Removing built-in android applications. How to remove system applications on Android
The user-visible part of Android consists of programs. The interface, the function of sending files via Bluetooth, the gallery or system settings are separate applications that form the operating system. At the same time, some applications are useless or not used, so they can be deleted. We will tell you in this article which programs and applications can be removed without harming the Android system.
What are system applications
System or built-in applications on Android are usually called programs installed by the manufacturer of the mobile device or firmware. Applications are located in the system partition, analogous to the “C” drive in Windows. In this case, the section is not available to the user for viewing or changing without root rights.
Conditionally built-in applications for Android are divided into five categories:
- System– are necessary for the operation of the entire Android operating system.
- Service– provide SMS, Bluetooth, etc. services.
- Service– applications from Google and from the mobile device manufacturer (Samsung, Xiaomi, etc.).
- Custom– social networks, browsers, calculator, etc.
- Operator's– applications from your mobile operator.
Let's consider each of the named categories of programs built into an Android phone or tablet in more detail. Which of these built-in applications can be removed and what are the risks of damaging the device.
System applications
System applications are used for the normal functioning of the OS. These programs include "user interface" and "system settings". Removing system applications on Android leads to disruption of the stability and functioning of the OS.
Utilities
Utilities include auxiliary applications necessary to provide basic functionality: installing/uninstalling programs, SMS, Bluetooth, etc. Removing applications from this category does not crash the OS, but limits access to some functions or modules of the device.
Service applications
Service applications include manufacturer and Google service applications. Manufacturer's programs provide additional features, exclusive or general. are used for the normal functioning of your account, the Google Play store and other programs of the search giant. Removing services often affects the limitation of data synchronization and the operation of some applications.
User utilities
User utilities provide access to various functions: access the Internet, access to a social network account, camera, etc. Removal does not affect the performance of the system, only the basic functionality is partially limited unless you install an alternative utility - browser, player, etc.
Operator programs
The carrier application package is built into devices distributed by cellular operators, such as the United States. Such programs are aimed at simplifying user interaction with the operator, but are completely useless in other countries when using a different operator. Removing such applications does not affect the operation of the device or system in any way.
Why remove system applications
The more applications the manufacturer integrates, the richer and more functional the system becomes, for example MIUI. At the same time, it is more difficult for the user to navigate settings or menus that contain a significant number of programs.
Owners of mobile electronics use applications in different ways. Some programs are not used throughout the entire “life cycle” of an Android smartphone. Therefore, it is better to delete or freeze such programs. Because such applications take up space on the drive and RAM.
What applications can be removed
No impact on the functionality of the smartphone, It is recommended to delete only operator programs. User programs can be removed if there is an alternative, for example a music player or browser, a third-party calendar or calculator. Or when the program is not used, for example, the tablet is used only for games, and you do not plan to send SMS or use the camera.
Removing service applications should be approached with caution. Because once you remove one random service, other associated programs will stop working. It is rational to remove it in cases where you do not plan to use Google programs and are ready to use an alternative.
Utility and system applications for Android It's better not to delete, if you have no idea what this or that application is responsible for.
List of unnecessary applications
Due to the wide variety of Android smartphones, it is difficult to compile a general list of unnecessary applications. Since the names of some services and programs differ within the model range of the same manufacturer. The number of applications also varies.
Use the program, subject to availability. System applications appear in red. Programs installed by the user are marked in white. Yellow and green are not responsible services.
Start not with deletion, but better from frozen programs that are in the main menu. Freeze or delete apps that you don't use. In advance, to restore programs in the event of a system malfunction. Read more about.
A smartphone or tablet based on the Android system should not freeze, reboot or turn off without the user’s knowledge. How to deal with intrusive standard Android applications that launch and work without the knowledge of the smartphone owner? It's not that difficult.
The essence of the problems that arise when operating a mobile device with Android
Choosing an Android smartphone or tablet is only half the battle. But the owner of such a device is faced with Android applications and components that are absolutely unnecessary to him. These applications cause a number of problems:
Of the pre-installed Android applications, you often need the following:
- "Email",
- "Browser",
- "Telephone",
- SMS/MMS (“Messages”),
- "Downloads"
- "Camera",
- "Settings",
- "Engineering menu",
- Play Market,
- SIM menu,
- "Contacts",
- FM radio,
- "Google Settings"
- "Watch",
- "Tasks",
- "Music",
- "Video Player"
- "Backups (Google Drive)",
- "Organizer"
- "Calendar",
- "File Manager",
- "Dictaphone",
- "Weather",
- "Navigation".
