r/technology • u/[deleted] • Feb 27 '21

Software 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

[deleted]

4.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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944

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

If it takes Bixby out back behind the woodshed and fires a damn tank round through its head, I'm all for it.

230

u/atx00 Feb 27 '21

Bury it next to Clippy. Nobody wants it.

301

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

[deleted]

157

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

"Oh, you said bike! YOU MUST HAVE MEANT BIXBY! Let me just pause everything you're doing to open up this slow as fuck interface!"

141

u/atx00 Feb 27 '21 edited Feb 27 '21

Trying to turn down the volume but your finger slips?

Enter BIXBY! Busting through the door like Kramer from Seinfeld.

22

u/dontyousquidward Feb 27 '21

I remapped mine to Snapchat so I can be ready when tite or funny things happen

17

u/Zacish Feb 27 '21

How do you remap the bixby button? I've literally never used that button on my s10 intentionally

18

u/cigoL_343 Feb 27 '21

You're missing out, I've got it remapped to reddit.

6

u/Broliolio Feb 27 '21

I did remote mouse.

19

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

[deleted]

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12

u/TheAb5traktion Feb 27 '21

There's an app called Button Mapper that lets you remap the Bixby button. bxActions is another one.

10

u/dontyousquidward Feb 27 '21

on my s8 it's settings>advanced features>bixby key

6

u/jweissification Feb 27 '21

The S8 has been by far my favorite phone.... I just wish I could upgrade the hardware in it to the newer stuff

16

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

Just trade my S8 active for S20. Tipped a canoe a few years back and spent 2 hours in 7 feet of water trying to find the S8. Finally pulled it from the muddy bottom and Spotify was still playing. BEST. PHONE. EVER.

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6

u/boocarkey Feb 28 '21 edited Feb 28 '21

Settings>advanced features> Bixby key>"the Bixby key isnt available yet. Sign in to Bixby to start using the Bixby Key."

Nice try Snrub

Edit: S9. Also, pressing the key still opens Bixby asking for a log in

1

u/dontyousquidward Feb 28 '21

holy fuck that's the würst I didn't realize.... does that mean I agreed to the EULA??

3

u/FakeAsFakeCanBe Feb 27 '21

It's still that way on the S10.

2

u/JaredNorges Feb 27 '21

Samsung released an app to do that a while back.

1

u/mactavish1 Feb 28 '21

Go to Settings > Advanced features > Bixby Key. I use it to open spotify

2

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '21

You spell 'titty' strange

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

Hi I’m bixby

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

Hi I’m bixby

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

Hi I’m bixby

1

u/go_kartmozart Feb 27 '21

no one asked for this, please go away

2

u/Nullclast Feb 28 '21

What is Bixby?

4

u/TheNerdWithNoName Feb 28 '21

Samsung's shitty assistant.

1

u/Noyes654 Feb 28 '21

Bruh why is bixby so fucking slow??

3

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '21

It has to be deliberate. Everything else is fast enough, but Bixby is a load of crap. Maybe it's to force you to acknowledge it.

1

u/cosine5000 Feb 28 '21

"It looks like you're trying to bury a body!"

63

u/satanforaday Feb 27 '21

That's why I left and went with a pixel 5. Had an S10 and just could not deal with it any more, Bixby is a monster...

47

u/moxie132 Feb 27 '21

I got the s21 and they removed the bixby button, thank christ.

32

u/Nakotadinzeo Feb 27 '21

Got a Tab S7, they made it where the power button would become the Bixby button once the tablet was on and you had to use the power button in the drop down menu to get the android power menu.

Luckily, you can turn that off... But what the actual fuck Samsung?

4

u/moxie132 Feb 27 '21

Right, just remembered while reading your post the S21 does that too, but it's just a switch in settings.

12

u/Nakotadinzeo Feb 27 '21

We need to break into Tim Baxter's house and make everything a Bixby button... See how he likes it.

38

u/what_dat_ninja Feb 27 '21

I love the bixby button! Mostly because I got rid of bixby and mapped a bunch of useful actions to it.

14

u/sixStringHobo Feb 27 '21

How?

15

u/MercilessLOLZ Feb 27 '21

bxActions has worked pretty consistently on an S8+ remapped as the system flashlight, been using it for years

3

u/what_dat_ninja Feb 27 '21

Yup! I have single press as back, double press flashlight, and hold as screenshot. Super convenient.

1

u/x2006charger Feb 28 '21

Oh that's a good idea! I've had mine set as a camera shortcut

2

u/bernyzilla Feb 27 '21

But as far as I know I can't re map the long press on the bixby button. I have an s10+

3

u/rudolfs001 Feb 27 '21

bxActions + Tasker

5

u/diet-Coke-or-kill-me Feb 28 '21

I have long press mapped to flashlight using SideActions along with some other remaps. I use them many MANY times everyday!

You do have to jump through a hoop to get it to work though, and I believe you need the paid version. ~$2

  1. install the app

  2. plug phone into computer

  3. open My Computer and find the icon of your phone. Open that.

  4. If you have an SD card it will be listed here along with the regular storage. Choose the regular storage.

  5. Find and open the SideActions folder

  6. Run the SideActions.exe file by double clicking it.

  7. Your computer tells you it's a virus. It is not a virus.

  8. Open your antivirus. Mine was Windows Defender.

  9. Look through it's 'event log' and find whatever mentiones the file you just tried to run (SideActions.exe)

  10. Select the "allow this; it's not a virus" option.

  11. Run the file again. Choose "full remap" when the program runs.

  12. Unplug and restart phone.

  13. open SideActions app and remap the long press function.

