automatic app version detection - prjkt.io

bit of rant here;
why are users still expected to manually select what version of a app they want to theme (facebook messanger,google app ect)
why is this a thing
why is stability hit or miss why do app updates break stuff so horribly why should theme resources take a decade to update them selves without a reboot

Legitsu said:
bit of rant here;
why are users still expected to manually select what version of a app they want to theme (facebook messanger,google app ect)
why is this a thing
why is stability hit or miss why do app updates break stuff so horribly why should theme resources take a decade to update them selves without a reboot
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Users are expected to manually select app versions due to discrepancy between ROMs and partial rollouts by app devs ending up in different users having different versions available on the Play Store. Surely selecting a version from a spinner is easier for you than to be told to download a specific version from APKMirror.
App updates break themes when resources change heavily. Most properly coded apps don't break over updates unless there's major UI changes. Whatsapp and Instagram break for most themes on almost every update because they change stuff just to change it. Themers are helpless against badly coded apps, and rather than whine you should actually be glad they take time to theme AND maintain the overlay for such apps.
Theme resources don't take long to update, we ditched that in favor of direct assets with commit https://github.com/substratum/substratum/commit/536ed381f540f494700a0ab3ca5e8530f3715862 .

Related

[APP][4.4+] "App manager" - alternative to the default app manger

After so long of developing apps for other people, I've decided to make one 100% by myself, and publish it.
The app is basically an alternative to the default app-manager of Android, and it provides some unique features that helps you manage and uninstall apps quicker and easier.
If you've found this app useful, please support it by sharing/donating/comment on the play store.
Installation link :
APK mirror:
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/androiddeveloperlb/app-manager/
ApkPure:
https://apkpure.com/app-manager/com.lb.app_manager
Some screenshots
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
So, here's some information about it:
Background
How many times have you tried to uninstall an app but found it annoyingly hard, whether you've forgot its name or it's hidden in a bunch of many apps you have?
Have you ever wanted to uninstall a built in app, which came from the carrier/manufacturer?
Are you a programmer/tester and need to uninstall/reset your apps frequiently?
If so, this is the app for you.
Short description
As I've written ,the purpose of this app is to replace the default app-manager, and ease the uninstallation task as much as possible.
The app is free and supports Android 2.3 and above, but works best from Android 4.0.
The app has ads (banners) but you can easily remove them by donating.
Who is it useful for?
The app is intended for multiple kinds of people:
For the common user, it's easier to perform searches of apps, easier to unisnstall them, and easier to share them.
It's also easier to go to the play store page of the app ,give feedback about it and contact the developers.
For power users, it's easier to uninstall built in apps (AKA "system apps"), like the bloatware that come with the OS.
For developers, QA, and beta testers, it's easier to uninstall/reset the recently installed app, by using widgets.
You can also share apps as APK files, and see the version of the apps.
Features and advantages over other apps
Viewing of app types of apps, and not just those that you can launch (example: plugins, live wallpapers, keyboards,...).
Widgets, for quick uninstallation/reset of the most recently installed app.
Quick uninstallation of apps. For rooted devices, the uninstallation (and other operations) can be silent (in the background)
Easy uninstallation of apps that got admin privilages.
Ability to automatically add app shortcuts when they get installed, no matter how they got installed.
Also the ability to choose which launcher will create the shortcuts.
Easy to use - one click to uninstall. Long click for multi-selection
Context menu options on selected app:
Run
Share Play store link, Amazon AppStore link, or even APK file (no need for Root)
Manage
Open app on the Play store.
Kill background process, or stop the app (needs root)
Quick reset of the app (needs root).
disable/enable app (needs root).
Create shortcut.
Search the app via your search engine or the Internet.
Sort the apps bysize, name, by package name, by date installed, and by date updated
Filter apps by:
System/user apps,
Enabled/disabled apps
Installation path : SD card / internal storage
Ability to uninstall system apps (Root only, and might not work on some cases)
Ability to replace the default uninstaller .
Detailed yet short view of the installed apps, including app name, package name, date insalled and version information.
Safe and automatic deletion of certain folders after uninstallation, that some Android OS versions don't handle for some reason.
Theme chooser, in case you don't like the cards UI.
Hopefully more to come, will be written about on the play store
App translation
https://crowdin.com/project/com-lb-app_manager
Beta testing
Links for the beta testing group:
- https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.lb.app_manager
Articles
https://web.archive.org/web/2014050...roid/supercharge-your-android-app-management/
http://reviewttb.blogspot.in/2014/04/app-manager-review.html
http://iandroid.co.il/dr-iandroid/archives/16296
http://www.appbrain.com/app/app-manager/com.lb.app_manager
https://www.androidrank.org/application/app_manager/com.lb.app_manager
FAQ
The OS says the app runs in the background, or the app has a notification of its own. Why? Doesn't it consume battery?
The app is triggered by app operation events : uninstall, install, clear-data...
Upon each of those, it saves the state for various purposes, in the background. For example the removed-apps list, and the widget. Those have to be handled right away, so it must be done even if you don't see the app.
In the rest of the time, it does absolutely nothing.
This is why the app is so efficient in battery usage, that you won't see it in the list of battery-consuming apps. Meaning it doesn't even reach the 1% battery usage. I am sure it doesn't even reach 0.001% .
You can hide the notification, but sadly on some Android versions (8.0, but not 8.1 and above) you might see a different notification, that the app might use the battery. You can safely ignore it. I guarantee there is no noticeable difference in battery consumption.
In fact, due to the optimizations I've added for Android 8.0 and above, and because the app's process doesn't get killed so often, it might even be better in battery usage. The reason is that the app always had to listen to app-events, and before Android 8.0, the app got triggered by them, meaning its process started each time if it was killed before. Less CPU, more battery.
I have a Xiaomi device and the app fails to install any kind of app. How come ?
Seems it's an issue that will exist for quite some time, and that it is turned by default on Xiaomi devices and causes various issues (read here for example). This "feature" is called "MIUI optimization" , and for now you can only disable it on the "Developer options".
So, for now, you can overcome this by enabling developer options and there to disable "Turn on MIUI optimization".
Note that once you do this, the OS will reset a lot of apps, mainly in terms of permissions. This includes my app too.
Just a side note: Xiaomi is known as one that breaks a lot of apps, as it creates its own made up rules and permissions, very much against how Android works. This is also why there is a website that speaks about it, here, so for better handling of the app, also white list it from the various permissions Xiaomi has created, too.
Sadly I have no way to handle those things, as long as Xiaomi chooses to make their own non-standard rules.