Most of the standard, pre-installed Android applications are actively used by the user, but some only take up space The manufacturer and/or distribution company can install other Android applications, for example, Skype, Google Mail, Google Chrome browser (an alternative to the system browser), OK Google (Google voice search), Movie Studio and their own applications.
Cellular operators are developing their own applications for Android. Thus, the mobile operator Beeline includes the My Beeline program in its default applications. If smartphones or tablets are sold by the MTS company, these are the applications “Where are the children”, “Second Memory”, “Personal Account”, “Direct Transfer” and others, created for convenient management of additional services on the MTS SIM card number. In the case of the Yota operator, this is the Yota application. It is very easy to discover these applications - each of them has the branding of the operator company. These "secondary" applications can be easily removed without using Root access - even if they were installed by default before the device was put on display at the point of sale.
Is it possible to remove Android system apps?
To do this, you will need Root rights - the ability to not only read, but also write in Android system folders. By default, the system/app folder, which contains the files of all installed applications, is not writable.
There are more than a dozen Android applications that allow you to get Root access with one touch - among them are Easy Rooting Toolkit, Gingerbreak, HTC Quick Root, RootExplorer, SuperOneClick, VISIONary, Unlock Root, Unrevoked, z4root, etc. Which ones are suitable for your smartphone or tablet model - a test of each of them will show.
The RootExplorer application allows you to change the access level for system folders by setting the Read/Write attribute for them. After this, the user will be able to create, edit, rename, move and delete files within the system/app application folder. RootExplorer is available both in the Play Market and as a separate APK file.
Which apps should you remove first?
Note. The list has removed applications whose removal is questionable: it could negatively affect the operation of the Android OS and your smartphone.
Table: applications that can be removed without harm to the device
| Application Description | Executable files |
| Weather client of weather.com | AccuweatherDaemon.apk |
| Weather client from Samsung | AccuweatherWidget.apk |
| AccuweatherWidget_Main.apk | |
| “Sharing” programs and multimedia bookmarks on AllShare servers | AllShareCastWidget.apk |
| AllshareMediaServer.apk | |
| AllSharePlay.apk | |
| AllshareService.apk | |
| Hand clock on Android | AnalogClock.apk |
| AnalogClockSimple.apk | |
| GPS component LBSTestMode on some models of Samsung devices, which quickly drains the battery on the device | AngryGPS.apk |
| The component that reduces the sound volume on Samsung devices activates after minutes | audioTuning.apk |
| Dynamic Android desktop background | Aurora.apk |
| Backup calendar events on Google servers, event notifications | CalendarProvider.apk |
| SecCalendarProvider.apk | |
| Samsung chat (feedback from Samsung gadget manufacturers) | ChatON_MARKET.apk |
| Google Chrome browser | Chrome.apk |
| Synchronizing Google Chrome browser tabs with the corresponding Google service | ChromeBookmarksSyncAdapter.apk |
| Text clipboard with additional features | ClipboardSaveService.apk |
| Cloud services DropBox and Samsung | CloudAgent.apk |
| Task scheduler with calendar | Days.apk |
| Another dynamic wallpaper | DeepSea.apk |
| Shell of the “Data Import” application from the system browser | DownloadProviderUi.apk |
| SecDownloadProviderUi.apk | |
| Dropbox cloud storage | Dropbox.apk |
| DropboxOOBE.apk | |
| Android notification about SIM card replacement | DSMForwarding.apk |
| Remote device management and erasing information on a lost device (like a similar service on an iPhone or iPad) | DSMLawmo.apk |
| "Double Clock" | DualClock.apk |
| An encrypted file system (like a similar service in Windows) that makes other people's memory cards inaccessible for viewing the contents | Encrypt.apk |
| Corporate mail and calendar scheduler MS Exchange | Exchange.apk |
| Unlocking the screen by recognizing the face of the device owner | FaceLock.apk |
| Updating the operating system and built-in Android applications over the Internet (via cellular networks or Wi-Fi) | fotaclient.apk |
