Performance boost for Mi A2 Lite (Android 10 - No Root) - Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite Guides, News, & Discussion

Hi,
Adaptive battery helps to boost performance if you tweak it enought. I did this on my own device and it blazing fast right now. No root required for this guide. Use at your own risk.
First Step:
Step by step:
1- Go to Settings - Apps & Notifications - See all apps - 3 dot - Show system
2- Tap to app
3- Turn off all Notifications of that app
4- If you cant turn off Notifications, Tap Advanced - Disable Notification dot
5- Turn off Background data
6- Tap Advanced - Battery - Background restriction - Restrict
7- Go back to See all apps
8- Repeat 2-7 steps until the last app.
Rules:
Dont do this to Clock and your most used apps. I didnt touched Telephone, Notifications, Sms related apps.
Second Step:
Disabled apps:
1- Android Auto
2- Android Setup
3- Android Setup (another one)
4- Basic daydreams
5- Bookmark provider
6- Carrier Services
7- com.android.providers.partnerbookmarks
8- Companion device manager
9- Default Print Service
10- Device setup
11- Digital Wellbeing
12- Files
13- Fingerpirnt test
14- Google
15- Home screen tips
16- HTML Viewer
17- Lens
18- Maps
19- Market Feedback Agent
20- Nfc Service
21- Photo Screensavers
22- Print Service Recommendation Service
23- Qualcomm Mobile Security (telemetry app)
24- Tags
25- PAI
26- ConfigUpdater
27- Storage Manager
28- com.android.wallpaperpicker (any other HD wallpaper app will not affect from it)
29- com.android.cts.ctsshim
30- com.android.cts.priv.ctsshim
31- Google One Time Init
32- Google Partner Setup
Third Step:
Permissions:
1- Deny all permissions on Disabled apps.
2- I gived only Physical Activity permission to Google Play Services app. (I cant do this on v11.0.10)
3- Google Play Store app has only Storage permission.
4- Go to: Settings/Privacy check the permissions to deny unwanted access.
5- Disable - Display over the other apps permission on Disabled apps.
6- Disable - Modify system settings permission on Disabled apps.
Fourth Step:
Developer Settings:
1- Lower Animator duration scale to 0,5x
2- Game Driver Prefences:
- Find your games and choose ' Game Driver ' for them.
- Find your most used apps (Firefox, YouTube, Nova launcher,.. etc.) and choose ' Game Driver ' for it.
3- Enable Wi-Fi Scan Throttling.
4- Background check:
- ANT HAL Service, disable
- Calendar Storage, disable
- ConfigUpdater, disable
- Dirac Control Service, disable
- GFManager, disable
- Spock, disable
(I disabled everything in there except Google Play Store app on my own device.)
Fifth Step:
Ad-Blocking:
1- Go to: Settings/Network&Internet/Advanced/Private DNS/Private DNS provider host name:
dns.adguard.com
2- Go to: Settings/Privacy/Advanced/Ads - Enable - Opt out of Ads Personalization
3- Go to: Settings/Privacy/Advanced/Ads - Disable - Enable debug logging for ads
Sixth Step:
Final:
1- Do the last thing: Restart your phone.
2- Enjoy!
Pros:
- Apps no longer restarts.
- Performance improves.
- Battery life improves.
- Ram management works as expected.
- It smoothens the UI.
- Device starts working as iOS'ish performance.
- Youre gonna love your phone again.
Cons:
- Dont think so.
Notes:
I did this to 182 apps plus the applications I installed (i didnt add them to that count). It takes time. Requires a lot of patience to do that. But the results incredible.
Warnings!:
1- Do not touch Reset app preferences button after this. You will be lose everything what you did so far. If you do, Slow performance will be back.
2- Do not disable Adaptive Battery.
How to Reset everything back to Default:
1- Go to: Settings/Apps and Notifications/See all x apps/Three dot/Reset app preferences
2- Go to: Settings/Advanced/Developer Options/Turn Off
3- Restart your phone.
4- Done!

