Updated my Samsung phone and it installed unwanted apps

I hate that. One of the reasons I dislike Samsung phones. Last phone from them was a Note 8 and unless they go back to a pure Android experience, I won’t get another. We know that isn’t happening any time soon.

Honestly I’m super over all our current choices. Im on an iPhone and while I like their privacy stuff slightly better than android, there are lots of things I don’t like.

I also hate how much metadata the big G snorts up. Even just the location data they retain is out of this world.

There just aren’t any options if you want something that doesn’t keep you boxed into a closed ecosystem or track every love you make.

Samsung has been a malicious bad actor for a while now. It's not just phones; they also pulled shit like retroactively adding ads to people's smart TVs etc.

(Also, even their "dumb" products, like appliances, are designed to fail just outside warranty. If you don't believe me, take a look at my washer's spider arm, which failed catastrophically due to corrosion even though nothing else in the machine had so much of a speck of corrosion on it. Samsung is clearly capable of specifying corrosion-resistant materials and chose not to on purpose in order to create a failure point.)

Everyone should completely boycott Samsung.

Straight up gambling apps too

Majorly infuriating.

It's not really your phone if it does things like this. This is Samsung's phone you pay for their permission to carry for a few years.

True ownership means fully possessing something and deciding how it operates including what software it runs, what data that software can access, and when it can access it. I would not be surprised if those apps had some very invasive default permissions.

If one of my relatives showed me this screen appearing on their phone I’d assume they have malware

Ah, that's where you're wrong: it's not your phone.

I disabled my DNS block-list for 5 minutes to test something, and my Samsung TV used its newfound freedom to immediately go and automatically install the TikTok app from its app store. It no longer gets the privilege of an internet connection.

Stab in the dark...your on tmobile.

It does this to me too. You disable the damn thing, then you get a carrier update and it reactivates and downloads stupid games no one wants.

First time it did it to me, I thought I got a virus. Come to find out...nah it's just a thing tmobile forces on you for fun.

Assholes

It's carrier based. I've had Samsung phones almost exclusively and as long as I buy unlocked I never get unwanted apps.

The fact that one of those is some sort of a gambling app promotes that to very infuriating! 😡

At this point I only buy Smartphones with Android One label (Stock Android without anything changed). Samsung especially is full of bloat.

One of the many reasons I will only ever buy Pixel phones. No bloatware.

Just uninstalled this after seeing this thread. If you're on AT&T like I am the package name for Mobile Services Manager is com.dti.att and it has nothing to do with your actual mobile services. All it does is push and update bloatware. I also nuked every AT&T app that I could. I recommend everyone who has Android Studio do this to their phone its easy.

guess its carrier stuff?

Never again Samsung. Never again.

This is why I don’t buy my android devices through carriers. Unlocked/Pixel gang only. Or iPhone since Apple also managed to figure this one out.

I wouldn't be able to handle this. Been running GrapheneOS since last year, and I don't think I could go back to anything else.

Actually started working on a GrapheneOS installation service called SwapMyOS that I think could be helpful to those who wanna install GrapheneOS but don't how.

I kick a percentage back to GrapheneOS itself to keep the project funded and running (which is the primary motive behind the project).

Samsung is pretty much notorious for this, especially in developing countries where they bundle in every third-party service, PayLater app, shitty mobile game, etc alongside a new device. The only reason they are seen as preferable is that other companies are doing worse (see: Xiaomi).

I would suggest this has absolutely nothing to do with a Samsung update and more than likely some form of malware.

Remember when Apple put a U2 song on everyone's iPhone and people went nuts about it? How dare they do that! That was just a song.

Now companies just install whatever apps they want. And people just accept it.

Is this a regional thing? None of my Samsung phones (Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S23) ever installed apps like these automatically. They did come with Microsoft apps bundled in, and I believe Facebook too, but after deactivating them they never came back. Never games though.

The phone legislation we actually need isn’t about batteries, it’s about software.

Might be your carrier. T-Mobile had some app like that that I had to fight a few times to get rid of.

Never seen or installed this nonsense on my Samsung phone. This looks to be some sort of adware or malware.

This is why I don't buy devices on contract with the carriers anymore. They're always loading extra crapware that we don't need.

I just got a Galaxy S23 about 2 weeks ago. It came with Facebook and Swiftkey as well as a bunch of Microsoft Apps. But no Tiktok, Games or other crap. Even after updating the OS nothing like that had been installed.

My guess is that a lot of people do not read anything and just rush through the initial setup process, thereby confirming things like wanting recommended apps to be installed.

Also there are some mentions of rooting here. I suggest to first give adb a try. It lets you uninstall any app without rooting (including Facebook and Swiftkey in my case).

I'm assuming you are new to Samsung? They are the kings of junk software.