| Component for single and online games | GameHub.apk |
| Weather and news widget | Geniewidget.apk |
| Find your device using Google (similar to Apple's Find My iPhone) | GlobalSearch.apk |
| Google Mail app | Gmail.apk |
| Additional components of the Google Mail application | GmailProvider.apk |
| Additional Google Play services | GmsCore.apk |
| Backing up settings of user and system Android applications on Google servers | GoogleBackupTransport.apk |
| Backup calendar events to Google | GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter.apk |
| Backing up contacts on Google servers | GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk |
| Google Improvement User Participation Program | GoogleFeedback.apk |
| Social services of Google partners | GooglePartnerSetup.apk |
| Instant Google Search | GoogleQuickSearchBox.apk |
| GoogleSearch.apk | |
| Voice search on Google | GoogleTTS.apk |
| "Reminder" about events | InfoAlarm.apk |
| "Logger" (event logging) | Kobo.apk |
| Layar Augmented Reality Browser | Layar-samsung.apk |
| Internet auto settings in LG devices | LGSetupWizard.apk |
| Dynamic wallpaper | LiveWallpapers.apk |
| Switch dynamic wallpaper | LiveWallpapersPicker.apk |
| Dynamic wallpaper | MagicSmokeWallpapers.apk |
| Play Market auto update | MarketUpdater.apk |
| Mini-notes (like tweets, but on the device itself) | MiniDiary.apk |
| System media player that works with Flash animation | oem_install_flash_player.apk |
| Another social network from Google | PlusOne.apk |
| Yellow press news | PressReader.apk |
| “Tour” of your device, or “How to get started” | Protips.apk |
| Backup Samsung media library on Kies servers | SamsungApps.apk |
| SamsungAppsUNAService.apk | |
| Backup system and user data on Samsung servers | Samsungservice.apk |
| "Voice" Samsung | SamsungTTS.apk |
| “Clock + calendar” Calendar Clock | SamsungWidget_CalendarClock.apk |
| Latest news and subscription to updates from Samsung | SamsungWidget_FeedAndUpdate.apk |
| Another option for the built-in system clock | SamsungWidget_StockClock.apk |
| Weather clock-barometer from weather.com | SamsungWidget_WeatherClock.apk |
| Samsung account. Monitors the movements of the device (similar to the “Find iPhone” function from the Apple iCloud service) | signin.apk |
| Backup all types of Facebook and Twitter credentials | SnsAccount.apk |
| Applications and widgets for social networks | SnsProvider.apk |
| SnsDisclaimer.apk | |
| SnsImageCache.apk | |
| SocialHub.apk | |
| SocialHubWidget.apk | |
| Device software update | syncmldm.apk |
| "Social" Samsung Social Hub | UNAService.apk |
| Video editor. Using such a smartphone video editor, it is difficult to “cut” videos due to the inconvenience of working on a touch screen - that’s why many users edit videos on a PC | VideoEditor.apk |
| Video player that lacks many codecs | VideoPlayer.apk |
| Voice recorder with terrible sound quality | VoiceRecorder.apk |
| Another Google voice search | VoiceSearch.apk |
| WAP is a service that has been outdated a long time ago and is still incredibly expensive to this day. | WapService.apk |
| Write & Go app on Samsung devices | WriteandGo.apk |
| The process that allows a mobile operator to gain access to your Internet access settings | wssyncmlnps.apk |
| Internet loggers and logging | Zinio.apk |
How to delete an application: step-by-step instructions
So, you have received Root access to all folders in the internal memory, including system ones, and you can now do whatever you want with built-in Android applications.
Problems encountered when uninstalling stock Android applications
When deleting applications, you need to remove not only APK files, but also files of the same name with the ODEX extension. Removing the ODEX description of any application allows you to get rid of unnecessary entries in the registry of the Android operating system, thereby having a beneficial effect on the speed of your smartphone. The fact is that when Android starts, the entire registry is loaded into RAM and works “all the way” in full force, and when turned off or rebooted, the Android system saves the data to the internal flash memory of the smartphone.
Before deleting any system Android application, it is recommended to disable it (“freeze”) and continue using the smartphone. If something goes wrong, other applications stop running, they begin to freeze, or the Android operating system malfunctions, then this application should not be deleted, but rather “unfrozen.”