Is this for real? Were you ok when you started this thread?
First of all 70% of the apps you disabled are extremely useful in the day to day world and are vital, that's why Google put them there, and that's why people with 3rd party Android modifications install them.
Android Auto, it's your phone fully integrated into your car, I use it every time, and that's why I waited for the full system integration of Android Auto in Android 10.
Carrier services, it's the STK service that it's extremely useful when you want to check the internal services from your carrier, like cost control, carrier updates, etc.
Print service, again, for real? This service enables your phone to print to cloud services or wi-fi printers, extremely useful.
Digital Wellbeing is the system version of activity tracker, I love it, it offers me all the devices privacy and limitation features that instead I would have to set myself. The black and white screen at night, the autoDND, and a tracker to see how much I use the phone.
And I can go on with my explanations. This is not a tutorial, this is how you can dumb down the phone even more than Xiaomi did. Breaking every system integrated functionality to what? Replacem them with 3rd party apps from god knows what developers on the Play store.
5- Disable - Display over the other apps permission on Disabled apps.
Are you for real again? This way you kill all the apps that use bubbles like whatsapp, phone, sms, facebook messenger and you can't use them during multitasking anymore.
2- Go to Settings/Privacy/Advanced/Ads - Enable - Opt out of Ads Personalization
Do you even know what this does? This removes the ad personalization, but it still tracks you. This is not a performance boost, this is still getting track but you get random ads instead of relevant ads.
1- Lower Animator duration scale to 0,5x
This is the worst thing a user can do. In the build.prop there is a setting that defines how many events per second can occur on the screen at a given time, decreasing animation time may overflow that limit and force the SoC to use more power. What you gained by disabling/crippling good services on your phone it's now being used by the processor itself, since you're forcing it's buffers.
- Device starts working as iOS'ish performance.
- Youre gonna love your phone again.
Again, this is a joke, isn't it? How can someone love a phone with broken HARDWARE features that cannot be fixed through app management, kernel issues, driver issues, etc? If you were to browse just a little XDA forums you'd see how much nonsense you wrote in this thread. This is not a performance boost, this a dumbed down phone with performance being as placebo as it gets.
I will report this thread to the moderators/admins, because this is not acceptable on a development forum. I never saw so much fake news in this place in my entire life.

I think you're being a bit too hard on the guy. If someone's browsing the XDA and finds this post, chances are they know a bit about the aforementioned settings and will not tamper with anything that they wouldn't want working properly. He just listed the things that he doesn't really care about too much, and also mentioned those that he didn't touch.
It is a tad bit misleading but I don't think this will be breaking anyone's phone, as it just takes a couple of "reverts to default" to set everything as it had been before.
TeoXSD said:
Is this for real? Were you ok when you started this thread?
First of all 70% of the apps you disabled are extremely useful in the day to day world and are vital, that's why Google put them there, and that's why people with 3rd party Android modifications install them.
Android Auto, it's your phone fully integrated into your car, I use it every time, and that's why I waited for the full system integration of Android Auto in Android 10.
Carrier services, it's the STK service that it's extremely useful when you want to check the internal services from your carrier, like cost control, carrier updates, etc.
Print service, again, for real? This service enables your phone to print to cloud services or wi-fi printers, extremely useful.
Digital Wellbeing is the system version of activity tracker, I love it, it offers me all the devices privacy and limitation features that instead I would have to set myself. The black and white screen at night, the autoDND, and a tracker to see how much I use the phone.
And I can go on with my explanations. This is not a tutorial, this is how you can dumb down the phone even more than Xiaomi did. Breaking every system integrated functionality to what? Replacem them with 3rd party apps from god knows what developers on the Play store.
5- Disable - Display over the other apps permission on Disabled apps.
Are you for real again? This way you kill all the apps that use bubbles like whatsapp, phone, sms, facebook messenger and you can't use them during multitasking anymore.
2- Go to Settings/Privacy/Advanced/Ads - Enable - Opt out of Ads Personalization
Do you even know what this does? This removes the ad personalization, but it still tracks you. This is not a performance boost, this is still getting track but you get random ads instead of relevant ads.
1- Lower Animator duration scale to 0,5x
This is the worst thing a user can do. In the build.prop there is a setting that defines how many events per second can occur on the screen at a given time, decreasing animation time may overflow that limit and force the SoC to use more power. What you gained by disabling/crippling good services on your phone it's now being used by the processor itself, since you're forcing it's buffers.
- Device starts working as iOS'ish performance.
- Youre gonna love your phone again.
Again, this is a joke, isn't it? How can someone love a phone with broken HARDWARE features that cannot be fixed through app management, kernel issues, driver issues, etc? If you were to browse just a little XDA forums you'd see how much nonsense you wrote in this thread. This is not a performance boost, this a dumbed down phone with performance being as placebo as it gets.
I will report this thread to the moderators/admins, because this is not acceptable on a development forum. I never saw so much fake news in this place in my entire life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

novak.vujacic97 said:
I think you're being a bit too hard on the guy. If someone's browsing the XDA and finds this post, chances are they know a bit about the aforementioned settings and will not tamper with anything that they wouldn't want working properly. He just listed the things that he doesn't really care about too much, and also mentioned those that he didn't touch.
It is a tad bit misleading but I don't think this will be breaking anyone's phone, as it just takes a couple of "reverts to default" to set everything as it had been before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Harsh, maybe. But a "a bit misleading" is an understatement. Killing parts of the core system is NOT a performance boost, it's like going to vacation all packed up and throwing everything down the road to your destination so you save fuel. This is not the first time he done posts like this (check the "I thought this is stock android, why does it has 200 apps?" thread). This kind of misleading threads are misinforming the users here, most of them who are just basic users coming from Mi Forums in search for solutions (since the phone is so broken due to poor updates). These posts then get copy and pasted to Mi Forums and there you go, you have a good amount of users now with crippled phones. The same happened to how to update to 11.0.2, there was a step there that made users lose their data, poor tutorials, poor understanding of technology and you made that user lose whatever was on his device.
I hope a moderator would close this thread and let it sink to the bottom of this forum, this is not quality information and it's not helping anyone. You say he said what he didn't touch? I beg to differ: "Notes:
I did this to 182 apps plus the applications I installed (i didnt add them to that count). It takes time. Requires a lot of patience to do that. But the results incredible." This was added later it seems, and out of 212 system core apps... 182... uhm... he kinda' killed everything and brags for "performance". Really?

