How to Remove Bloatware from Chinese Phones without Root.
Chinese smartphones have come a long way in both quality and performance. However, in addition to being eminently cheap, they also have something in common. Bloated software! I have a Realme phone and besides a lot of additional apps like browser, news, weather, I also have to deal with the Oppo app store that pops up every time I try to download an app from the Google Play Store. While you cannot remove all malware, you can still remove most of it. So, if you are not a fan of these apps, here’s how to remove malware from Chinese phones without root.
Read the best popular Chinese app alternatives for better privacy
How to remove bloatware from Chinese phones
This method uses Android Debug Bridge (ADB) and PC Command Prompt to uninstall apps from your phone, you can use it not only to uninstall what you think is unnecessary, but other apps as well. To remove malware from your phone, you need three things: a phone, a USB cable, and a laptop (a PC or Mac will work as well). You will also need to install Minimal ADB for (Windows | Mac) and Package Viewer to guide us through the next steps.
First, you need to enable USB Debugging in Developer Options. But since this is a hidden menu, you also need to enable it. To do this, go to Settings, scroll down to About phone and look for Build Number. If you did not find it in the main section of the settings “About phone”, look for it in the section “Version”. Now continuously click on the build number until you see the message “You are now in developer mode”.
After that, go to the main settings page again and select advanced settings. Now scroll down to the developer option and enable USB debugging. You will be prompted to “Allow USB debugging”, just click “OK”.
When finished, connect your phone to your laptop and select “File Transfer”. You will also be prompted for the “Always allow debugging on this computer” permission. Click on the option to mark the prompt and click Allow.
Now just go to the root folder of your phone and type CMD in the toolbar and a command prompt window will open.
Before proceeding and uninstalling apps, you need the package name for each app you want to uninstall. Open the Package Viewer app we installed in the first step and scroll to the app you want to uninstall. Each app will have a package similar to com.realmestore.app (Realme Store). Write it down, we’ll need it later.
Now you will need to use the following command on the command line, type adb devices and press Enter. It will show you the serial number of the connected device. This means that you are doing well. Then type adb shell and hit Enter again.
This is the final step in which we will uninstall applications using pm uninstalls -k user 0 com.realmestore.app. You can replace the application package name with any application of your choice. Enter the command and press Enter again. That’s it, if you see a success message, you’ve uninstalled the app without any problems!
Things to remember
I’m sure you will immediately try to remove all malware from your phone, but there is one catch here. You will not find some applications in the package viewer and cannot be uninstalled. One of them is the Oppo Store, which Realme users can find. Secondly, do not uninstall any system applications like SystemUI, File Manager, Messages, Photos, etc., as they are interdependent for the system to work properly.
Concluding remarks
Most phone manufacturers provide the ability to hide icons in many natively. If you don’t want to use this option, you can simply use it to hide all the icons you don’t want to see. While this doesn’t free up space or prevent apps from tracking you, the app drawer looks clean. You also have the option to disable multiple apps, which is a great way to restrict any access to the Internet or your data. Finally, as silly as it sounds, press and hold the app and you might be in luck if you see the uninstall option.