Do not try to delete the “Phone”, “Messages”, SIM menu, “Settings”, “Navigation” and “File Manager” applications - this is the “backbone” of the Android operating system and your device, without which it will lose its value. Otherwise, you will have to reflash the smartphone and start the process of “cleaning” the Android system all over again.
After deleting unnecessary Android applications, information about them remains in other Android system files located in the “/system/lib” and “/data/dalvik-cache” folders. The first one cannot be touched - this may lead to the smartphone not working. The second one can be cleaned using a hard reset of Android.
As with all third-party applications, you need to be careful with SystemApp Remover - it is advisable to make a backup copy of it on an SD card before deleting any application, otherwise you can damage the Android firmware. System applications, on which the operation of Android processes and services directly depend, require extreme care. And although “reflashing” is not particularly difficult, think about whether it is worth taking this very delicate matter to extreme measures?
A hasty and thoughtless deletion can irreversibly damage the operation of the smartphone: SMS will not be sent or calls will be made/received, access to Wi-Fi wireless networks and gadgets with Bluetooth will be lost, the Android operating system will restart cyclically or freeze at startup, etc. .
How to get back deleted Android system apps
Before deleting, make a backup copy of the Android applications you are deleting. Not only APK files must be copied, but also ODEX files corresponding to all applications to be removed. Let's look at saving information and user data using the Titanium Backup tool as an example. Naturally, Root rights on the smartphone should already be available.
- Install and run Titanium Backup, assign it superuser rights.
Share your system folder with Titanium Backup - Open the "Backups" tab. The program will show which Android system applications you can copy.
Go to the backups tab - Select the properties of the list of Android applications by which it will be shown to you.
Sort the list of applications by one of the main criteria - Open the action bar above the selected app by tapping its name. Press the “Freeze!” button.
Click on the freeze key to create a backup - To save the application, click "Save". Open each application and save a copy of it. This way, you will be protected from accidentally deleting applications, without which the Android system may perform noticeably worse.
- To unblock the launch and operation of this Android application, repeat all steps. Only instead of the “Freeze” key there will be a “Unfreeze” key.
- To restore a deleted application, run Titanium Backup again, sort the list of applications by the availability of their backup copies and restore each of them individually (the “Restore” button).
- You can save all applications in one go. To do this, open the tool for creating a full “system” copy of Android in the Titanium Backup program. Select "Back up all system data." If you want to copy your applications as well, select the “Back up all user software and system data” option.
Back up all applications and system data - If you do delete some system applications, you may need to restore them. Run the Titanium Backup recovery tool.
Recover all apps that were deleted - Select "Restore all system data". If you also deleted custom applications but want to restore them too, select “Restore missing software and all system data.”
How to remove all unnecessary Android system apps at once
So, through experiments on “freezing” applications, you have compiled a list of unnecessary Android system “software” that reduces the performance of your smartphone. You are now sure exactly which applications you don’t need, but you don’t want to delay the issue of cleaning your Android system from unnecessary system junk. Are you tired of wandering through backup programs and performing actions on each application? The time has come to act quickly and decisively. In addition to Root access, you need any file manager on your PC or on your smartphone itself.
- If you operate directly from the smartphone itself, open the standard Android file manager. The APK files of the applications being deleted are shown first.
- Go through the list of the system/app folder and remove all applications that bother you. If you know exactly the names of the files you need, use the file manager search.
With File Manager you can remove all the apps you don't need
Components that are part of the Android operating system and are marked with a web address in a mirror image of the form com.android.<ресурс>, or having an icon in the form of a green Android robot - cannot be deleted. Choose others that do not have this signature, with normal names that match the names of the programs that need to be removed, for example, Clock 2.2.5. The result of inept intervention is the crash of the Android firmware, requiring a complete software restoration of the smartphone. In this case, only specialists from the Android Shop service center, which is located in every major city, will help.
Video: How to remove Android system apps
Removing debris from the device is also not particularly difficult.
Video: cleaning Android from garbage, detailed instructions
The right measures will help protect the Android system from sudden losses of the software built into it, and will protect you from failures in the operation of your smartphone. In addition, the internal memory of the device will become more spacious, after rebooting the smartphone, the Android system will work faster, battery consumption will decrease and Internet traffic consumption will decrease - the benefits with which you will be rewarded for your experience and correct actions.
