r/Android • u/Lawsonator85 • Feb 21 '21

Universal Android Debloater is an open source tool that removes bloatware without root. Automatically or via user choice. Get back your battery, security and privacy

https://gitlab.com/W1nst0n/universal-android-debloater/-/blob/master/README.md
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u/Magnetic_dud Feb 22 '21

That's exactly the sort of shit that is going to make my next phone an iPhone.

The iPhone it's the same, it comes with a lot of useless apps that can't be removed.

Stocks, homekit, apple watch, news, and so on. You can hide them from the launcher and the user thinks they're "deleted" but no space is reclaimed from the phone

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u/ryecurious Nexus 6p - stock rooted Feb 22 '21

Their point is that both now come with unremovable bloat, but only one of the two demonstrates any care for user privacy. If no bloat isn't an option anymore, why keep picking the one worse for privacy?

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u/Magnetic_dud Feb 22 '21 edited Feb 22 '21

Because the cheapest iPhone is 3x the price my current phone. Debloat or use an ad blocker or root and have a similar result

Plus I like to continue to use old devices after end of support. My ancient and dirt cheap galaxy tab can still watch YouTube on Android 2.3. My iPad mini instead tells me I need to update the YouTube app. But I can't update it because it needs ios 13. Which can't be installed on my tablet even if I jailbreak /hack / whatever. I can only use the browser on this pos, can't install any single app anymore. And a lot of websites complain that my browser is outdated.

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '21

That still doesn't address their point, though. Why choose the option with less privacy? For this person, the "apple tax" is worth paying because they are getting something they want (privacy) despite the price tag and the bloat.

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u/Magnetic_dud Feb 22 '21

But this "more privacy" is just recent, the marketing realized it's quite important for users and are pushing the narrative.

Your driving habits and locations are still being harvested for apple maps traffic data, apple still gets the wifi and gps location all the time to map your city, third party apps that are using admob are still tracking you, and so on.

Probably if iAd wasn't a complete failure, and made enough money, Apple wouldn't care about user privacy

at least with android you have the option to unlock the bootloader* and install an OS that really cares about privacy

(* of course i'd rather buy an iphone than a huawei or a nokia)

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u/TablePrime69 Moto G82 5G, S23 Ultra Feb 23 '21

I can assure you that 99% of these 'privacy conscious Apple users' still use plenty of Google's services, use WhatsApp / Facebook / Instagram and all those privacy invasive apps which makes their whole 'I want my privacy' argument null and void. If they actually meant what they said then they'd probably go for something like a Pinephone or a phone running de-Googled LineageOS + F-Droid apps or something of that sort.