I don't have a rooted device, but I still want to disable/uninstall a system app. Is it possible?
It's possible... to try, using a PC connected to your device.
I've made a tutorial for this here (old one here ).
If the OS would allow, you could uninstall or at least disable system apps this way.
I think I got some nasty app, which shows ads randomly or takes control of the smartphone in some way (or any other bad behavior that I don't like). Can this app help me find it and neutralize it?
Even though it wasn't originally intended for such a task, I've noticed it helped many people with it. There are multiple reviews telling that it helped them removing such "virus" apps. I've even done it myself on both my device and for my family-relatives.
So the answer is that it might help you. Here's what you can do to try to handle it:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=77987186&postcount=543
What are split-APK files? What are "APKS" that are being generated sometimes when sharing apps?
Split apk files (AKA "app bundle" apps) are not meant to be installed just like normal APK files. They are used as you use the app, getting installed by the Play Store, to use only the minimal things you will use on your device, with your Android version, with your CPU architecture, with your locales, with your screen density, and so on...
Not only that, but if you install such files on other configurations, they might not work properly or fail to install.
As far as I know, backup&restore of such apps is not even working on popular backup apps such as Titanium backup.
Currently the app allows to share such apps as APKS files, which is just a zipped file with all of the APK files of the app. This is similar to what's done on various other apps and services (SAI, ApkPure, APK-mirror,...) with various file extensions (APKS, XAPK, APKM,...).
To install them using my app (which supports all files that I've mentioned: APKS, XAPK, APKM ), you can currently do this only from other apps that trigger it. The most common way to do it is directly from file-manager apps, but this should also be possible via chatting apps and others.
If you wish to do it on your via the PC, you can do it too:
use adb command as such:
Code:
adb install-multiple apk1 apk2 ...
Why isn't there a permissions management feature?
For permissions management, I actually planned some management tool, but sadly Google has changed how permissions groups work, and so permissions sometimes go to a different group. For example, before Android P, the permission "WRITE_CALL_LOG" belonged to "Phone" permission group, but from Android P, it moved to "Call log" permission group, which never existed before.
Currently, Google removed all APIs to get which permission group has which permission. Even in the documentation there is no mention anymore which permission group holds which permissions. Not only that, but OEMs sometimes make up their own permission which aren't official in any way (see "auto start" that Xiaomi made, and the reason that "don't-kill-my-app" website exists, for example). I still hope that one day I will be able to get a reliable way to get the correct information, no matter which version of Android the app runs on.
Why isn't there an option to install an old version of an APK when I have a newer one installed?
Apps aren't designed to handle this situation. They are only designed to handle upgrades. So, Google made it impossible to do it starting from Android 7 (read here). If you want to try it anyway, you can do it using PC&adb tool, as written here.
Why isn't there a boot-up management feature? Memory freeing/boosting? CPU usage? RAM usage? Automatic-task-killing? Modify apps ?
Various features of those types are not documented and not recommended to be used. Those can ruin how the apps work, just like OEMs do it sometimes even by default. This can also cause false crashes, or crashes that can't be reported. For users, some of those functions have the false promise by various apps that say it will make reduce battery consumption (search google for "Android task killer myth").
It is not a good thing to alter how apps work and behave, and Google has rules about modifying APKs, so I do not want to take the risk in doing so.
As for viewing information alone, this is something that isn't useful for users, but more for developers who already have them via the various development tools and even apps that specialize about it.
This app was made for users and power users mostly, and I want to make it work properly as much as possible, without worrying that for some devices or at some day things will be broken. I prefer to have as little workarounds as possible.
That's why I decided to stick with things that are more standard, more commonly used, and more available to be used.
I have an SD-card. Why can't I set an installed app to be on it, properly?
Installing an app to the SD-card has various restrictions that determine whether it's possible or not, and how much it will affect how well the app behaves.
To do it here, you have to have a rooted device (or use a PC with adb command as written above), the OS should allow to do it, and the target app should allow to do it.
That being said, you might try your luck via the developer-settings of the OS (check how to enable it on Google for your device), via "force allow apps on external" preference.
Why not share version-name and app-name alone instead of version-code and package-name with others?
Simply put, version-name and app-name are not unique enough, depend on the current locale, can be of any length (so it can be too long) and not restricted by which characters are used (so can be problematic on some OSs).
That's while version-code is always an increasing number, and package-name is always safe to use and is considered as the ID of the app on the Play Store and probably on any app-store.
That being said, I might allow to customize what to share some day, and let users be responsible of possible issues if they might occur.
In the past versions, the app didn't need to run in the background, and didn't need to have usage-stats permission at all. What happened?
In one word: Google . Google has changed the rules:
- For running in the background , the reason is that a lot of types of global events (called "Intents") need to be handled only with an app that has a sticky notification (called "foreground service"). Before Android 8.0, it was possible without this requirement. The app would have been awakened for each such event, handle it and go to sleep, while the OS can kill it if needed. Now it's not possible (read here). Adding to this, is that Google forces all new apps and updated to existing ones to do it for Android 8.0 and above, by the end of the year (read here). This means you should expect more apps to show their notifications, or they will present a weaker functionality.
The good news is that this actually helps with battery usage on Android 8.0 and above. Instead of re-creating the process of App-Manager for each event, the process is already alive, so less CPU will be used. And, since it's already alive, handling it will take less time. So, less CPU and less time, meaning more battery for you. You can also hide the notification if it bothers you.
- For usage-stats permission, before Android 8.0 I could get the exact app-size without any permission. And, before Android 5.0, I could get the recently launched apps with a permission that doesn't require requesting in runtime. Because of the recent changes, this is not possible anymore without usage-stats permission. And, since getting app-size and sorting apps by recently launched - are quite basic features, I decided to request it all in the beginning together with the storage permission that was always a requirement.
Getting the app-size was tricky before Android 8.0, and so I added a fallback in case it's not working for some users, or working too slow for them. It wasn't perfect, but it was all I could do.
The good news about this, is that it's much more efficient than what I did before. Getting app size is super fast, and it will always work because there is now an official way to do it. In fact it's so quick that I've removed the fallback for Android 8.0 and above.
Privacy policy ?
Written on this post.
Thank you!
Very simple and useful app!
newHere:) said:
Thank you!
Very simple and useful app!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcomed, and I do hope that it will succeed as I wish to improve it even more and make other useful and cool apps.
cool app,very helpfull for me,because im test so many apps from here and now its much easier to deinstalling,i like it!!!