Hahah, oh well, maybe he really likes bloatwarefree or any-warefree user interface :'D I think that the idea that he is coming from is not necessarily bad, I also disabled many google and system apps because they really do drain battery and throttle performance, plus I wasn't really using them too much. A good balance between functionality of the phone for any John Doe and functionality of the system itself is important though. He did overdo it most certainly, but then again, everyone should always be cautious when tampering with the system using the instructions from strangers on the internet...
TeoXSD said:
Harsh, maybe. But a "a bit misleading" is an understatement. Killing parts of the core system is NOT a performance boost, it's like going to vacation all packed up and throwing everything down the road to your destination so you save fuel. This is not the first time he done posts like this (check the "I thought this is stock android, why does it has 200 apps?" thread). This kind of misleading threads are misinforming the users here, most of them who are just basic users coming from Mi Forums in search for solutions (since the phone is so broken due to poor updates). These posts then get copy and pasted to Mi Forums and there you go, you have a good amount of users now with crippled phones. The same happened to how to update to 11.0.2, there was a step there that made users lose their data, poor tutorials, poor understanding of technology and you made that user lose whatever was on his device.
I hope a moderator would close this thread and let it sink to the bottom of this forum, this is not quality information and it's not helping anyone. You say he said what he didn't touch? I beg to differ: "Notes:
I did this to 182 apps plus the applications I installed (i didnt add them to that count). It takes time. Requires a lot of patience to do that. But the results incredible." This was added later it seems, and out of 212 system core apps... 182... uhm... he kinda' killed everything and brags for "performance". Really?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

novak.vujacic97 said:
Hahah, oh well, maybe he really likes bloatwarefree or any-warefree user interface :'D I think that the idea that he is coming from is not necessarily bad, I also disabled many google and system apps because they really do drain battery and throttle performance, plus I wasn't really using them too much. A good balance between functionality of the phone for any John Doe and functionality of the system itself is important though. He did overdo it most certainly, but then again, everyone should always be cautious when tampering with the system using the instructions from strangers on the internet...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, the whole point of this thread is? Lying to people, giving them false information and basically clickbait. That was the whole point, a clickbait thread with extremely bad information in it. Disabling apps, especially Google ones in an Google rom is bad. Tweaking developer settings (which are for developers and not users) is a bad idea if you don't know what is the point of X setting. Instead of making a thread like this explain how people can customize their phones explaining what features do, what is safe for disabling/deleting and what is the general purpose of this. He also said he has no problem, but can he use the feed on the home screen after disabling Google app. I bet he can't anymore. Can he use Google assistant anymore in Auto app for example? No because he disabled it when disabling Google. He doesn't explain the purpose, he doesn't explain that is a cascade of dependencies between some of the core apps. Even the lite version of GAPPS comes with Google (the app) as main and on. If it wasn't a dependency it would have been removed, right? This is coming from actual developers that prepare GAPPS packages for custom roms. Want another one? He disabled HTML Viewer, now when he's going to go into settings and go into about, it will crash when trying to open HTML elements like certifications and so on. That being said it will also crash whenever you're trying to view a help file based on HTML in any 3rd party app. Companion device manager, well if you have a nice companion device like smartwatch, smart headphones, anything smart, now it ain't smart no more, you killed it, but does he explain that? No, he just marks it as bloatware, when unfortunately it's a system core service and not a Google app.
Let me tell you a thing, as core apps, and as an operating system Android 10 is good, but the optimization on how the OS interacts with the hardware is faulty, and it's been proven numerous times. There are enough people who did actual research to do so, if you're disabling apps you may fix the battery drain and performance throttle until Xiaomi decides to break something else, somewhere else and then you're up for the task again to find and disable whatever you "don't need". Google kinda' patches sometimes the problem with it's own apps, but you ain't going to see a difference because the apps are now in a frozen state (talking about important apps here, not the extras). Now for the extras, I still don't understand why in 2020 Android don't let you delete extras app, this will both help people like you who like balance, maybe have some better 3rd party alternatives you like etc. and also help people like OP who has no idea what he's doing, killing the whole system and hoping for the best. iOS did this since... idk when, but from what I remember iOS 12 can lets you uninstall preinstalled apps that are not important and later reinstalling them from the store (books, home, and whatever else is there). Disabling apps in Android just keeps the memory clogged with useless data... so, where is the improvement? Ohh, a few minutes to hours of battery more...
Also, to give you another reason to read about it, when you say you disabled some system apps and you get better battery it's placebo. Why? Because while most of the system apps are optimized for the current API level the phone is running your 3rd party apps aren't... and from what I've checked on APKMirror, extremely few apps are actually fully optimized for Android 10 as target. Optimized system apps + not optimized 3rd party = low sot. Disabling system apps just compensates a little for the not optimized ones, the not optimized ones running the same as before. By disabling your system apps you just made room for more mess to run, which in the end, it's not optimal, it's just placebo.
So, tl;dr: informative threads, information, explanations, facts, data, demonstration not this joke.