Manufacturers of Android smartphones very often build into their firmware many applications that the user does not need. These take up space on the system disk and, working in the background, create a load on the device’s processor.
Manually removing built-in applications
You can also avoid using Root Uninstaller and instead uninstall built-in apps manually. It will be a little more difficult and time consuming, but it is possible.
To manually remove built-in applications on Android, you will need a file manager that can use ROOT rights. In this article we will use the ES File Explorer file manager. You can download it absolutely free.
So, after you have downloaded and installed ES File Explorer, you must configure it. To do this, swipe to the right and open the ES Explorer side menu. Here you need to find and enable the “ROOT Explorer” function.
After this, a window will open asking you to confirm the granting of Root rights. In this window you need to click on the “Ok” button. If this is not done, then ES Explorer will not be able to work normally with root rights.
After that, tap again on the “ROOT Explorer” function in the ES Explorer application and hold your finger on the screen until the settings menu appears. In this menu you need to select the “Connect as R/W” item.
In the window that opens, select the “RW” option for all folders. Then click on the “Ok” button to save the settings.
At this point, the setup of ES Explorer is completed, and you can begin to remove built-in applications on your Android device. To do this, go to the /system/app folder, which is located on the internal memory of the device. In this folder you need to delete the APK and ODEX files of the built-in applications that you want to remove. This can be done very simply by selecting the required APK and ODEX files and clicking on the “Delete” button.
If you have Android 5.0 or a newer version, then in the /system/app folder the files will not be all in a pile, but sorted into folders. In this case, we simply find the folder of the desired application and delete it in exactly the same way.
The next step is to remove the updates. To do this, go to the /data/app folder, find the necessary APK files there (or folders if you have Android 5.0) and delete them.
The final stage on Android is deleting cache files and databases. To do this, open the /data/data folder, find folders with updates there and delete these folders.
After that, we reboot the device and enjoy pure Android without unnecessary built-in programs.
The era of unprecedented flowering of computer technology sets the pace of life. And now a person of the 21st century cannot imagine his existence without a smartphone, tablet and other such useful and irreplaceable devices. Sooner or later, the owner of a fashionable gadget has a question that worries hundreds of users of one of the most popular Android operating systems: how to remove unnecessary applications. Sometimes such a seemingly simple task can become a serious problem. This article will tell you how to delete an application on Android, while saving your time and nerves.
How to delete an application on Android
Very often, while using a device, owners discover that the device’s memory is littered with a large number of unused applications. This inevitably leads to clogged RAM, increased power consumption, and simply simple chaos in files and inconvenience of use due to a clutter of “extra” icons. If you want to get rid of an application that you installed yourself, then this will not be difficult. There are several options:1. The “for dummies” method.
For those new to using Android devices, the easy way is the way to go. You need to open the “Menu” / “Settings” / “Applications” tabs (the latter may also be called “Application Manager”, “Application Management”). Select the application you want to remove and click the appropriate button.
Attention: when using this method, the inconvenience is that all applications are presented in the list, including system ones. If there is no “Delete” button on the screen, then most likely the selected application is standard, and the algorithm for working with it is somewhat different. (Read below for information on how to remove standard Android applications).
2. Using special programs
Programs such as or allow you to quickly and easily remove applications that have been installed on Android by the user. They are more convenient because they do not include standard applications in the list.
3. Using a file manager.
The menu of file managers usually contains a tool with which you can remove installed applications. For example, suitable for this, etc.
4. Via Google Play Market.
You need to launch the Market application. Downloaded programs can be seen in the “My Applications” tab. The delete function is also available there.
How to remove standard Android applications
If in most cases there are no problems with deleting user applications, then the answer to the question about Android how to delete system applications has its own nuances.Be prepared for the fact that you will need access to the folder with system files. (Note: obtaining Superuser rights is possible using various special programs, for example, Kingo Android ROOT or Unlock Root). If you have them, you can clean your Android device of unnecessary applications without extra effort.