-CALIBAN666- said:
cool app,very helpfull for me,because im test so many apps from here and now its much easier to deinstalling,i like it!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's actually why I made the app myself, since I am both a developer and a user that tries out many apps.
will try it!! sounds nice
I would like to get some feedback from you people:
1. What is the best feature that you liked on the app?
2. What is the best feature that you'd like to have?
3. In case you have a good English accent, have the ability to record your device, would you like to put your video review?
If so, I will put your video (if it's good enough) on the play store, along with credits (or you put them at the end of the video if you wish).
No ads in the video, please .
AndroidDeveloperLB said:
I would like to get some feedback from you people:
1. What is the best feature that you liked on the app?
2. What is the best feature that you'd like to have?
3. In case you have a good English accent, have the ability to record your device, would you like to put your video review?
If so, I will put your video (if it's good enough) on the play store, along with credits (or you put them at the end of the video if you wish).
No ads in the video, please .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well overall, the app is quite streamline and easy to navigate.
And the making of APK to share file is the best feature that I liked.
It would be nice if the app could have the feature to natively share apks of different apps, from within, using wifi direct, if another device has this installed. Would make it even better.
About the review, I have had some experience with them, so i'll give it a shot tomorrow morning, it's 10 pm here at the moment so I can't prepare and edit now.
I like this, for me the most useful part is the sorting by install and updated. Enough that I did the donation thing to get rid of the ads.
Some suggestions:
Tabs or Drawers / Categories with Tags
- The way this would work is that you can tag apps with categories (each app being able to be tagged with as many categories as the user likes). For instance, I may make a category for frequently used and camera. I would tag my several camera apps with the camera tag, and the one I use most I would also tag with the frequently used tag.
- Then, when searching I could search for the tags as well, such as searching frequently used and all those with that tag would come up.
- Going a step further is the creation of preset tag search tabs. So at the top, or side or wherever it fits best, there may be a place for the Camera Tab Search that I would select it and see all my camera apps.
I think the above feature would make organizing and accessing the apps even more awesome.
The next suggestion is moving towards replacing the stock app manager.
- I use XPosed with Gravity Box. I set up the long press of the home button to launch your App Manager.
- I also use the GEL Settings that changes the Home Button into the Apps Button when you are already on your home screen. It would be awesome if you did the same, but instead made it link to your app.
KNIGHT97 said:
Well overall, the app is quite streamline and easy to navigate.
And the making of APK to share file is the best feature that I liked.
It would be nice if the app could have the feature to natively share apks of different apps, from within, using wifi direct, if another device has this installed. Would make it even better.
About the review, I have had some experience with them, so i'll give it a shot tomorrow morning, it's 10 pm here at the moment so I can't prepare and edit now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for sharing your opinion.
About sharing via Wifi-Direct, isn't it already possible in case both devices have an app for sharing stuff over Wifi-Direct?
For example, using "SuperBeam" ? I never tested the app or the feature, but I think it's already possible, no?
Some Roms (and I think it includes some stock Roms) even have this built in, as I remember.
Not sure though, if any of those solutions share APK files, or just media files.
Since I don't have multiple devices, I can't check it out, and I'm not sure if I will be able to develop it in a way without any bugs...
AndroidDeveloperLB said:
Thank you for sharing your opinion.
About sharing via Wifi-Direct, isn't it already possible in case both devices have an app for sharing stuff over Wifi-Direct?
For example, using "SuperBeam" ? I never tested the app or the feature, but I think it's already possible, no?
Some Roms (and I think it includes some stock Roms) even have this built in, as I remember.
Not sure though, if any of those solutions share APK files, or just media files.
Since I don't have multiple devices, I can't check it out, and I'm not sure if I will be able to develop it in a way without any bugs...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, many apps have this feature, but I just asked for it because this app already has many different methods of sharing an app, and this could make it even faster and better, due to more streamlined representation of your apps. But if it's hard for you, don't worry, no one's forcing you; you are the Dev, you decide how you app is.
But the functionality is quite great.
maddbomber83 said:
I like this, for me the most useful part is the sorting by install and updated. Enough that I did the donation thing to get rid of the ads.
Some suggestions:
Tabs or Drawers / Categories with Tags
- The way this would work is that you can tag apps with categories (each app being able to be tagged with as many categories as the user likes). For instance, I may make a category for frequently used and camera. I would tag my several camera apps with the camera tag, and the one I use most I would also tag with the frequently used tag.
- Then, when searching I could search for the tags as well, such as searching frequently used and all those with that tag would come up.
- Going a step further is the creation of preset tag search tabs. So at the top, or side or wherever it fits best, there may be a place for the Camera Tab Search that I would select it and see all my camera apps.
I think the above feature would make organizing and accessing the apps even more awesome.
The next suggestion is moving towards replacing the stock app manager.
- I use XPosed with Gravity Box. I set up the long press of the home button to launch your App Manager.
- I also use the GEL Settings that changes the Home Button into the Apps Button when you are already on your home screen. It would be awesome if you did the same, but instead made it link to your app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing your opinion.
About the tagging suggestion:
Do you mean auto-tagging, or letting the user tag them? or maybe scan the play-store and tagging the apps using the category they were in...?
Currently, it's a rather time consuming thing to add this feature of tagging, especially if I will add a server side storage that will hold the tags of all the users.
It's a very good suggestion, though, and I will keep it in mind for future releases.
For now, if you wish to organize apps, there are plenty of launchers out there that do the job by putting the apps shortcuts into folders . Some, like "everything.me" launcher, will do it for you.
About having tabs of tags, I think it's against the guidelines of Google to have too many tabs (think how annoying it will be when you create many tags). Maybe a navigation drawer is better.
BTW, I also use Nova launcher, and I've tried a lot of launchers.
About replacing the stock app manager, that was my goal, but I still need to handle operations that I didn't find how to deal with, such as clearing the default of apps, getting the size of them correctly, toggling notifications on/off,...
I'm familiar with using XPosed, but didn't use Gravity Box module. I'm not sure what this module does (I've read its description now) ...
I didn't understand what you did with GEL settings. Did you make it so that the home button of the navigation buttons changed to anything you wish on certain cases?
KNIGHT97 said:
Yeah, many apps have this feature, but I just asked for it because this app already has many different methods of sharing an app, and this could make it even faster and better, due to more streamlined representation of your apps. But if it's hard for you, don't worry, no one's forcing you; you are the Dev, you decide how you app is.
But the functionality is quite great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My app only uses the apps that are already installed on your device. That's how Android works (using "send" intents in this case).