TeoXSD said:
So, the whole point of this thread is? Lying to people, giving them false information and basically clickbait. That was the whole point, a clickbait thread with extremely bad information in it. Disabling apps, especially Google ones in an Google rom is bad. Tweaking developer settings (which are for developers and not users) is a bad idea if you don't know what is the point of X setting. Instead of making a thread like this explain how people can customize their phones explaining what features do, what is safe for disabling/deleting and what is the general purpose of this. He also said he has no problem, but can he use the feed on the home screen after disabling Google app. I bet he can't anymore. Can he use Google assistant anymore in Auto app for example? No because he disabled it when disabling Google. He doesn't explain the purpose, he doesn't explain that is a cascade of dependencies between some of the core apps. Even the lite version of GAPPS comes with Google (the app) as main and on. If it wasn't a dependency it would have been removed, right? This is coming from actual developers that prepare GAPPS packages for custom roms. Want another one? He disabled HTML Viewer, now when he's going to go into settings and go into about, it will crash when trying to open HTML elements like certifications and so on. That being said it will also crash whenever you're trying to view a help file based on HTML in any 3rd party app. Companion device manager, well if you have a nice companion device like smartwatch, smart headphones, anything smart, now it ain't smart no more, you killed it, but does he explain that? No, he just marks it as bloatware, when unfortunately it's a system core service and not a Google app.
Let me tell you a thing, as core apps, and as an operating system Android 10 is good, but the optimization on how the OS interacts with the hardware is faulty, and it's been proven numerous times. There are enough people who did actual research to do so, if you're disabling apps you may fix the battery drain and performance throttle until Xiaomi decides to break something else, somewhere else and then you're up for the task again to find and disable whatever you "don't need". Google kinda' patches sometimes the problem with it's own apps, but you ain't going to see a difference because the apps are now in a frozen state (talking about important apps here, not the extras). Now for the extras, I still don't understand why in 2020 Android don't let you delete extras app, this will both help people like you who like balance, maybe have some better 3rd party alternatives you like etc. and also help people like OP who has no idea what he's doing, killing the whole system and hoping for the best. iOS did this since... idk when, but from what I remember iOS 12 can lets you uninstall preinstalled apps that are not important and later reinstalling them from the store (books, home, and whatever else is there). Disabling apps in Android just keeps the memory clogged with useless data... so, where is the improvement? Ohh, a few minutes to hours of battery more...
So, tl;dr: informative threads, information, explanations, facts, data, demonstration not this joke.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing is clickbait in here. You will see the difference when you follow the steps. I am so happy with my phone.

Someone forgot to take his meds again...
TeoXSD said:
So, the whole point of this thread is? Lying to people, giving them false information and basically clickbait. That was the whole point, a clickbait thread with extremely bad information in it. Disabling apps, especially Google ones in an Google rom is bad. Tweaking developer settings (which are for developers and not users) is a bad idea if you don't know what is the point of X setting. Instead of making a thread like this explain how people can customize their phones explaining what features do, what is safe for disabling/deleting and what is the general purpose of this. He also said he has no problem, but can he use the feed on the home screen after disabling Google app. I bet he can't anymore. Can he use Google assistant anymore in Auto app for example? No because he disabled it when disabling Google. He doesn't explain the purpose, he doesn't explain that is a cascade of dependencies between some of the core apps. Even the lite version of GAPPS comes with Google (the app) as main and on. If it wasn't a dependency it would have been removed, right? This is coming from actual developers that prepare GAPPS packages for custom roms. Want another one? He disabled HTML Viewer, now when he's going to go into settings and go into about, it will crash when trying to open HTML elements like certifications and so on. That being said it will also crash whenever you're trying to view a help file based on HTML in any 3rd party app. Companion device manager, well if you have a nice companion device like smartwatch, smart headphones, anything smart, now it ain't smart no more, you killed it, but does he explain that? No, he just marks it as bloatware, when unfortunately it's a system core service and not a Google app.
Let me tell you a thing, as core apps, and as an operating system Android 10 is good, but the optimization on how the OS interacts with the hardware is faulty, and it's been proven numerous times. There are enough people who did actual research to do so, if you're disabling apps you may fix the battery drain and performance throttle until Xiaomi decides to break something else, somewhere else and then you're up for the task again to find and disable whatever you "don't need". Google kinda' patches sometimes the problem with it's own apps, but you ain't going to see a difference because the apps are now in a frozen state (talking about important apps here, not the extras). Now for the extras, I still don't understand why in 2020 Android don't let you delete extras app, this will both help people like you who like balance, maybe have some better 3rd party alternatives you like etc. and also help people like OP who has no idea what he's doing, killing the whole system and hoping for the best. iOS did this since... idk when, but from what I remember iOS 12 can lets you uninstall preinstalled apps that are not important and later reinstalling them from the store (books, home, and whatever else is there). Disabling apps in Android just keeps the memory clogged with useless data... so, where is the improvement? Ohh, a few minutes to hours of battery more...
Also, to give you another reason to read about it, when you say you disabled some system apps and you get better battery it's placebo. Why? Because while most of the system apps are optimized for the current API level the phone is running your 3rd party apps aren't... and from what I've checked on APKMirror, extremely few apps are actually fully optimized for Android 10 as target. Optimized system apps + not optimized 3rd party = low sot. Disabling system apps just compensates a little for the not optimized ones, the not optimized ones running the same as before. By disabling your system apps you just made room for more mess to run, which in the end, it's not optimal, it's just placebo.
So, tl;dr: informative threads, information, explanations, facts, data, demonstration not this joke.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Here's my take...if an App has the option to disable said app, then it is not important to the overall function of the phone. There are many that fit this criteria - and obviously many that don't.

