After I get a new phone, transfer the data from the previous device, and finish setting it up, I immediately pull up the app drawer and start hunting for bloatware.
Before I begin, you should know that you can’t get rid of every single piece of bloatware on your Android phone. Some apps, usually system, vendor-specific and Google apps, cannot be deleted from the phone; you can only disable them, which prevents them from being opened or running in the background.
Luckily, there’s a way to get rid of them for good if you have access to a PC. Just follow this guide from our friends over at XDA Developers, and you should declutter your phone in no time.
1
Vendor-specific bloatware
Back in the day, most Android phone vendors went wild with the amount of bloatware they included on their phones, with Samsung leading the pack. Modern Android phones aren’t teeming with OEM apps the way their predecessors were a decade ago, but even Pixel phones still come with some bloatware.
Now, I don’t purge every single OEM app without discretion. I keep those I find genuinely useful, like the default gallery (I use Google Photos only for its auto-backup feature), browser (Samsung Internet Browser is really good, actually), and clock apps on Samsung phones, for instance.
But the fact is that most OEM apps are anything but useful. The glut of them is usually made up of low-effort copies of Google apps that are completely redundant and take up precious storage space. This is why vendor bloatware apps are the first that get thrown out the window.
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2
Preinstalled carrier apps
Now, while I do find some preinstalled OEM apps useful, I can’t say the same about carrier apps that come preinstalled on carrier phones. Luckily, I’ve bought my last few phones unlocked, but before that, I had to get rid of carrier apps every time I got a new one.
Getting rid of your carrier apps is just part of the solution. In the US, the big three carriers often include an app called Mobile Services Manager on their phones, which downloads and installs bloatware without your permission.
The good news is that you don’t have to uninstall it to prevent it from installing and updating unwanted apps. All you’ve got to do is locate and disable it, and that should do the trick.
The catch is that the app may not be visible in your phone’s app list by default. To make the MSM visible, at least on Samsung phones, open Settings, enter the “Apps” tab, and tap the “Filter and Sort” button.
Then, enable the “Show system apps” toggle to see all the apps that are installed on your phone, including the MSM app.
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3
Social network apps
I’m not a social-network person, and social media is a mess anyway. I had used Facebook for a couple of years back in the early 2010s and have tried a few others, but nowadays, the only social network I actively use is Reddit, which is more of a discussion forum than social media. I also have a LinkedIn account, but won’t ever use its mobile app. So if I see any social network app preinstalled on my new phone, it immediately goes into the bin.
4
Certain Google apps
I won’t lie, I’m pretty deep in Google’s ecosystem. I’ve been using Google Docs as my primary writing platform for almost a decade. Google Drive has been my go-to cloud storage choice ever since it launched in 2012. I love Google Keep, and have been using Gmail since high school.
But I won’t blindly use every single app made by Google just because it’s part of the Google ecosystem. For instance, I’d loved Google Play Music but quickly bounced off YouTube Music. I also don’t have any use for Google Auto since I don’t own a car (I live in Europe and I simply don’t need one), and I’ve never been a fan of Google Calendar.
So when I get a new phone, I make sure to disable (or delete, if possible) every Google app I don’t plan on using.
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5
Microsoft apps
I only use a handful of Microsoft apps, and I don’t really like seeing them on my phone. The thing is, Samsung phones have been shipping with a number of Microsoft apps preinstalled for years, and I was unpleasantly surprised when I saw Microsoft Office and OneDrive on my then-new S21 FE in 2022.
The first thing I did was banish Samsung bloatware, and then I quickly got rid of every Microsoft app found on the phone. If I see a Microsoft app on any of my future phones, I’ll make sure to get rid of it posthaste.
6
Dropbox
Dropbox has been around for a long while. The service launched in 2008, and I had used it for years before switching to Google Drive. But ever since then, I’ve only used the app a few times to transfer some files to Google Drive.
I don’t think I’ve accessed Dropbox more than a few times in the last 15 years or so, but the app has greeted me on a number of phones I’ve owned, starting with the HTC One V in 2012. Since I don’t have any use for it, this is yet another app I quickly get rid of every time I get a new phone.
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Getting rid of bloatware is just one of the things you should do when you get a new Android phone. Luckily, you don’t have to waste time by deleting apps one by one—you can uninstall multiple apps at once. Just be aware that you’ll have to go into your phone’s Apps menu and manually disable the ones you can’t delete directly from the Play Store.