For example, if you had "WhatsApp" installed, it will be shown on the dialog I've made, and if "WhatsApp" supports sending APK files, it will also work (sadly I think it doesn't, but I'm pretty sure "Telegram" does).
BTW, the dialog I've made isn't the native one just because I wanted to add some features to it and I also didn't like how slow the default one is.
Can you please check if Wifi-direct is possible for this task, before I consider adding this feature? I will also try it out at the office if I get the chance.
AndroidDeveloperLB said:
My app only uses the apps that are already installed on your device. That's how Android works (using "send" intents in this case).
For example, if you had "WhatsApp" installed, it will be shown on the dialog I've made, and if "WhatsApp" supports sending APK files, it will also work (sadly I think it doesn't, but I'm pretty sure "Telegram" does).
BTW, the dialog I've made isn't the native one just because I wanted to add some features to it and I also didn't like how slow the default one is.
Can you please check if Wifi-direct is possible for this task, before I consider adding this feature? I will also try it out at the office if I get the chance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, telegram is the only one which would let you send apk files.
But I am not a dev, so I won't be able to check or add things. I am just a tester for the apps and roms and sometimes co-operate with reviews.
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So I found a small bug, in the sharing menu of the app, aside the regular apps, it also displays apps from music streaming services, but only the ones which allow uploading of content, like grooveshark.
KNIGHT97 said:
Yeah, telegram is the only one which would let you send apk files.
But I am not a dev, so I won't be able to check or add things. I am just a tester for the apps and roms and sometimes co-operate with reviews.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
About checking it, I didn't mean that you'd develop anything, not even search the internet about it.
I meant installing an app that lets you send files over WIFI-Direct (like the app I've mentioned), open it (not sure, but I think it's needed so that it would be enabled), and then use my app to send the APK via this app.
AndroidDeveloperLB said:
About checking it, I didn't mean that you'd develop anything, not even search the internet about it.
I meant installing an app that lets you send files over WIFI-Direct (like the app I've mentioned), open it (not sure, but I think it's needed so that it would be enabled), and then use my app to send the APK via this app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My bad, got you wrong there.
So I tested with Superbeam(tried other apps too, but just won't show them in share menu) and it works fine. The transfer is carried out normally like choosing a file to be transferred from any other app.
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Going to sleep for now. Will test, review and report further tomorrow morning.
KNIGHT97 said:
My bad, got you wrong there.
So I tested with Superbeam(tried other apps too, but just won't show them in share menu) and it works fine. The transfer is carried out normally like choosing a file to be transferred from any other app.
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Going to sleep for now. Will test, review and report further tomorrow morning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure I understood :
Did it show up there ?
Did you succeed transferring the APK file using WIFI-Direct?
If so, that's great news. I wonder though how come WIFI-Direct sharing isn't a built in feature on Android.
I think it should be easy as using the Bluetooth.
Also I don't get why Android-Beam uses Bluetooth instead of WIFI-Direct (as done on Samsung's devices). In fact, maybe Google could make the files transfer faster by harnessing both Bluetooth and WIFI-Direct together.
Thanks very handy.... Donated.... And again cause I'm
.. And again
Christiancs1969 said:
Thanks very handy.... Donated.... And again cause I'm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. Thanks. :good:
You are the first one who is...
Well one more for luck then.....
Seriously... Its very handy thanks

Facebook app updates and size

Any ideas/theories of why Facebook app is constantly pushing out 27.0.0.0.X updates. And why it takes up 137MB not including data and cache.
Normally I'm all for app updates since they bring improvements and such, but practically every day there's an update. With no noticeable changes or changelog. They want us to download messenger apps etc. When the "limited" app is taking up so much. With nothing to show for it.
Yep also Chrome....WTF why it take too much space....With Lollipop ART ~200MB.....

[APP][4.0.3+] ApkTrack 2.0.2 - Automatic update checks for devices without Play Store

Apktrack
ApkTrack is a simple Android application which periodically checks if your installed apps can be updated.
It was created for users who don't want to use the Google Play Store, but still need to know when new APKs are available for their apps. ApkTrack performs simple website scraping to grab the latest versions of packages present on the device.
This application is distributed under the terms of the GPL v3 License
Usage
See the attached screenshot for a preview of the application.
Click on an application to perform a manual version check.
The buttons at the top are used to respectively search the installed application list and perform a version check for all applications.
That's it!
Things to keep in mind:
Applications are *not* updated automatically. You still have to find a way to download the latest APKs and sideload them yourself. ApkTrack is simply here to tell you that the update is available.
The application will perform HTTP requests both on demand and silently. You can configure whether mobile data should be used for background checks in the settings.
ApkTrack uses regular expressions to scrape webpages, so it may cease to work without notice if the target websites are modified.
Although there is a background service checking for updates every day, it may get killed by the OS. Remember to check for updates manually in the application from time to time.
Changelog:
Code:
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| Changelog: |
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2.1.2:
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* Features
- You can now configure a proxy in the settings. It will be used to check
for updates, but *NOT* for APK downloads and searches.
- Downloaded APKs can now be cleaned from the settings screen.
- Added an option to ignore apps for which no update source could be found.
* Update Sources & Search Engines
- Timeouts between version checks have been reduced, which makes the
process of checking all apps much faster.
- Updated the direct download regexp for F-Droid as their layout had
slightly changed.
- Added a new search engine, APK-DL.
* Translations
- Japanese translation contributed by Naofumi F. Thanks!
* Permissions
- A new permission (REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES) is required to be able to
install APKs on Oreo.
* Supported Devices
- ApkTrack should work on Android O.
* Bugfix
- Fixes a major bug caused by ProGuard in F-Droid builds which prevented
users from entering the setting.
2.1.1:
------
* UI
- The app's design was materialized by Tetsuo55.
- Icons have been vectorized (also by Tetsuo55).
- The last check date is now relative (i.e. "10 minutes ago").
* Update Sources
- Removed the Nightly (Firefox) update source, because their website keeps
changing and the app has built-in update capabilities anyway.
- Fixed the WhatsApp update source. Support has been added in the AppBrain
proxy and this source will be phased out in later versions.
* Version Checks:
- Version checks for Google Play Services now ignore the part of the
version number identifying the architecture and DPI of the device.
* Supported Devices:
- ApkTrack now works on Android N.
2.1.0:
------
* APK Downloads
- The OS' download service is now used directly instead of proxying
requests through the installed browser.
- Downloads respect the user's preference regarding which networks are
OK to use (WiFi / mobile data).
- Downloaded APKs can be installed directly from ApkTrack's UI.