What smartphone brand is safe to buy nowadays? It feels like every single one is terrible and anti-user.

I just barely had to go get a new phone because my Note20 broke. Was hoping they'd have another in stock but of course not. That's waaaaaay to outdated 🙄 so I got the s23 or whatever. We moved all my data from my old phone to my new one. Once it updated everything I had 12 "new" apps and games installed. Wtf. Deleted most, but some are so damn hidden and protected. Samsung truly makes you know you don't own your own device.

I highly recommend lineageOS, or better yet lineageOS with microg.

Running a completely degoogled android phone right now, and it feels smooth as butter. Microg has gotten so good, the vast majority of playstore apps work completely fine even without Google services, including things like my banking apps.

Feels liberating as fuck, not gonna lie.

Only apps that don't work for me are ones that require IaP's. About 30% of those I can crack with LuckyPatcher. I can also crack other paid apps with license protection.

Mostly I havent needed to do any of that though, because I've found that there are so many great open source apps that do the things I need.

Ever since the "you can't disable the fully charged notification" update that hit the same week as 5 unremovable apps with full phone permissions, I am done with Samsung. Such a scumbag way to remind you it's not your phone.

Is it weird that I'm partially relieved seeing this post? I found all these weird apps on my phone the other day and thought I had been hacked or something. whew...?

I have an unlocked s23 and don't have any bloatware. Is yours unlocked? Which region?

T-mobile absolutely pushed crap on my phone - it's why I went unlocked at my next chance.

Wow. Such thing never happened to me on my Samsung phone. What's your model?

Might be the wireless carrier bundling it in with the firmware on an update to the android OS?

Disable "Mobile services manager". Samsung phones are lousy with crapware these days so I would avoid them like the plague. An eldery relative asked me why he kept seeing ad popups and his device had something called "Samsung Free" that cannot be disabled or completely turned off which pushes news articles, ads and other shit at him. I just turned off as many "interests" as I could and attempted to opt out of the software but it's still there and swiping left on the home page re-enables it. Samsung phones are absolute dogshit these days. I wouldn't go near one unless they could be rooted and flashed out of the box.

What model + what country + did you get your phone subsidized by a carrier? Literally never had this happen on any of my multiple samsung phones.

I got really tired of that shit, so I got a Google Pixel when it was time for my upgrade. By far the best phone I've had since my Samsung Intensity.

This is why I never bought another Samsung product after the dumpster fire that was the Galaxy S3.

That's why I quit Samsung, too much bloat.

I love my Pixels. Just solid, clean Androids.

Samsung makes nice phones that I don’t buy for this reason. Apple doesn’t allow this. Pixel is another option if you don’t wanna go through the hassle of changing ecosystems.

Proprietary software moment...

On the same page, last android device I had was a Samsung. Great hardware but really shitty software. It had two office suite (MS and Samsungs), Facebook and what not. All those I couldn’t uninstall only disable. Why the fuck I need to have Facebook installed on my phone?

This should be illegal!

I swore off Samsung for this reason after I had the S3. I thought the bloatware situation had gotten better over the years…

Had a few devices with stock Android that I really liked (such as the Nexus 5 and Moto X) over the years, but even then it’s difficult to escape some of the built-in bullshit.

Kind of gave up on that and switched to iPhone a few years back… You still get the mandatory vendor apps, but at least now I also get the ecosystem benefits.

LOL welcome to Samsung. This is why I stopped buying them after the S6.

Just my 2 cents I am on an unlocked S20 and don't have these apps getting installed

T Mobile keeps trying to have me install their crappy suggested apps every time they do a software update. And I cant make the pop up go away till I go through their shit and uncheck everything.

Great. As an appliance salesman I’ve been saying about Samsung that “well at least they make great phones and TVs” but now I can’t even say that.

It's been happening lately on my S22 Ultra. Very annoying. If I didn't think I'd brick my phone, I would root it. Well first I would figure out what rooting is... :\

you can disable the app manager thing and it should stop these.
or just buy an S series phone, they don't come with any non-samsung bloatware. A series are partially bloatware-funded.

edit: this looks like carrier bloat to me

When will the Lemmy phone launch? I'm ready to cancel anything now

I have had the recent S series Samsung phones and no bloatware was uninstalled via updates like this, that's still disappointing to see

I had been using Samsung for the longest time before my current device and lemme tell ya, even with their flagships they pull this shit, I'm always having to go in and delete whatever shit they download, like, no, I have no desire to play fucking ROYAL MATCH please stop asking me

Ah yes the Samsung and their bloatware.
On S23 is almost 60GB https://www.neowin.net/news/heres-the-apparent-truth-behind-the-60gb-android-os-on-galaxy-s23/

That's why when a look for a phone, always research if there's custom ROMs for it, AOSP based.

