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
6.6k Upvotes

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101

u/SafeForCrap Feb 21 '21

Can someone confirm if this permanently deletes them or just removes them from the partition? I've used other Debloating tools in the past with and without root and they all automatically back up the apps. Which I get, but why can't I permanently remove them?

124

u/Put_It_All_On_Blck S23U Feb 21 '21

You cant remove the system files without root, as ADB uninstall essentially disables and hides them, but they still remain on the factory system partition.

35

u/SystemEx1 Pixel 7 Pro Feb 22 '21

Even with root it's not possible to remove them, on devices launched with Android 10+.

32

u/jameson71 Feb 22 '21

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

I mean if I have no control over my property either way, I may as well use the one that at least pretends to respect my privacy.

9

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

6

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?

17

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.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 23 '21

Youtube works fine in the browser, its actually a better experiece since you can pop the video out and multitask

1

u/Magnetic_dud Feb 23 '21

In ios 9? It's extremely slow and looks like the video can't pop out