So, let's look at 2 ways below on how to remove pre-installed Android applications:
1. Using a file manager that supports displaying hidden system files. One of the most popular is. After installing it, you just need to enter the /system folder, find the required application in the /app subfolder and delete it. (Please note: many applications have not only an .apk file, but also an .odex file. In this case, you need to delete both of them).
2. Using special programs such as or. You must install the program on your device and follow the instructions.
Attention: It should be noted that experts do not advise deleting system applications forever, but resorting to “freezing” them. This can be done in standard “Settings”. Select the “Applications” tab, then click on the required program icon and “Disable”. Thanks to these actions, the application will not appear on the device, but it can be activated at any time.
If you didn’t know how to remove Android system applications, or thought it was impossible, this information will tell you the main ways to solve this problem.
Let's be honest: most of the interesting customization options for Droid devices are hidden and require rooting the device. However, not everyone prefers to get root - some out of fear of losing the warranty, others out of sheer laziness. We decided to look at alternative ways to speed up devices on the Google platform that do not require superuser rights.
Introduction
Google is constantly improving the performance of its system. But “pure” Android is now quite rare - manufacturers, as a rule, modify the firmware, which does not always have a positive effect on performance. In addition, in addition to this, it would be good to take care of energy saving, and these are often mutually exclusive things. Nevertheless, even non-rooted Android has such capabilities, although there are not very many of them.
Removing/disabling built-in and unnecessary applications
Before the release of the fourth version of Android, it was impossible to disable built-in applications without root rights. This brought inconvenience to buyers of branded gadgets, because each manufacturer strives to cram into the firmware as many programs as possible that the end user simply does not need and in total eat up a decent amount of resources. In the fourth version of Google, such an opportunity appeared. To disable any built-in application, you need to go to “Settings -> General -> Applications -> All”, select the desired software and in “Application Information” click the “Disable” button (or “Uninstall updates”, and then “Disable” "). To enable it, you need to go to the “Disabled” tab and follow a similar procedure.
However, not everything is as rosy as it seems at first glance. Firstly, disabling it does not affect persistent memory - the application remains installed as it was. Secondly, not everything can be turned off. Only some applications allow you to do this trick with yourself. I won't give a lot of specific advice on disabling applications, since the list of applications is different on each device. Here is a short list of what most users do not need, but constantly hangs in the system and takes up memory:
- “Browser” - why, if there are more convenient and easier alternatives?
- “Calendar” and “Calendar Memory” - I didn’t notice anyone actively using them.
- “Email” and “Exchange Services” - it seems like everyone is already on Gmail.
- “Google Search” is a rather useless function if you have a browser (beware, it also disables Google Now).
- “Google Keep”, “Google+” and other not always necessary applications from Google.
In addition, I recommend turning off (delete) widgets and live wallpapers. In addition to the fact that this functionality requires memory and CPU time, it also eats up the battery. So to increase speed it is better to turn off such things. You can also turn off effects on the lock screen. In my case (Samsung with stock firmware) they are located in “Settings -> Device -> Lock screen -> Unlock effect”.
Callouts: INFO
How disabling applications works. After clicking on the “Disable” button, the setApplicationEnabledSetting() method of the PackageManager class is called, which changes the application state to COMPONENT_ENABLED_STATE_DISABLED_USER (by the way, it appeared in the first Android).
Setting up power saving and using developer options
To speed up the operation of the gadget, you can also adjust the energy saving settings. Of course, this will reduce battery life, but it can speed it up quite significantly. To do this (in my case) you need to go to “Settings -> General -> Energy Saving” and either slide the switch located in the upper right corner or uncheck the necessary checkboxes.
This works differently on different platforms, and there is no public API - there is, of course, the PowerManager API, but this has only a very indirect relation to energy saving. However, on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (as well as for other Droid devices of the South Korean giant), energy saving is controlled through DVFS - Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling, the same one with which Samsung “falsified” the benchmark results (I note in parentheses that this was not a real falsification - just for some benchmarks and applications the device worked at the limit of its capabilities).
To disable system animation (animation in applications will remain), you need to go to the developer options menu, which is hidden by default. To access it, tap seven times on the “Build number” item, which is located in the “About device / About phone” menu. Then go to the menu that appears and turn off all animation: set the parameters “Window animation scale”, “Transition animation scale” and “Transition duration scale” to “Animation disabled” (in firmware from other manufacturers, these options may have a slightly different name).