* Permissions
- ApkTrack needs a new permission (WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE) to write
downloaded APKs to the sdcard.
* UI
- Fixed a longstanding issue where the last check date could overlap
the action icon (that one really bugged me).
* Settings
- Added options to ignore all system / Xposed apps in a single click.
A screen dedicated to managing ignored apps is still warranted.
- Added a preference allowing users who enabled background checks to
automatically download new APKs when they become available.
* Update Sources
- Merged the 9Folders update source (only used for com.ninefolders.hd3)
into the AppBrain proxy, because of new anti-scraping countermeasures.
2.0.4:
------
* Source detection
- ApkTrack will set the right update source for itself (upstream or
F-Droid) depending on who signed the APK.
- The source for all Xposed modules is now detected automatically.
- The F-Droid app is now correctly handled by the F-Droid source.
* Miscellaneous
- Moved the ApkTrack APKs to a server with more bandwidth.
- Version checks for ApkTrack now take place over HTTPS.
- Updated German translation.
* Bugfixes
- Fixed a widespread crash triggered during the initialization
of the app.
- Fixed a problem with icon resizing for devices with uncommon DPI.
- Minor bugfixes for crashes reported through ACRA.
2.0.3:
------
* Security
- Communications with the AppBrain proxy and crash report service now take
place over HTTPS.
- Certificates used by those websites are bundled with ApkTrack to prevent
man in the middle attacks.
* Translations
- Updated Polish translation.
- Added Italian translation.
* Bugfixes
- Resolved a race condition potentially leading to random crashes.
- The AppBrain update source returned a malformed result when it doesn't
have version information for particular apps (i.e. org.eff.actioncenter).
This is now handled gracefully so other update sources can be tried.
- Fixed the "currently updating" icon getting hidden because of screen
rotations.
2.0.2:
------
* Automated crash reports
- ACRA has been integrated to the app in order to submit stacktraces when
ApkTrack crashes (no data is sent without user consent).
- New settings were created to control whether bug reports should be sent.
- A privacy policy was written to describe how bug data and user data is
handled in general.
* Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug introduced in 2.0.1 triggered when trying to resize
non-square icons.
- Fixed a bug causing a crash with VectorDrawables for devices without
Lollipop.
- Fixed a bug where trying to determine the network type (WiFi / data) would
cause a crash.
2.0.1:
------
* Miscellaneous bugfixes
- Oversized icons no longer break the UI.
- Download URLs for Xposed apps are now obtained correctly.
- App uninstallations now also delete stored icons in the database.
2.0.0:
------
* Ignoring irrelevant apps
- When detecting apps present on the device, disabled apps are ignored by
default.
- Apps can be swiped to indicate that they should stop being displayed in
the UI and be ignored in subsequent update checks.
- An option was added in the settings to reset ignored apps.
* Detecting installed apps
- The full app detection is only done once, during the first launch. All
subsequent updates (packages added and/or removed from the system) are
now detected through Intents sent by the system.
- ApkTrack and its background services now communicate with the help of an
Event Bus, which allows complex information to be passed reliably. Model
modifications trigger notifications on this event bus, which tell the
applist which information should be refreshed. Thanks to this, there are
no more loadings when the model is updated.
- It shouldn't be possible for ApkTrack to miss apps that are installed,
removed or updated with this new design. So I'm removing the "Redetect
installed apps" button which wasn't very elegant nor user-friendly.
* Database overhaul
- ApkTrack now uses Sugar ORM to perform its database operations (branch
1.x contained a lot of manual SQL queries). The codebase is much cleaner
and easier to maintain now.
- Icons have been moved to a separate table, which allows ApkTrack to read
all the application info without eating up the device's RAM. From now on,
Icons are only loaded when they need to be displayed.
* Update sources
- ApkTrack can guess the default update source for some predetermined apps
based on their digital signature or their package name.
- The structure of sources.json has been changed. It is more complex now,
but it allows contributors to specify per-package regular expressions in
case the information for multiple apps is hosted on a single webpage.
Formerly, it would have been necessary to create an update source per
package in some cases.
- It is also possible to specify a regular expression to locate an APK
download link on the page. This will allow more direct downloads to be
provided.
- F-Droid, Mirakel, Xposed Stable / Beta now all provide direct APK
downloads.
* Misc
- Build system switched to Gradle to make third-party builds easier.
- ApkTrack will now remember across reboots whether you want to display
system apps or not.
- Searches are more flexible, and any part of the name or package name
can now be matched (not just the beginning as it was the case).
- Apps with vector icons are now displayed correctly on devices with an API
level >= 21.
- Manual changes to the update source are immediately reflected in the UI.
- The spinning icon which indicates that an app is currently being checked
isn't lost anymore when the app list is refreshed, sorted or updated.
- Notifications will not be displayed more than once for each updated app
(ApkTrack 1.1 would keep display notifications until the app was
upgraded).
Known issues:
-------------
* Swiping the app at position N, then scrolling down and up causes a blank
line to be displayed at position N-1.
* ApkTrack's APKs are still distributed over HTTP because the server uses a
self-signed certificate.
* If Greenify puts ApkTrack into hibernation, app installations, deletions
and upgrades will be missed. At the moment, the issue may be circumvented
by waking ApkTrack and performing the installation again, or deleting
ApkTrack's data to force a full re-detection.
Download
Source code
Stable APK (2.1.2)
Beta APK (2.1.2)
Let me know what you think!
Bu ne şimdi anlamadım
SM-N9005 cihazımdan Tapatalk kullanılarak gönderildi
Link??
Sent from my XT1068
I'm a new user, I can't post them!
Source code: github.com/JusticeRage/ApkTrack
APK: kwiatkowski.fr/apktrack/ApkTrack.apk
Just the app i needed, loving it, could be great with a sort feature in the future.
failbed said:
Just the app i needed, loving it, could be great with a sort feature in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad to see someone finds my app useful! Do you mean the possibility to sort applications depending on whether they can be updated or not? This is a great idea, I'll implement it!
JusticeRage said:
I'm glad to see someone finds my app useful! Do you mean the possibility to sort applications depending on whether they can be updated or not? This is a great idea, I'll implement it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah excatly something like that, when apktrack finds like an update to an app the apps that need go get updated gets sorted fo the top so you dont have to scroll through the list to find which apps that needs to get updated and so on.. Awesome ill be following this project bro.
The code and APK have been updated as suggested by your feedback!
Applications are now sorted by status (whether they have been updated or not) by default, but it is possible to switch back to alphabetical sort.
