Remove bloatware with ADB — no root

Part of the max-degoogle any Android phone series.

Preinstalled apps, the bloatware your phone shipped with, are the first thing to go. You can’t delete them from the system partition without root, but Android lets you uninstall them for your user (user 0) or disable them — which, for privacy purposes, is what matters: they stop running, stop updating and stop phoning home.

Before you start Back up your phone first. Everything here is reversible with one command — except removing something that stops the phone from booting, in which case the fix is a factory reset. A factory reset also restores every package you removed, so you’d start over. Go slowly and use a curated list.

What you need

A computer (Windows, macOS or Linux) and a USB cable.
Android SDK Platform-Tools — Google’s official adb, from the official Platform-Tools download page. Unzip it; no install needed.
USB debugging on the phone: Settings → About phone → tap Build number seven times to unlock Developer options, then Settings → System → Developer options → USB debugging on. (The menu path varies slightly by brand — search Settings for “Developer options”.)

Plug in the phone, accept the “Allow USB debugging?” prompt, and check the connection:

adb devices

You should see your device listed as device (not unauthorized).

The easy way: a curated debloater

Don’t guess package names. Two maintained, open-source tools use a community-curated database that rates every package by risk:

Universal Android Debloater Next Generation (UAD-ng) — desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux) that runs adb for you. It shows a description for each package, lets you select per list (Google, OEM, carrier, misc) and has a Backup / Restore snapshot feature — use it before your first change.
Canta — an on-phone debloater (F-Droid) that uses UAD-ng’s list. It needs Shizuku to get adb-level permission without a computer (Shizuku is started via Wireless debugging). Canta’s README points to a Shizuku fork for Android 16 and newer.

UAD-ng rates packages in four levels:

Level	Meaning
Recommended	Safe to remove for most people, or easily reinstalled from an app store
Advanced	Breaks obscure or minor functionality
Expert	Breaks widespread or important functionality, but shouldn’t stop the phone booting
Unsafe	Can break vital parts of the OS — high risk of a boot loop

Two caveats from UAD-ng’s own documentation worth repeating: their “Recommended” label is a legacy name — read each description rather than bulk-selecting — and for anything beyond Recommended, disable rather than uninstall, because uninstalling is the more likely of the two to cause instability.

The manual way: adb commands

List packages, optionally filtered:

adb shell pm list packages
adb shell pm list packages | grep -i facebook

(On Windows without grep, use findstr /i facebook instead.)

Uninstall for your user (the app disappears; the original stays on the system partition):

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.facebook.appmanager

Disable instead (gentler, easier to undo):

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.tips

To undo either one:

adb shell cmd package install-existing com.facebook.appmanager
adb shell pm enable com.samsung.android.app.tips

Do one package at a time, reboot after a batch, and use the phone for a day before the next batch. If something breaks, restore the most recent batch first.

Safe-to-remove examples by brand

These are rated Recommended in UAD-ng’s list (checked October 2026). They’re common, not universal — your phone may not have all of them.

Facebook stubs (many Samsung, Motorola, OnePlus and Xiaomi phones)

com.facebook.appmanager, com.facebook.services, com.facebook.system — background update and install helpers for Facebook. Remove these even if you use Facebook; the app works without them.

Samsung

com.samsung.android.bixby.agent (Bixby; disables the Bixby key action)
com.samsung.android.app.spage (Samsung Free, the swipe-left feed)
com.samsung.android.app.tips (Tips)
com.samsung.android.game.gamehome (Game Launcher)

Xiaomi / POCO / Redmi

com.miui.analytics (Xiaomi Analytics)
com.miui.msa.global (MSA — the system ads service)
com.mi.globalbrowser (Mi Browser — install another browser first)
com.xiaomi.mipicks (GetApps store)

Motorola

com.motorola.demo (Demo mode), com.motorola.help (Moto feedback), com.motorola.genie (Device Help)

OnePlus / OPPO

com.oneplus.brickmode (Zen Mode), com.heytap.market (HeyTap/OPPO app store), com.oplus.games (Games)

Google apps you’ve replaced

These are rated Recommended in UAD-ng because they can be reinstalled from the Play Store.

com.google.android.youtube, com.google.android.apps.youtube.music, com.google.android.gm (Gmail), com.google.android.apps.photos, com.google.android.apps.maps, com.google.android.apps.docs (Drive), com.google.android.feedback (crash-report feedback)

Replace before you remove: pick the alternative from our replacement apps first, move your data, then uninstall the Google app.

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Never remove these

com.android.systemui, com.android.settings, com.android.providers.telephony — rated Unsafe: the status bar, Settings and the phone’s telephony data. Removing them can stop the phone booting.
Your launcher before installing and setting another — e.g. Samsung One UI Home (com.sec.android.app.launcher), MIUI’s com.miui.home, Motorola’s com.motorola.launcher3 are Expert. Without a launcher you’ll have no home screen.
Your keyboard before installing another (Samsung’s com.samsung.android.honeyboard is Expert) — otherwise you can’t type your PIN after a reboot.
Google Play Services (com.google.android.gms) and the Play Store (com.android.vending) — rated Expert. Disabling them breaks push notifications and most Play apps. If you want Play Services gone, that’s the job for a degoogled OS, not adb.
Emergency alerts (com.android.cellbroadcastreceiver, com.google.android.cellbroadcastreceiver) — Expert, and in some countries removing them may break legally required alerts.

Things that will surprise you

Updates can bring packages back. A major OS update may restore removed system apps. Keep your UAD-ng snapshot and re-apply it after updates.
Android 17 is stricter. Since the Android 17 update, users report that pm uninstall --user 0 is refused for some system apps (“Only root can delete system app for a particular user”) — see UAD-ng issue #1436. Try pm disable-user --user 0 instead; UAD-ng’s backup/restore still works.
Some apps are protected. If a package comes back immediately after removal, the system is guarding it. Leave it and firewall it instead.
Factory reset undoes everything. That’s also your guaranteed way back if something goes badly wrong.

Next step

Whatever you couldn’t (or shouldn’t) remove can still be cut off from the network: Block internet for unwanted apps →