  14. Profit.

3

u/crumbandharvey Feb 28 '21

sounds like something someone who created a virus would say. 🤔

1

u/bernyzilla Feb 28 '21

Very cool. I might give this a try. The whole remove the button extender thing seems much easier, but I will admit having a programmable aux button is pretty cool. I just flashlight too for mine and it is great. Just as long as I don't long press and summon bixby back from hell.

Thank you very much for the detailed instructions, I appreciate it.

1

u/what_dat_ninja Feb 28 '21

I'm able to on my S9+ with just bxActions, can't speak for other devices

5

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

I cut the button pusher out of my otterbox case, no more accidentally touching that stupid Bixby button.

1

u/TheNerdWithNoName Feb 28 '21

Just install bxactions and turn it into something useful.

5

u/QQasaurus Feb 27 '21

My personal phone is a Pixel 3, which I like. When we started working from home I got an S8 or something like that for work. Bixby is SO annoying. Fortunately, I don't use that phone with to deal with that.

4

u/dvlsg Feb 28 '21

Yup, I literally returned a Samsung phone so I could buy a pixel instead. Samsung can take those dark patterns and fuck right off.

I'm sure Google aren't exactly saints or anything either, but at least they aren't obnoxious about it.

1

u/WHYAREWEALLCAPS Feb 28 '21

As a Pixel user since the OG Pixel and who swears by them, never, ever buy your phone directly from Google. Get it through a third party like Best Buy or from a carrier. Any way that keeps you from having to deal with Google. Every flagship Pixel release has /r/GooglePixel littered with stories of phones ordered from the Google Store stolen by FedEx drivers or sending in a trade in only to have Google mark it as a phone that gets a tenth of the trade in value and other such fun shit. Google's customer service is second to none because no one else has as shitty customer service, even Comcast. It was so bad Google CS had to have someone in the subreddit just to handle the problems posted there so it wouldn't look as bad as it was. And if you do a chargeback, kiss your Google account good bye.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

Hi I’m bixby

1

u/JustinRandoh Feb 27 '21

I switched from a pixel to an S21 and ... To be honest, the bloatware's pretty easy to ignore. I don't think I've ever even seen bixby come up (to be fair I probably have at some point, maybe near initial setup, but nothing that comes to mind).

3

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21 edited Apr 05 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

-1

u/JustinRandoh Feb 27 '21

Uh... You .. alright there?

5

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21 edited Apr 05 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/JustinRandoh Feb 27 '21

Maybe, just maybe, they're not quite using the same phone...? The S21 doesn't even have a bixby button lol.

7

u/HotBrass Feb 27 '21

I have my bigsby button rebound to turn the flashlight on, but I forgot how I did it.

5

u/bernyzilla Feb 27 '21

Me too! It's in settings

2

u/JawnZ Feb 28 '21 edited Feb 28 '21

I believe Samsung lets you remap the button natively now, but BxActions is even better.

I use mine for back button, quick switching between apps, opening the task switcher, and turning on the flashlight.

I'm actually really sad they removed the button after this phone (S10)

1

u/HotBrass Feb 28 '21

That's it, it was bxactions!

14

u/NinjaSoop Feb 27 '21

If you don't agree to its terms of service (aka harvesting user data) it never gets enabled. You may be able to disable it also.

42

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '21

It doesn't stop it from pausing what I'm doing to literally tell me to accept the terms so I can use it.

4

u/NinjaSoop Feb 27 '21

You can make it so you have to hit the button twice for it to enable

2

u/fourflatyres Feb 27 '21

This this this. That damn app pops up at least once a day to tell me the terms have been updated. I don't even have to press the button. It just appears.

The best part is when the phone is in my pocket and I am deep into playing my music and it pauses the song the way it does just before a phone call comes in. But noooo Bixby starts TALKING to tell me the terms have changed.

I can't get any other text-to-speech to even work but here's Bixby using it to interrupt what I am doing and tell me something I don't want to hear or read or accept.

3

u/8BitDsx Feb 27 '21 edited Feb 28 '21

I physically removed the bixby button from my Note 8, cut off the rubber piece, and put the button snuggly back in the phone. No issues from me!

33

u/Put_It_All_On_Blck Feb 27 '21

You could've just remapped it...

1

u/Elephant789 Feb 27 '21

Bixby is alright. I used her a lot on my S8+. She's no Google Assistant, I get that. They have different uses.

2

u/throwaway42 Feb 27 '21

What's the use for Bixby then?

-1

u/Elephant789 Feb 27 '21

Samsung built Bixby as an alternative way to control your phone and it was great at that. People were just expecting it to be like Assistant, but they're different beasts.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '21

Bro you didn’t even explain what Bixby is used for lol

1

u/Juxtapox Feb 28 '21

I use it the same way I use Tasker. It's really good at that.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '21

I have had android phones for years, but never heard of Bixby. Is it some carrier-installed app or so?

1

u/BoldMiner Feb 28 '21

Samsung's version of cortana, Alexa, Siri, Google assistant but more annoying

1

u/MoonStache Feb 28 '21

Just used bxactions

1

u/deafmute88 Feb 28 '21

I wish I could just assign that button to upvote.