Parsing Package problem
Tablet PMT7787_3G Jelly Bean 4.2.2 It givse me parsing package error. Works fine on KitKat
it works
Thanks buddy for your work. it works in d802 (LG G2) cm-12-20150217-NIGHTLY-d802. But i can't update apps. it says there is a new version available. press the circle but nothing happens.
Are you only scraping google play or do you also check places like the amazon appstore and f-droid.org? If so, how do you handle app's that are in multiple locations? For example if I purchased an app at amazon appstore (or got it as the free app of the day) I can only use the latest version on that appstore even if google play has a newer version. Amazon appstore is usually always behind google play in versions. In some cases f-droid (open source app store) will have versions compiled without ads where google play may have versions with. (The simplest solution may be to let the user pick the location to check for each app?)
Forgot to mention if you used xposed framework the module updates might be worthy of tracking as well. http://repo.xposed.info/module-overview
[email protected] said:
Tablet PMT7787_3G Jelly Bean 4.2.2 It givse me parsing package error. Works fine on KitKat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you post a stacktrace? I assume this is because the required API version in the AndroidManifest.xml is 19 (4.4+). This is probably a very conservative choice, but I have no devices using anterior versions to run tests. I'll try to post an APK compatible with more Android versions soon.
bor51 said:
Thanks buddy for your work. it works in d802 (LG G2) cm-12-20150217-NIGHTLY-d802. But i can't update apps. it says there is a new version available. press the circle but nothing happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll quote my first post : "applications are *not* updated automatically. You still have to find a way to download the latest APKs and sideload them yourself. ApkTrack is simply here to tell you that the update is available."
Simply put, I finding the latest version of an APK reliably is not always easy (I usually have to do some googling myself).
framewolf said:
Are you only scraping google play or do you also check places like the amazon appstore and f-droid.org?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I scrape Google Play, then if I get a message like "Varies with device" I try appbrain.com.
Sadly, I don't track versions on an app store basis. ApkTrack was really made in mind with the idea of downloading APKs and installing them through adb. Doesn't the Amazon app store already notify you of available updates?
One of the features I would like to implement in the future would be custom web scraping though (let the user specify the webpage and regular expression). I'll look into F-Froid too.
And thanks for the Xposed modules idea, I'll definitely implement that!
Just the app I was looking for. Working on 4.4.4 Oneplus Mahdi
Reminds me of AppWatch, but without being limited to just the Play Store. Cool idea. I'm gonna try it out.
JusticeRage said:
I scrape Google Play, then if I get a message like "Varies with device" I try appbrain.com.
Sadly, I don't track versions on an app store basis. ApkTrack was really made in mind with the idea of downloading APKs and installing them through adb. Doesn't the Amazon app store already notify you of available updates?
One of the features I would like to implement in the future would be custom web scraping though (let the user specify the webpage and regular expression). I'll look into F-Froid too.
And thanks for the Xposed modules idea, I'll definitely implement that!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using Greenify and Xprivacy my appstores don't notify me of anything until I actually run them. Have you considered taking the full app name and kicking it into a google (or better yet startpage.com since it anonymizes the search but uses same parms as google) search maybe with additional keywords like "apk" and "download"? This would point folks to where they might be able to download the updated module. A similar technique is used by windows software update checker "sumo" (software update monitor) A similar idea would be to do the same with an appstore search of where the update was located...minimal code is needed since you are just kicking an url to be opened to the browser via the "view" feature.
JusticeRage said:
Apktrack
ApkTrack is a simple Android application which periodically checks if your installed apps can be updated.
It was created for users who don't want to use the Google Play Store, but still need to know when new APKs are available for their apps. ApkTrack performs simple website scraping to grab the latest versions of packages present on the device.
This application is distributed under the terms of the GPL v3 License
The source code is available at github.com/JusticeRage/ApkTrack.
Usage
See the attached screenshot for a preview of the application.
Click on an application to perform a manual version check.
The buttons at the top are used to respectively refresh the installed application list and perform a version check for all applications.
That's it!
Things to keep in mind:
The application will perform HTTP requests both on demand and silently. It does not care whether you are using 3G, 4G or WiFi. Please do not install it if your mobile plan charges data at a premium.
Updates, installations and uninstallations are not detected automatically by the application. You have to press a button to refresh the installed apps.
ApkTrack uses regular expressions to scrape webpages, so it may cease to work without notice if the target websites are modified.
Applications are *not* updated automatically. You still have to find a way to download the latest APKs and sideload them yourself. ApkTrack is simply here to tell you that the update is available.
Although there is a background service checking for updates every day, it may get killed by the OS. Remember to check for updates manually in the application from time to time.
ApkTrack has no fancy icon Feel free to design one!
I am by no means an Android developper. This is a project I hacked quickly because I was tired of checking updates manually. If you are learning Android development, what you see in the code should definitely not be considered best practice. You're welcome to point out what I did wrong, though!
Download
A precompiled APK can be found on the GitHub page. I would post the link, but as a new user, I can't yet.
Source code: https://github.com/JusticeRage/ApkTrack
APK: http://kwiatkowski.fr/apktrack/ApkTrack.apk
Let me know what you think!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is fantastic! I use Raccoon to download apps to my computer before manually transferring them to my phone, and when i wanted to check if there was an update out for an app i'd have to check one by one the apps on Raccoon, This is going to be a huge time saver.
famewolf said:
Have you considered taking the full app name and kicking it into a google (or better yet startpage.com since it anonymizes the search but uses same parms as google) search maybe with additional keywords like "apk" and "download"? This would point folks to where they might be able to download the updated module. A similar technique is used by windows software update checker "sumo" (software update monitor) A similar idea would be to do the same with an appstore search of where the update was located...minimal code is needed since you are just kicking an url to be opened to the browser via the "view" feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's another great idea. I will work on that in the upcoming weeks!
Very interesting project!
Someone suggested sorting option. I'd go one step ahead and request you to implement a feature which could hide non play store apps
@JusticeRage, this project sounds promising, however when I tested that, some of the applications were saying they are not uptodate, like CM Browser (I'm in beta programm), Naked Browser (maybe there is some problem with APK version?), Google Drive and Google Camera etc.
Also time ago I posted this question : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2988051 ... Maybe this can be implemented with your application ? So in this case I would rather prefer to highlight such disappering aps. rather then filtering them out.
Another option to jump on app from to the list to GooglePlay or searching on web for apk or alternate repository (ApToide) would be really nice. ?
Working fine here. Now This is my ChangelogDroid replacement, because its not working on my device with MUI rom. Keep update this app & would be nice if you push it to playstore.