I did everything on this guide to v11.0.10 and its like butter smooth now.
These are new tweaks for Developer Options:
1- Find your most used apps (Firefox, YouTube, Nova launcher,.. etc.) and choose ' Game Driver ' for it.
Game Driver also improves other apps responsiveness not just Games.
2- Background check:
- ANT HAL Service, disable
- Calendar Storage, disable
- ConfigUpdater, disable
- Dirac Control Service, disable
- GFManager, disable
- Spock, disable
(I disabled everything in there except Google Play Store app on my own device.)
I added these apps to Disabled list:
- PAI
- ConfigUpdater
- Storage Manager
- com.android.wallpaperpicker (any other HD wallpaper app will not affect from it)
- com.android.cts.ctsshim
- com.android.cts.priv.ctsshim
- Google One Time Init
- Google Partner Setup
How to Reset everything back to Default:
1- Go to: Settings/Apps and Notifications/See all x apps/Three dot/Reset app preferences
2- Go to: Settings/Advanced/Developer Options/Turn Off
3- Restart your phone.
4- Done!
Note: Xiaomi blocked Disabling Location for Google Play Services. I am getting infinite loop on v11.0.10

Thanks a lot Man !
I don't know whether you are still using this device. But believed me I was so frustrated about the performance after the update. And I honestly don't care much about disabling hard critical apps in the system as the phone now works buttery smooth. All my required apps works and no one can tell the difference. Maybe android inside is crying and bragging what have you done what have you done screw the system the phone feels great . Thanks man ! :good:

This guide worked perfect. I didn't even follow all the steps but handpicked the ones that seemed to have most impact for me.

I am curious to try, what are the most valuable apps you think i should stop?
I am not really afraid to broke my phone as i thinking to move again to custom rom

JUST INSTALLED THIS
and its perfect now
[ROM][12][Daisy][OFFICIAL]Syberia Project
/* * Your warranty is now void. * * Syberia Team not responsible for bricked devices, dead SD cards, * thermonuclear war, or you getting fired because the alarm app failed. Please * do some research if you have any concerns about features...
forum.xda-developers.com

