there wasn't even apps for the platform, they came bundled with all sorts of shit. I remember my HTC from 2010 drove me insane with the junkware bundled in, and that was about 2 years post Android's first phone. We're at like more or less steady state shitification. (varies by phone/brand)
  
  I used to buy my phones with a specific eye towards avoiding bloat. It was still possible to avoid most of it 8-10 years ago, but not anymore.
- What's sad is how true this is. Companies enshitify once they have a solid hold on the market. But if they start to slip in numbers, do they ever deshitify to regain trust and users? Fuck no, they triple down on the enshitification to make one last cash grab as they prepare to abandon ship with life preservers full of bonuses for themselves
Facebook, Netflix and Spotify are bloatware.
- IMO all google and manufacturer apps are too, they should be optional during install.
Most people aren't - they've given up the fight.
The problem is that most phones don't support ROM's like Graphene or Linage, as people installing custom roms is a relic of years past. Next time you get a phone, think about if you want this option for yourself. Also, do keep in mind that some phones have HW backdoors on them, so even installing a stock rom/graphene does not save you from privacy.
- Even pixel or Fairphone is fairly free of bloatware compared to Samsung and shitty Chinese brands as long as you are not privacy paranoid about Google services.
  
  I am privacy paranoid.
- That's true. Graphene is majorly Pixel limited, I guess. And even Lineage has a small set of devices when one considers the nos of OEMs and variants they manufacture per year.
Capitalism
Companies want to spy on you and make money, it's no secret. Just install stock Android or your favorite fork; it quite literally takes 5 minutes with a WebUSB installer.
- it quite literally takes 5 minutes with a WebUSB installer.
  With a supported phone, on a Chromium browser on Windows. It takes much more than that usually, depending on device, to unlock the bootloader and install a custom ROM
  
  I guess I only have one data point from installing Graphene on my phone. I can see why it would be harder on other devices. Though I was using Linux, and Windows is absolutely not required for WebUSB.
- Doesn't' the fork like Lineage OS or Graphene also need to support those phone models first?
  
  Yep, Graphene only runs on Pixels but (IIRC) Lineage runs on most mainstream devices. Otherwise stock Android should work fine.
- Unlocking bootloader took me few hours.
  I must register new account, install Windows application (Linux not supported, but Windows Server evaluation is free and works as a VM),
  have valid SIM card with Internet access.
  But worth it, much better experience.
  Unfortunately, average person won't do all this things.
  
  That sounds like Xiaomi. The best price to performance ratio of any OEM, but at the cost of terrible software and this... experience... when you want to get rid of it.
  Worth noting that not all OEMs are like this.
- ...and then you're locked out of using your phone to pay for things, can't install banking apps and marginal ID apps, et cetera. 😢
  
  do you really need to pay with your phone?
  do you need to use a banking app and not call the automated system to check?
  What ID apps would you used on a phone? Having digital ID's is in it's own a huge breach of privacy and i would never consent to such a system
  
  It's a tradeoff for sure but it's worth it for a lot of people.
Time to load up some custom Android OS. Lineage, Graphene, seem to be the best at the moment. Any others?
- DivestOS seems like a solid choice too
  
  Jesus, their device download page is a hot mess.
- CalyxOS, if your posture isn't strick enough to require GrapheneOS (more strict than the Average Joe, but not as strict as Snowden).
Anti-libre software steals our control. When you see a licence text file like GPL missing, 🚩
It's 2024.
Only on Android and Windows.
Zero issues on Linux and MacOS
- iOS doesn't come with any preinstalled Apple bloatware either. Oh, wait.
  
  It’s hardly intrusive, no pop ups or “hey I’m here” notifications. You can uninstall most of them in seconds without special tools.
  Android crapware is much more deeper, it’s not stuff your grandma can uninstall.
Because we let them.
Universal Android Debloater
Money makes everything possible
Recently, my phone updated without my consent (even though I turned auto updates off) and added Gemini
Like WTF Samsung
Because it's profitable.
Few people want to pay full price for their phone.
- I mean, yeah, but there's also manufacturer bloatware. This model year, Samsung in particular has outdone themselves with the implementation of their AI chatbot nearly zero percent of their customer base wanted.

81 comments