In the same menu you can limit the number of background processes. The latter, however, should be done with caution - instead of speeding up, it may slow down due to the fact that frequently used processes will be killed and started again. That’s why, by the way, all sorts of task killers are not recommended.
Application acceleration
To speed up individual applications, you can clear their cache. This is done in the same place where you can disable/delete them, that is, “Settings -> General -> Application Manager -> All”, select the application you need and click the “Clear cache” button.
It also makes sense to install less resource-intensive applications - for example, in my case, Smart Launcher takes up less memory than Samsung's native TouchWiz does. The sidebar will provide specific tips, but I don’t recommend following them specifically, since it all depends on your needs. The main thing in this case is to choose the right size/functionality ratio.
To determine memory consumption, you can use the following method: install some terminal with Busybox, determine the PID of the desired process (using 'ps w') and look at the /proc//status file. In this case, however, you need to take into account the Android architecture - the application can be spread across several processes.
If this method is too difficult for you and you don’t want to bother with each application, there are several graphical analogues of the top utility in the market. I liked one of them, called Process Explorer, the implementation of which, however, seemed incomprehensible - why use a browser to view the list of processes?
By the way, the Google Play service has a habit of suddenly updating a bunch of applications, which, of course, eats up resources. It is not possible to disable this service, but you can disable the update itself. To do this, go to the Play Store, call up the menu (hint: if you can’t call it using the soft keys, “pull” from the left edge), select “Settings” and set “Auto-update applications” to “Never”.
Likewise, it makes sense to disable account synchronization (which, in addition to a possible increase in performance, will satisfy your paranoia). To do this, go to “Settings” and look for where the “Accounts” item is located, then select an account and disable synchronization (alternatively, you can disable only individual and unnecessary types of synchronization, such as, for example, Google+ contacts or calendar. - Editor's note).
Disable media scanning
By default, Android scans all external storage devices (SD cards) for media files. This function, although useful, slows down the system quite a lot. You can disable it. For new drives, create an empty .nomedia file in the root. But in order to disable the display of existing files in Android 4.0 and later, you need, in addition to creating this file in the folder you need, to clear the data and cache for the “Gallery” and “Multimedia Storage” applications and force them to stop. After the next launch, all multimedia files will be indexed taking into account the created .nomedia files.
I will give some tips on the most famous brands. It is worth noting that these tips are only suitable for official firmware, so if you have a modified firmware, you can safely skip this section.
Samsung
If you are the owner of any of the devices of this brand, you probably noticed that going to the main screen by pressing the Home button is a little slow. This is due to the fact that double clicking launches S Voice, a speech recognition system. If you do not use it, you can disable this function by unchecking the “Open. "Home" key. In addition, if you accidentally enabled the wake command, it is better to disable it - using this option affects the battery charge quite significantly.
Additionally, some Samsung devices have the option to disable launcher effects. To do this, long-tap on an empty space on the home screen, select “Home screen settings” and in the “Transition effect” submenu select “None”.
HTC
In some cases, the error reporting service may be slow on HTC devices. Although it is not recommended to touch such things, you can disable this option by going to “Settings -> About phone -> Send HTC” (Tell HTC) and unchecking the corresponding checkboxes there.
Sony
On Sony Xperia SP, there is a situation when the phone suddenly starts to slow down. You can try to fix the problem by uninstalling updates for Google Chrome: “Settings -> Applications -> Chrome -> Uninstall updates.”
Greenify
The Greenify application allows you to forcefully put to sleep unnecessary processes (which you can select) while the device is sleeping, and prevent them from being called from third-party processes. This differs from task killers, which do not in any way prevent background applications from restarting due to external events (by a timer, the request of another application, or a system event). Unfortunately, some functionality is only available on rooted phones - in particular, the most important function of sleeping applications a few minutes after the device falls asleep.
The reason is that the forceStopPackage() method, which allows Greenify to put applications into an inactive state, is internal and is only available to system applications or those running as root. In non-root mode, you can only use the killBackgroundProcesses() method, which does not completely unload the process from memory, so system events continue to come to it and “wake up” it, which does not at all correspond to the Greenify ideology.
