In the age of AI and SEO enhancements, I often spend a lot of time trying to just find what I’m looking for in sea of word salads, promotions/affiliate deals and contradictory nonesense. This article contains none of it. This here is the first article in a series I’m gonna be calling “No AI No Nonesense” in which I would be writing/explaining things as fast, efficient and as objective as I possibly can.

So, what are we trying to do? Well, we’ll go about the fastest most efficient way to debloat your normal sane smartphone (what’s an iPhone?)

Okay, why would I wanna put in the effort? Because almost all smart phone manufactures participate in anti-consumer nonesense that’s hurting your experience, your wallet and your privacy.

For example, my phone has around 250 packages from the manufacturer, 59 of them run periodically (or constantly lol) to send back telemetry to the manufacturer most of them serving absoulty no other functions allowing them to make money out of my private data (such as my habits, location data, political views, etc) and in some cases spy on entire nations (see the sources below after you’re done with this.)

Alright so how? Simple we’ll use ADB ( Android Debug Bridge) and a “Program” called Universal Android Debloat Tool.

Step 1: Download ADB

Step 2: Extract the zip file you just downloaded using 7z, winrar or the windows zip tools by right clicking the archive and choosing the extract option (image below is 7z, select extract here)

Step 3: Download Universal Android Debloater and copy it over to the platform-tools folder you just extracted next to adb.exe

Step 4: Navigate on your phone’s software information page from Settings => About phone ==> Software information then click on Build number 5 times to unlock developer mode.

Step 5: Turn on your phone’s newly available developer options which can be accessed now from Settings ==> Developer options then scroll down to “USB debugging” and turn that on too.

Step 6: Connect your phone to your PC using usb and select the file transfer option

Step 7: Double click uad_gui-windows.exe to open up the Universal Android Debloater after that your phone will prompt you to allow the PC to send adb commands to your phone, select Allow.

Now you have “Almost” total control of the software on your phone, what now? My recommendation is to first and foremost back up your data. After that I would start disabling packages I don’t want on my phone. So for example if you use brave or Firefox. You don’t actually need Google Chrome so you could start by disabling it, the reason you would disable a package is so that you would be able to easily re-enable it later if you wish.

The way you do that is by going to UAD’s Settings ==> Clear and disable packages instead of uninstalling them ; This is beneficial since in most cases uninstalling prebuild apps doesn’t free up space and could have harmful consequences (very rare but still) then, in the search-bar of UAD search for com.android.chrome and click disable/uninstall. Repeat for as many un-used apps as you would like.

From here if this is your first time modifying your android I would only remove system appsthat you don’t use followed by back-end apps that passively collect your data by searching for apps/packages from Tencent, ironSoruce, Yandex, etc. These packages will either have the company name in their name or an affiliate name, my phone for example had com.aura.oobe.samsung.gl which is a known Israeli spyware from ironSource disguised as an “out of the box experience” that should run once yet continues to always send telemetry all the same.

If it’s not your first time modifying android packages or you’re simply interested in a privacy respecting phone then all you gotta do is:

• A: Remove all google apps/manifacurer apps (including AI/Cloud crap) and replace them with FOSS alternatives (Check out Fdroid & Fossify Simple Apps) but not before signing out of any system app that you’re removing.

• B: Inspect all the back-end packages in the reccomened section of UAD and remove everything you don’t like the sound of (UAD has detailed descriptions of all packages in the reccomened to remove section, read them carefully).

• C: Keep social media in your privacy respecting browser(Firefox, Brave, Cromite, Librewolf on PC, etc), never actually install social media apps.

• D: Use PCAPdroid to monitor and remove any application that’s sending your data away with maybe the exception of play services & play store. Reason is, lots of apps won’t work without them or on rooted android with microG (and it takes a very tech savvy person to even configure/use these options)

Reading materials & resources:

• How to Take “almost take full control” of your Smartphone (for the tech savvy)
• “Samsung Smart Fridges Now Show Ads In Your Kitchen” curated ads mind you (i.e we spy on your kitchen to know which ads to show you)
• Research on the use of Political Advertisement on Social Media
• Chinese Spyware Pre-Installed on All Samsung Phones
• Forced Spyware on Samsung Phones in MENA: The AppCloud & IronSource Controversy
• Take Control Over Hardware you Bought and Paid for: Introduction to a Self Managed Life