I control what's on the phone, not otherwise

That's why I only ever bought one Samsung phone (a galaxy 6 I think) . They do have a tendency to install shit on phones that you will never use but can't delete.

There were a few ways of deleting those apps from Samsung on the web but I focus on buying clean phones with no shite loading (like OnePlus and Pixel). Although my first Pixel send to be bullying me to put my everything on their cloud servers - where all your datas are belong to them 🤣😂 via EULA.

I love my Pixel with Niagara launcher for the love translation. Wtf Google with that locked-down home screen. I'll live with the removed call record even though it's legal in the free world.

There are a lot of negative things that I will say about Apple and iOS, but this would NEVER EVER fly on an iPhone. The fact that we just kind of accept it on Android is infuriating.

https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/18/samsung_bluray_mass_dieoff_explained/ shoutouts to the time Samsung bricked my blu ray player

You scared the crap outta me man. For a second I thought connect for lemmy sold out! Haha

My family all have Samsung phones, I guess because we like to stick with what we know. That said, this has never happened to us. I suspect it is a carrier thing, we purchase our phones outright from Samsung or an electronics store, not from the phone carrier on a plan. We are also in Australia, which may have an effect.

I've had a Galaxy Note 10+ for 3 years and I've now had an S23 Ultra since around February. Not once have I had random apps installed.

I'm with Rogers Wireless in Canada.

Mobile Services Manager, that my friend is what we call Carrier Bloat.

None of my Samsung since Galaxy S6 has that, given they were all were retail bought.

Wow. Such thing never happened to me on my Samsung phone. What's your model?

https://www.samsungsfour.com/tutorials/how-to-root-samsung-galaxy-s21-s21-s21-ultra-using-magisk.html

I would certainly recommend giving rooting it a shot, then you won't have this problem anymore.

This is not a Samsung issue. Your carrier is doing this because you have a carrier locked phone. To prevent it, buy a carrier unlocked phone and it won't happen.

Source: Me who always buys carrier unlocked

Yeah, Windows does the same!

That is why i rooted my phone as a tech noobie, and it gives me security warning everytime i restart it. As if their shitty apps are not security breach, lol.

Ironic that I'm tired of this post about unwanted apps popping up in every feed of mine every time I refresh to see new ones 😂🤦

https://lemmy.world/c/assholedesign

Samsung phones just sucks.

Switched to fairphone and could root it without installing twrp, there was only one extra app and I could just disable the google apps and switch to foss ones.

Yah this happens with my work phone on a Verizon network but not my personal on t-mobile.*

*totally not sponsored by t-mobile

Not cool, Samsung.

God damnit. I though Samsung got better.

Of course it did. What phone is it?

They do this even with their A7X series phones, which is priced in the upper mid range / lower flagship category. Not only do they use a lower end chip than their competitors in the same price segment, they have the audacity to give software updates disguised as ads. No amount of money will satisfy these greedy companies.

Permanently Deleted

This is why I don't buy an Android device if it won't allow me to unlock the bootloader and sideload a ROM of my choice. Android OEM operating systems suck nowadays (at least the ones I've been subjected to recently: Samsung's and Xiaomi's).

Happened with me too few times. Irritating!

So this is where this came from I didn't even realize how these had shown up on my phone. This is so stupid.

Soooooo you don't want to play solitaire Grand harvest?

Bought a Xiaomi phone, rooted it, loving it, so cheap and still private enough. I'll just can't get my head around in spending almost a grand for a freaking phone.

Why I don't even consider Samsung phones.

Can you nuke Mobile Services Manager, or is that “critical to the functionality of the system” according to Samsung?

Wish it was easier to just install stock Android on a new phone.

Never seen this on my s21 ultra.

A SIM card doesn't have that kind of power over your phone. I've gone through 4-5 MVNOs on Pixel phones and not once has a SIM card done anything except provide cellular service.

When people ask why I switched to and stuck with an iphone, I always go back to "Google doesn't know how to do text messages", but I forgot about this lovely issue. You can't truly own an Android that isn't a Pixel and expect software OS updates on a regular basis without bloatware. Additionally, the update does not need to go through your carrier, something that is the largest red flag for me to stop buying non-unlocked Android phones (at least the last time I looked this was a thing).

Imagine if you went to a dealership, and go to buy a brand new car, but the dealer says they have to do some "improvements" to it before you can drive it off the lot. Only, you don't know what they did or why, and the car manufacturer doesn't know either. It's fucked up.

Happened to me too every time I update my Samsung J6

I think there is an app called app install. Disable that shit

What an awesome surprise! How did you even manage to get through the day before these amazing new apps came into your life? Just sit back, relax, and watch your bank account dwindle as you gamble it all away

Happened with me too few times. Irritating!

Samsung has been known for this for 12+ years.

When you buy a Samsung, you're specifically choosing this.