[GUIDE] My Android Tools(Pro) - one of my fav apps

I'm surprised no one has reviewed this app but I'll give it a shot. *edit- attached pics keep going away each time I edit this post. Take a look at the attachments for screenshots.
My Android Tools (free version)
My Android Tools(Pro)
This is an app I stumbled across by chance or mentions in random forum posts and maybe those who've played with it do only a few things such as disable startup items but it's a lot more powerful than that in regards to blocking in-app ads and trackers.
Now, blocking stuff is a multi-prong approach.
You have Adaway for removing the DNS requests for both apps and browser traffic. MAP targets in-app stuff- not browser traffic. That's why you'd do something like Adaway + MinMinGuard/Adblocker XPosed modules. They actually target blocking the code in the app.
something like XPrivacy for sending random info instead of what an app wants from you
And a bunch of apps and XPosed modules to do things like block receivers or in-app ads.
I've whittled it down to Adaway + *Youtube Adaway + *CrappaLinks + My Android Tools(Pro)
*XPosed Modules
from now on I'm calling My Android Tools MAP
First, make a backup of your ROM
Next, make a backup in the About screen in MAP. The optional thing is if you want MAP to open after every app install/upgrade for review of new and updated apps.
*screenshot
The 3 things we'll look at are Services, Broadcast Receivers and Activities.
Services- things that run whenever
Broadcast Receivers - things that respond to system events (boot, connectivity changes, timezone changes, packages added, etc)
Activities - ads and junk that pop up on your screen. Developers add 3rd party sdk's to show pop-ups and stuff. This is how XPosed Modules such as MinMinGuard and Adblocker work
ContentProvider - still haven't figured out if I find stuff here yet. Maybe in Google Play Services it might have some analytics provider but it's basically things that share things with other apps.
*screenshot
Under Services I mainly look at Analytics and Campaign Tracking svcs. It's up to you but these do offer legit tracking analytics to developers.
Google to see what they do
*screenshot
Broadcast Receivers a few apps that do look at a limited selection of these like XPosed module ReceiverStop
mainly I look at 2 of them:
android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED
com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER
*screenshot
Finally, Activities
This is how MinMinguard and the like block things. We're going to block more because MinMinGuard just has a hardcoded list (see above link to its source code. That's what frustrated me about MinMinGuard. If I'm going to block this stuff I'd rather not have a hardcoded list as ad blocking should be equal opportunity if a user is going that route.)
under here it's really about getting familiar with names of ad networks. Here's a hint
I just downloaded a random app to find one with a bunch of fun things.
*screenshot
Great guide, thank you.
royeiror said:
Great guide, thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yw, thanks for the nudge to put it together
Also, note disabling some activities core to an app can cause loss of functionality, force closes, icon removed from the app drawer, etc. That's why I toggle showing the long description of things (that <> button) so I know which are main pieces.
Unity is a library for game development so most of it is actually the app if you see that one a lot.
Sometimes I use the search to look for ad, analytic, track, campaign
Official worst app I've seen for ad activities : agar.io
It's one of the Google recommended apps of 2015 and I was able to find and block 35 ad network activities.
I can't imagine what it's like to actually play the app and what info about you gets collected
@jawz101 : There is an older thread where is shared this app along with an guide which stuff to disable: [SHARE] [APP] MyAndroidTools + Guide to disable some Play Services processes Add it to OP...
@Force I'm wary of disabling too many Google Play Services. I mainly look at the analytics and ads stuff but even then I wonder what repercussions any of it has on battery life. Say, if an app calls for a specific function and it's no longer able to retrieve the information would it cause a force close or get hung in some loop and chew up CPU? I dunno.
Anyone having FCs with the latest version?? It doesn't seem to open at all.. I have a note 4 N910C, on 5.1.1 COJ5, rooted, xposed.
i have been using this for many roms and it saves loads of ram and helps your phone/tablet boot up quicker,i read somewhere that it dont work with xposed or mm both are wrong because i use it on AICP MM ROM and have Xposed installed for XinternalSD and have had no problems at all.
I do submit any crashes if they happen and have emailed the dev in the past when crashes happened. I used to get app crashes until several months ago when trying to backup the current config or when clicking the Content Providers menu option but no longer. Sometimes I completely wiped my device to get it to stop crashing. Since it's been updated these past few months those problems don't occur.
You may want to try reinstalling the app, clearing its data, rebooting, etc to see if something fixed your app crash. Make sure your device I is rooted and the My Android Tools app does indeed have root privileges. Given the nature of the app it may take some error submissions and logcats sent to the dev.
Good to see that somebody reviewed and created a thread for this great app.
Just one question here (if someone could help out) - unlike other apps, Skype seems to be way too stubborn. By mistake I once turned off the connectivity change broadcast receiver. Now, no matter what I do I cannot toggle this receiver back on. WHY? I tried pretty much everything. Rebooting, enabling the receiver from within SD Maid pro, tried making a backup of MAT and then editing this backup manually to remove the tweak for skype but it all failed. With other apps I can toggle their receiver, activities and everything however I see fit and the toggles remain put. With Skype, however, it's a fail. Any help?
Let x
Great tutorial.
As you seem to be very clever with MyAndroidTools, do you have any idea how to spot the services to disable with MyAndroidTools, in order to kill UC news inside the 11.4.5.1005 UC browser last release :
For more or less one week, UC browser has become unusable for Android nowadays with forcing every user with b******* news, foxnews search engine, star magazine search engine, googlenews search engine, yahoo search engine, uc browser search engine, 9app, music player and many more.
Do you think MyAndroidTools could be able to strangle this overwhelming flow of stupidity ?
If yes, there are so much possible items among Services (run whenever), ...
What could be a method to spot the tap and turn it off?
thx
is there any FOSS alternative?
Can't locate in the Play store?
Has the app been removed from the play store? If so is there any chance you could make the file available here? This has been a favorite app of mine for quite sometime. Would hate to see it fade into oblivion.
Guys this was a one-stop app for me...can somebody make the apk here??
Sivabalan said:
Guys this was a one-stop app for me...can somebody make the apk here??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if I would be violating any XDA rules or not. For sure this app is no longer available on the Play store and the developer unfortunately didn't respond to my email. If I can be assured that I'm not violating any XDA rules, I'll gladly share. PS, I love this app I use it for so many things
Bobbaloo said:
I don't know if I would be violating any XDA rules or not. For sure this app is no longer available on the Play store and the developer unfortunately didn't respond to my email. If I can be assured that I'm not violating any XDA rules, I'll gladly share. PS, I love this app I use it for so many things
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buddy it's available in apk mirror portal.
