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uzer414561

Hi there,

My objective is to lighten up my phone packed with stock useless/**bleep**ty/bloat apps and make it run faster & cleaner to use.

found out that the OS android 4.3 has a great feature that let non root user disable permanently some of the protected apps (settings --> apps --> disabled (right scroll))

So next question is : what's safe to disable?

easy enough to spot the "google xxx" junk as in "google chrome" "google play music" "google hangouts" "google play books" etc...

easy for some of the useless sony layer : "sony select" "games" etc...

but concerning the rest... "devices" "diagnostics" for example...i suspect it's part of sony junk too...

how to know what is doing what? what is required by the android OS ?

Do we have a system/OS list of processes NOT to tamper with?

thanks

daverawle

I think this describes what I need in the way of apps:

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

AnnoyedUKCustom

@uzer414561 wrote:
Agree with both of you friends :smileysmileywink:
AnnoyedUKCustomer : Yes buying a complete smart phone more powerful than a PC made 15 years ago and removing all functionnalities may seems "retro" or backward at very least... and most of the ol' 90s phone were that!!
Still i see most of the people around me, buying stuff like a smartphone and having no/little clue what to do with it... so they start to use what the OEM provider tell them to use : use itunes, use gmail, use chrome, use chat...
And i reckon that they (OEM/manuacturers) really influence people choices & habits & needs... and i reckon it is good for most of the people to get hints & services like that...
For me, it's a bit different (i'am half a geek :smileytongue:)... there i'm in agreement with @daverawle i removed stock player/browser/mail to replace with the SW i choose based upon my preferences, needs, and trust (privacy issues mainly : see auto-backup and so, are nice features but i don't really need/trust google or sony to safeguard my credit card number or the pictures of my wife in g-string :smileysilly:)
So basically yes i de-tune my stock smartphone to re-tune it to my needs...
Not everyone puts 3 mails accounts, FB, skype, customized ringtones, sync smartphone/PC, calendar, portable music/video in the car or anywhere else with mhl & BT, GPS & antiradar by BT in the car etc...
I have far less apps & stuff & features enabled on my phone than most, still it seems i'm able to do more with my phone than most of my friends...
"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein

I completely understand your approach and I try to do the same but I don't go so far. I find that some stock applications are good enough so I don't need to replace them (example: Sony email app is ok and works well with my corporate Exchange server), or for exemple in the case of the browser I use Firefox because it supports AdBlock, Ghostery and SelfDestroying Cookies which are extremely useful extensions, however I have not disabled Chrome because there might be an odd website that doesn't work well with Firefox so I still have a second option.