Therefore, to implement functionality in non-root mode, the Greenify developer took a completely different and very inventive path. When installed, the application registers as Accessibility Service, thus gaining access to the system interface, and then simply calls up the application manager and clicks on the necessary buttons to kill the application through the standard Android settings menu. During sleep mode, this operation is unfortunately not possible, so on non-rooted smartphones Greenify can only sleep applications after the user presses the corresponding button.
ART
In Android 4.4, a replacement for Dalvik appeared - ART, Android Runtime. It provides AOT compilation. In order to understand what it is and what the advantage of ART is, you will have to take a brief excursion into history.
At the time when the foundation for Android was being laid, Java was chosen as the programming language - largely due to the fact that the OS was supposed to be used on a wide variety of platforms. And it was good for everyone, except for one thing - the speed of Java applications was quite low. This happened because the code was actually being interpreted.
Time passed. In Android 2.2, JIT compilation was added to the Dalvik virtual machine. This allowed us to achieve a fairly significant increase in speed, but did not solve all the problems. And now in the KitKat version ART appeared, which allows you to compile applications not even at runtime - during installation. You can enable it in the same developer menu where we disabled the effects. This, on the one hand, increases installation time and size, and also, when turned on for the first time, it takes significant time to convert all already installed applications into native code. On the other hand, the increase in speed after enabling it is on average 50%, and for some applications even more (in particular, scrolling has become much smoother).
But ART also has disadvantages. Some of them are obvious - for example, incompatibility with certain obfuscators and applications. They simply don’t concentrate attention on certain individuals, although they should. Among these I will include possible security problems. Experiments conducted relatively recently (at the May HITB conference) show that if a specially generated DEX file is inserted, the translator (dex2oat) crashes. In addition, if you find vulnerabilities in ART itself, it will be possible to create user-mode rootkits. In addition, the boot.oat image generated by the translator has a fixed base address (0x700000), which allows you to bypass ASLR under certain conditions.
At the same time, from the point of view of reverse engineering, static analysis of OAT files is still difficult - for the reason that the usual method names are simply not in the code. This is understandable. However, since the OAT file format is actually ELF, you can use tools designed for the latter, such as GDB. As for the dynamic... There is no toolkit for it as such.
ART will be enabled by default in the fifth version of Google's OS (and Dalvik, accordingly, will be removed). In my opinion, given the potential security problems, it’s too early to completely abandon Dalvik, so I don’t agree with Google’s policy here. However (with this in mind), it is all the more worthwhile to enable ART on KitKat to test the applications you need.
Conclusion
Despite the flexibility of the Android platform, it is difficult to speed up your device without using custom and/or rooted firmware. But it is not impossible, as this article proves. Finally, I’ll give you universal advice: install only those applications that you will actually use, and say a firm “No” to everyone else.
Lightweight programs for Android
I will give a short list of lightweight analogues of the necessary programs for Android. This list is minimal, including only what, in my opinion, is necessary:
- You can use RMaps instead of Google Maps. Not only is this application lighter, it is also much more functional.
- Cumbersome Adobe Reader can be replaced by Mupdf.
- There are quite a lot of readers. Among the lightweight ones, I can recommend AlReader and FBReader.
- As for browsers, you can install Lighthing Browser, which is de facto a lightweight standard one.
- It is better to replace the extremely heavy Feedly RSS reader client with the lightweight FeedMe (be careful, only for smart people).
What does root give? (editor's word)
About a year ago, I wrote an article about speeding up new versions of Android on outdated devices. In it, I talked about several techniques that require root rights, with which you can increase the performance of your smartphone by unloading all non-critical system components from RAM. In short, the article presented five main methods:
- Tuning the Low Memory Killer mechanism in order to teach the system to unload background applications from the device’s memory faster than it does by default. The trick requires modification of kernel parameters and is therefore only available on a rooted device. Applications used: Auto Memory Manager or MinFree.
- Removing all unnecessary system applications from the /system/app and /system/priv-app directories. Can be done using any file manager with root support.
- Disable unnecessary system applications using Bloatware Freezer, disable their autoloading using Autostarts.
- Installing an optimized custom kernel and activating the Zram mechanism, as well as the TCP westwood congestion control algorithm. Overclocking the processor.
- Tuning the kernel virtual memory subsystem to ensure faster unloading of data from caches.