App was removed from Play Store how to get the Pro now?
I bought it but if it's in my library its a pita to search a misplaced tap and you back to the top of the list
How I can get this app? It's no longer in the AppStore. I bought the Pro Version.
Bobbaloo said:
I don't know if I would be violating any XDA rules or not. For sure this app is no longer available on the Play store and the developer unfortunately didn't respond to my email. If I can be assured that I'm not violating any XDA rules, I'll gladly share. PS, I love this app I use it for so many things
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought it on google play and suddenly it disappeared. I contacted the creator and he wrote me he violated some rules (?) of google play and they cutted off his account, but he send me the full apk. But I don't know if I can share it here and if he wants to share the full version. Anyway it's still possible to find it on some websites (apkmirror and something else).
I'm satisfied with it, expecially after I lost money buying autorun manager pro (the developer is not releasing new version, he said he's not interested in it anymore).
Anyway, if someone has any alternative to suggest to My Android Tools Pro it would be good.

Rooted Android Security Measures. What are they?

I've never rooted an Android. One of the warnings I see over and over is that rooted devices are more vulnerable to malware. I don't see any solutions for this though.
What extra measures will I need to take to keep my Android safe?
I use Norton 360 on my PC and Androids. Will this be of any help?
Are there any apps I can install to help with this issue?
Are there any system settings I should use for this particular problem?
Thank you
With stock or rooted the biggest threat is the user themselves. Most either install or download the malware themselves. A fully updated stock Android isn't invulnerable; there's no saving dumb bunnies...
Side loaded apps are high risk; at the least scan with online Virustotal and consider the results before installing. Keep email in the cloud and be careful if you choose to download anything.
All downloads stay in the download folder until vetted. Jpeg's and png's are suspect; open them there first before moving them and watch for strange behavior in that folder. Check the download folder daily for anything you didn't download, if found do not open, delete.
Keep thrash social media apps off the phone, all of them. They are targets and vectors for malware of all types.
Use a good firewall and police what apps are doing. Revoke internet access to all apps that don't need it. Know what apps have run at start permissions; do they need it? Updates and upgrades can cause more lost time then malware trying to find work arounds. Lock auto updates down, and download them only if needed. Updates and firmware upgrades can and do break things...
Most importantly cover your six and be prepared.
Critical data can not be lost, protect it!
Redundantly backup all critical data to at least 2 hdds that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. Be ready to do a full reload if needed.
If malware is found or suspected, isolate the phone and if it can't be completely deleted in an hour or two, nuke that load. Be ready to change passwords and secure accounts.
Never trust antivirus apps to detect malware or save you, mostly they just waste resources on an Android.
Thank you!
I'm already doing a lot of those things, especially social media apps.
One of the reasons I want to root my phone is that I can't uninstall, force stop, disable or take away permissions for some apps, like Facebook, Facebook App installer, FB app manager Google, ad nauseum. The same goes for the millions of preinstalled Samsung bloatware apps. They dont stay disabled and routinely restore permissions. Im sick of having to routinely check them all. I'll never buy another Saamsung again.
You're welcome. Welcome to XDA
I run 2 stock N10+'s, one on Pie, the other on 10.
I use package disabler to kill bloatware and services I don't want to run at bootup. You can also use a adb editing app to disable apks. Don't go too nuts; be wary of disabling any Samsung system apps. Most of these apps just sit unless needed. Dependencies... actions have consequences; understand what the app does and what other apps, services or UI functions are dependent on it!
Google play Services can be disabled when not needed; disable find my device as System Administrator first.
On Pie Karma Firewall is fully functional but not on Android 10 and up, although it will still block access. It uses virtually no battery.
Once you sort it out (learning curve ahead) stock Samsung's especially older ones like the N10+ are easy to run. They are the most customizable stock Android on the planet with an excellent UI. The current load on this one will be 2 yo this June; still fast, stable and fulfilling its mission. Security is simply not an issue.
blackhawk said:
You're welcome. Welcome to XDA
I run 2 stock N10+'s, one on Pie, the other on 10.
I use package disabler to kill bloatware and services I don't want to run at bootup. You can also use a adb editing app to disable apks. Don't go too nuts; be wary of disabling any Samsung system apps. Most of these apps just sit unless needed. Dependencies... actions have consequences; understand what the app does and what other apps, services or UI functions are dependent on it!
Google play Services can be disabled when not needed; disable find my device as System Administrator first.
On Pie Karma Firewall is fully functional but not on Android 10 and up, although it will still block access. It uses virtually no battery.
Once you sort it out (learning curve ahead) stock Samsung's especially older ones like the N10+ are easy to run. They are the most customizable stock Android on the planet with an excellent UI. The current load on this one will be 2 yo this June; still fast, stable and fulfilling its mission. Security is simply not an issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The more annoying Samsung apps I was referring to are the Bixby apps, AR doodle, Smarter things... those kind of apps. If they didn't re-enable themselves restore permissions, I wouldn't mind them so much. But they DO.
I won't be using that phone much longer anyway. I'm going back to Motorola.
I always buy factory or globally unlocked phones. That helps some. But Motorola recently started forcing FB. I can uninstall it, however I have to review updates to make sure it doesn't end up on my phone again. But then I review all updates before installing them anyway..
I always look up the system apps before making any changes. Like Google Easter Egg. Everything I could find says it's unnecessary.
All those mentioned apps can be safely disabled.
Bixby Vision is used for barcode scanning though.
Try the free Galaxy store icon packs, themes and the Good Lock family of apps including One Handed Operation plus.
Chose theme>icon pack>whatever wallpaper you want. The native high contrast theme looks good.
Play with it...
blackhawk said:
All those mentioned apps can be safely disabled.
Bixby Vision is used for barcode scanning though.
Try the free Galaxy store icon packs, themes and the Good Lock family of apps including One Handed Operation plus.
Chose theme>icon pack>whatever wallpaper you want. The native high contrast theme looks good.
Play with it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually already ordered a new Moto. It will be here tomorrow. Well, it's after 1am, so I guess it'll be here later today.
I've disabled multiple Samsung apps, restricted data and battery, taken away permissions, not just in app settings, but in permissions setting, special access permissions... And all the other weird ways I keep finding out about that you wouldn't think would be a place to remove permissions. When my phone starts to slow down, or the battery isn't lasting very long, sure enough, Samsung has gone behind my back and reset my preferences again. I never had issues like this any of the Motorola phones I've had.

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