Play Store Apps for Disabling in-Built Apps and Removing Ads/Trackers for Unrooted Galaxy S7

johnnybravo on 25/02/2020 - 16:46
Last edited 25/02/2020 - 16:47

Hi,

I currently have a Galaxy S7 and I am pretty happy with it except two things - both sort of inter-related to each other.

  • Number of unnecessary apps that came installed by default so space is pretty limited (Mine is a 32 GB phone)
  • Battery Life (I'm guessing a part of it can be attributed to extra apps running on the phone)

I was initially thinking of rooting the phone to improve this however I found out that this disables Knox which in turn disables Samsung Pay and Samsung Pass. So I decided not to go ahead with that. Now I think if I can find apps which will help me completely disable these apps, it would assist in the space and battery issue. I have already managed to stop some of them but there are others which I'm not sure on how to disable/stop. At the same time, if I can also disable ads/trackers, this should also assist in improving battery life and performance overall.

Can you suggest what would be the more suitable apps for this? Ideally from the Play Store if possible.

  • Disable in-built apps
  • Remove ads/trackers

TL, DR - What Play Store apps are best for disabling in-built apps and removing ads/trackers for unrooted Samsung S7?

Mobile Android App

Comments

  • spackbace on 25/02/2020 - 16:59
    +1

    How old is the phone? Could always buy a new battery. Also install a micro-sd card, and install apps to the card

    • johnnybravo on 25/02/2020 - 17:08

      Thanks for your response.

      I got it in Oct 2016 so just over 3 years. I do have a SD card in it and have transferred some of the data into it but apps like Whatsapp are the killers on my phone. Right now, I have worked out a way to limit the space it uses by moving data to the SD card every month. But some of the core apps can definitely be disabled or removed. I'll also check on how to install apps directly to the card as I don't think I'm using that option.

      In terms of battery replacement, I had not considered that as an option. What would you suggest in terms of getting one? Genuine Samsung one from the store? Or would the after market ones be ok?

      • spackbace on 25/02/2020 - 17:10
        +1

        I did a quick look, these guys have OEM for $25.90, or genuine for $47.90, so that's entirely up to you.

        New battery could certainly give it a new lease on life!

        Afaik, in terms of removing stock apps I believe the phone has to be rooted.

        I've seen the kids account setting allows you to disable them seeing stock apps, but I don't know if that fully removes them or not. Also, not beneficial to your situation having a kids account!

        • johnnybravo on 25/02/2020 - 17:36

          I did a quick look, these guys(ausbatteries.com) have OEM for $25.90, or genuine for $47.90, so that's entirely up to you.

          Thanks a lot! I will check further on this.

          I've seen the kids account setting allows you to disable them seeing stock apps, but I don't know if that fully removes them or not. Also, not beneficial to your situation having a kids account!

          No, clearly not :P

          Btw, any suggestions for ad removers?

          • spackbace on 25/02/2020 - 17:41

            @johnnybravo:

            Btw, any suggestions for ad removers?

            Shouldn't have any popups/ads… Or do you mean within Chrome/Browser?

            • johnnybravo on 25/02/2020 - 17:50

              @spackbace: Ideally, shouldn't have any popups/ads - so that way it would apply to my apps, games, browser, etc. Is that possible or am I being too optimistic without having root? Even if it eliminates 50%, I'm still ahead.

  • c64 on 25/02/2020 - 18:06

    my phone (not a samsung) has a settings option that lets you disable apps and also for controlling what apps start at boot. have you looked through all the settings options?

    • johnnybravo on 25/02/2020 - 18:41

      Not sure. Which set of options is that? Rather can you tell me how do you get there and I can check for similar settings on my phone if it is present.

    • johnnybravo on 26/02/2020 - 09:48

      I realised I didn't respond to your post correctly. Yes, I did go over all the settings that I can think of. Hence I mentioned if you could please guide me to the settings you are referring to just to make sure that I did look at it too.

      • c64 on 26/02/2020 - 10:12

        i have a settings option "applications & authority" which i can use to disable apps & system apps. the samsung interface might be different

        other than that you might have to use adb

  • Beanvee on 25/02/2020 - 20:10
    +1

    You can use adb to disable any app without root https://www.xda-developers.com/disable-system-app-bloatware-…
    You could try AdGuard DNS although in older versions of Android you'd have to set this up per network connection, as there's not a central setting https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html
    There's also apps that act as your DNS server to block ads https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.jak_linux.dns66/
    These usually tend to filter tracking domains as well

    • johnnybravo on 26/02/2020 - 09:46

      Thanks a lot for the links - very helpful :)

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