Related

Speed improvements

Hey! tl;dr? Click here to go directly to the fast improvements post and disable some unwanted services.
Still want more fun disabling services? Read the second post.
Hi all,
I improved the speed of my G2 recently and felt that the community might appreciate this as well. It's probably not the "best guide" for everybody, but this is what I've done and it's worked nicely for me so far.
I recently got irritated at my phone being occasionally sluggish. So, when it was sluggish one time, I went to Manage applications->Running Applications, and saw that Facebook decided it wanted to start itself up in the background.
Now, I'm as big a fan as the next guy for having multi-tasking, but randomly starting an app in the background without my consent is not what I consider to be useful or resource-friendly. I decided to "freeze" the app using SD Maid (you can do this with Titanium Backup as well). Facebook is now in a frozen state so it will not launch itself at all. Ha!
What do I do about having no Facebook now? Well, there happens to be a great app on the Market called Fast for Facebook. This is quite an improvement over the sluggish and buggy Facebook app. I installed that and am having a blast with it so far.
I wanted to check for other apps that were dawdling in the background. So I looked again in Running Applications and found that Maps decided it wants to be running too. I went to the settings for the Maps application, and turned off Location reporting. Why would I want an app sucking my resources dry to alert the world where I am? I'm not that much of a socialite or stalker prey. I also turned off Automatic check-ins.
Previously, I'd gone through a few other apps and turned off automatic sync. Things like DropSync (to sync Dropbox), Tumblr, Google+, and Twitter are not necessary for me to have reviving themselves in the background. I should be the authoritarian ruler of all of the apps over my phone- no freedom here to run around as you please.
I set up a couple apps to run at odd hours of the night. I only need to have photos and documents synced probably once a day, so I set up Tasker to do it automatically while the phone is charging and connected to Wifi at around 4am. I've set up Titanium Backup to do backups something like every Tuesday night, Friday night, and Sunday night, each at like 4am as well; and upload those backups to Box. I want to use my phone fast when I use it during the day, and at night time it can take its time with these lesser-priority tasks while I'm asleep.
Email/Gmail and Messages still have notifications and syncing, as well as the occasional Pulse RSS feed notification. All else seems to be shutting up though, which is good. What I would really like to do is have Market update its apps automatically at like 4am, so it won't spend resources checking for updates in the background. I can't find how to do that though.
One app that really gets under my skin is Amazon Appstore. This guy runs in the background too- I've turned off its notifications but I'm pretty sure it'll still sit there sapping my resources. This one's a toughie because I want to uninstall or freeze it, but I want to still be able to get good free apps from it once a day. There have been some really good apps and some really bad ones, but the good ones are worth it to me.
I might add in more things to disable. It's been faster so far, so I'll see how it goes over a couple days. One last thing I did was install SetCPU. I use that now instead of CyanogenMod 7's built-in CPU stuff. I don't know if it's a placebo or not, but I seemed to notice a boost in performance from it (not instantly, but in general I see less lag).
Hope this helps someone, best of luck with all of your phones.
-Proxin
use watchdog to spy on what apps are actually running and using cpu in the background, lots of apps can be open in the background and not using anything cpuwise
demkantor said:
use watchdog to spy on what apps are actually running and using cpu in the background, lots of apps can be open in the background and not using anything cpuwise
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Watchdog is a great idea too, I forgot to mention that.
If anyone else has recommendations they are all welcome!
Proxin said:
Watchdog is a great idea too, I forgot to mention that.
If anyone else has recommendations they are all welcome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For speed improvements, i usually use titanum backup to remove alot of useless apps i dont use (which frees up alot of ram). then i supercharge my phone and set it to agressive. And i also change up the build prop.
I need to post my additions.
I realized that by disabling Facebook, I lost my contacts that I had from there. That's no good. So I re-enabled it.
Now, Facebook has a few select services it likes to let run in the background. One specific one is MediaUploadService. This runs even when you are Not uploading anything, which is ridiculous because it hogs your resources.
However, if you disable this service completely, you won't be able to upload any photos to Facebook from your phone.
SO, I set up a script to disable all of Facebook's services like this at once, and I use the app called Llama to execute this script every time Facebook exits. I set it up to call my enable script once Facebook is started, then 5 minutes after Facebook closes it disables all of the Facebook services.
Here is what I used...
Enable Facebook services:
Code:
su -c 'pm enable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.MediaUploadService; pm enable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.FacebookService; pm enable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.BackgroundDetectionService; pm enable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.orca.push.mqtt.MqttPushService; '
Disable Facebook services:
Code:
su -c 'pm disable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.MediaUploadService; pm disable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.FacebookService; pm disable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.katana.service.BackgroundDetectionService; pm disable com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.orca.push.mqtt.MqttPushService; '
With this new ability to disable services, I took a look at Amazon AppStore's annoying service, and disabled it using this script with Llama like I did with Facebook:
Amazon Service Disable script
Code:
su -c 'pm disable com.amazon.venezia/com.amazon.venezia.service.UpdateService'
Proxin- note: old code said:
Next, I noticed SwypeConnect was keeping itself active, so I disabled it too (Swype never gets updates anyway, so I didn't see anything bad with doing this):
Code:
pm disable com.swype.android.inputmethod/com.swype.android.connect.ConnectClient
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's an app on the Market called StartupManager, I used that to kill off extra startup services that were not necessary. Things like Youtube, MyTracks and Maps were starting up. My view is, why do these things start when I don't start them myself? I stopped the services and have seen some pretty good responsiveness so far.
Go to the market and search for an app called gemini manager. It needs root but you can disable autostart for all apps with it.
Also get LBE privacy guard- it will block apps from using gps/data which can also increase battery life
redspeed said:
Go to the market and search for an app called gemini manager. It needs root but you can disable autostart for all apps with it.
Also get LBE privacy guard- it will block apps from using gps/data which can also increase battery life
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great, I'll look into those too- thanks
@proxin:
Amazing post! how do you find the path for each of those components inside a package?
I use the same method with Tasker (instead of llama). Perform a task (run shell command) on the exit of a App profile
Also, the .Mqtt. should be all lowercase (figured out after that service would not disable), like this:
com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.orca.push.mqtt.MqttPushService
file2mail said:
@proxin:
Amazing post! how do you find the path for each of those components inside a package?
I use the same method with Tasker (instead of llama). Perform a task (run shell command) on the exit of a App profile
Also, the .Mqtt. should be all lowercase (figured out after that service would not disable), like this:
com.facebook.katana/com.facebook.orca.push.mqtt.MqttPushService
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, hope it has helped! I found them by looking up their Running service name on Google, and seeing people's logcat errors on there elaborated them for me. So I'd try a search for "com.facebook.katana*MqttPushService" and Google would direct me to the proper one.
You're spot-on with the Mqtt needing to be lowercase, I found the same issue on mine and got pissed off when I saw that the Mqtt service was still running forgot to change the post to reflect it though. Thanks for the notice
Seems like the best method for using your phone properly is to do like we're doing, otherwise applications with poor choice in how they handle resources, will clutter up the phone.
Btw, I tried Gemini App Manager and it works well for disabling autostart in apps. LBE Privacy Guard is intense in how much it locks down your phone, but that's locked down it's even a bit too much for me haha. It's a great app and will work for many people though.
I've noticed maps running in the background many times. I didnt know you're able to switch this off, thanks for the info!
Killer1desireZ said:
I've noticed maps running in the background many times. I didnt know you're able to switch this off, thanks for the info!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem, I don't recommend killing off the Maps service though as it's probably needed for some location service (in my case I need the cell tower location service for some Llama profiles)
That's just my case though. Before you disable the service, maybe see if you can turn off automatic location reporting in Latitude? Go into Latitude settings->Location Settings and change Location reporting and Automatic check-ins to be Off.
Hope this helps. It shouldn't disable the entire Maps service but maybe it will reduce the amount of check-ins that Maps does without your consent.
Perhaps one of the biggest performance hits in an Mid Spec Android phone is how many App's it's carrying.
It is generally a good idea to keep the App count low. A general rule of thumb is to have no more than 40~ user apps on your Device. Since you have less apps installed (some of which could be idling or actively operating in the backround), you'll have more free RAM/space in the internal storage which in turn will mean more speed/battery efficiency.
Hope this can be of help
crestofawave said:
Perhaps one of the biggest performance hits in an Mid Spec Android phone is how many App's it's carrying.
It is generally a good idea to keep the App count low. A general rule of thumb is to have no more than 40~ user apps on your Device. Since you have less apps installed (some of which could be idling or actively operating in the backround), you'll have more free RAM/space in the internal storage which in turn will mean more speed/battery efficiency.
Hope this can be of help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've heard this said too, but I've never seen evidence that the more apps you have installed = the more apps are actively running. It's definitely a good idea to have less installed, but I don't think they'll run in the background unless they have autostarting capabilities like you can monitor with Gemini App Manager.
This is just me without even a Bachelor's degree speculating and relaying my experience though, so don't take my word for it
I notice a definite lag once I go above a certain amount of apps. I uninstall 10 or so and its a rocket! But then again I have waaaay more then 40 probably like 100 or something
Maps doesn't have that option for me. Anyways uninstalled 20 apps
New fun things to try...
I enjoy GO Launcher Ex just as much as the next guy who uses it as the default Home application, but I don't enjoy it making multiple services of itself that do, literally nothing. What I noticed specifically was a service called GOMusic, taking up about 4MB of RAM which could be used for other, more useful things.
What I did to fix it was:
Code:
pm disable com.gau.go.launcherex/com.jiubang.ggheart.apps.desks.appfunc.mediamanagement.musicplay.MusicPlaybackService
My Google Music widget still works fine, so apparently the GOMusic thing was just a waste of RAM (unless someone can explain a good reason to leave it be?)
One more addition I did was that, I keep seeing SwypeConnect as a service and I don't like it. It shouldn't need to constantly connect, for me to simply use Swype whenever I do.
I tried two things, pretty sure the second fixed this:
Code:
pm disable com.nuance.swype.input/com.nuance.swype.input.SwypeConnect
pm disable com.naunce.swype.input/com.nuance.swype.connect.ConnectClient
And next, I saw that Google Voice had a Widget service that liked to hang out and sap my resources. This would be useful but I don't have a widget set, so I disabled it:
Code:
pm disable com.google.android.apps.googlevoice/.widget.WidgetService
That worked for me. I can still send and receive messages with Google Voice, so I still have the same functionality I need without having an extra service in my list.
Note that, as usual, these are easily reversible by using using "enable" instead of disable in that code block.
Hopefully this will help someone else as well.
New experimental service disabled; I had noticed multiple Maps services running whenever they pleased. I can do with a NetworkLocation service from Maps, because I use Llama for location profiles and all, but not a Prefetcher service for it.
Here is what I used to disable the Prefetcher service...
Code:
pm disable com.google.android.apps.maps/com.google.googlenav.prefetch.android.PrefetcherService
I haven't seen any negative effects from this so far, but I will update this if I do.
@Proxin
Hi there,
I'm realy like your entries here, but i cant get through with the scripts killing facebook services. Can you be more specifc pls how to set those scripts you mentioned in Llama?
i've just tried to do things you say with facebook background services and for maps' prefetcher, but it says Segmentation Fault, as far as i know , segfaults are not normal linux program response, right? without super user privileges it just says 'Killed' [i tried both because 'pm set-install-location' worked for me only without super user]
EDIT:
ok, i'm noob, i just had to export LD_LIBRARY_PATH, now pm doesn't segfault for me as superuser
hi can any ody guide me how to use those su commands with llama?? thanks

Disabling preinstalled apps

There's two real reasons to do so
To remove the icon from the drawer (in which case it is easy)
Because they run as a background service which uses the internet or something else (perhaps you notice an impact on your battery life)
Because you started and can't stop now
I think I'm at three. Right now, I'm just curious what all these pre-installed apps do. I've made a list of all applications, including whether you can disable them - see the attachment or
docs.google.com [slash]
spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtLlGgfkIOi0dDMwZF9xbkpXTE9
nMGFuMXdGRnIzbXc&usp=sharing
Please do provide information for the list. There are some gaps from before I started the list (including what some disabled apps do in terms of battery life, internet usage and other things).
In particular I cannot identify what apps are responsible for the running process "Motorola Services", nor what this does.
Finally, I would just like to collect information on what other things such as "com.qualcomm.atfwd" do (just out of curiosity).
A few remarks:
- Google uses Google Play Services to bring the latest API features (like Google Maps V2, the new Geolocation API, Google Cloud Messaging etc.) to the end users without the need of a complete OS upgrade. If you disable it, you will lose features (and even functionality) in a bunch of third party apps. Also it does not have an icon in the app drawer.
- Google Search is not just the search bar on the home screen, it is the entire Google Now feature. I guess it is not a problem if you disable it, but you will lose Google Now as well.
- Google One Time Init is the wizard you are presented at first startup and after every factory reset. You can disable it but it does not have much effect on the phone. I guess the other similar app (One Time Init) is its Motorola-branded counterpart.
- Launcher is the default home screen of the device, you can disable it if you have any third party launchers installed. Don't disable it otherwise, or you will have a serious problem.
- Tags is the AOSP NFC app, since we don't have built-in NFC chip it is safe to disable.
Thanks Debaj, I've updated the google document.
When you say the launcher is the home screen, does that include the dock and app drawer?
DarkDarth said:
When you say the launcher is the home screen, does that include the dock and app drawer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, exactly.
You're still updating the list? I could help you a little
emanu526 said:
You're still updating the list? I could help you a little
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I still want to work on the list. Any help that you can give is appreciated. Bear in mind that you can add comments to the google docs spreadsheet, so my delay in replying won't prevent you from updating the sheet.
I plan to update to 4.4.2 soon as well, then I'll be able to do some tests on what affect these changes have on the battery life.

No way to see per app cpu usage anymore on #11

I get a daily "some processes are using cpu restart phone" prompt in my notification bar. I can't find what is causing the error. Dev options only shows ram usage. As the title says, what's up why did they remove this troubleshooting option for non root users? Any input on this error? Good to be back btw.
Meh, that's one reason I'm still running Pie on my 10+.
When it happens look to see what was cache last. I use Device Care for this but my version is the factory load one. The Developer options one may not be as useful as you can't clear them like you can in DC.
I've found the root cause for many nasties like this...
If you haven't done a factory reset after the 11 upgrade... it's time to.
Appreciate the advice. Will try what you recommend
demize! said:
Appreciate the advice. Will try what you recommend
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is one of the reasons I'll still running on Pie, I know 11 is a mess. Securing the phone from the user is bs... unless they're morons. No way to protect that sort of user anyway
Maybe you can use ABD to enable logging in Karma Firewall or other advanced features now blocked in other trusted apps.
You can use the trial and error approach, something which I use a lot in lieu of proper diagnostics. Be aware that dependencies can cause a ripple effect as well as false usage reporting. Especially with Google system apks
Disabling, firewall blocking, clearing their data, clearing system logs can be much more effective than rebooting the phone. I normally now keep Google Play Services package blocked except when needed; it's a known trouble maker to me.
All cloud apps, Google Transport/Framework*, all carrier/Samsung/Google feedback as well Google Firebase are package blocked or disable.
Use this Package Blocker:
Home - Package Disabler
The only NON-root solution that let’s you disable any unwanted packages that come pre-installed / installed with your phone / tablet.
www.packagedisabler.com
Block Android Systems UID 1000 with Karma Firewall as it's almost never needed. It's not neccessary to firewall block Google Play Services if it's packaged blocked otherwise try doing so. Both of the above apks needlessly ping the internet constantly sucking up resources.
Karma Firewall uses virtually no battery, it's a gem.
Karma Firewall - Apps on Google Play
Karma Firewall app lets you block internet traffic to and from specific apps.
play.google.com
*Framework's dependencies still run in the background or is falsely reported as Framework albiet at a greatly reduced usage level with Framework being blocked.
Awesome I'm dl'ing it now. It's just beyond me on an octacore cpu any process would cause this error unless it's erroneous. But than how can you tell when they remove such a basic ability like monitoring app cpu usage.
demize! said:
Awesome I'm dl'ing it now. It's just beyond me on an octacore cpu any process would cause this error unless it's erroneous. But than how can you tell when they remove such a basic ability like monitoring app cpu usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google sucks elephant balls bad. It was hard with Pie but now it's even worse.
Google doesn't care because you aren't the customer, you're the product.
The lack of user monitoring makes Google's data mining easier than ever for them to do.
Makes MS look like saints... one look at the Google Firebase data on my Google account made me puke; all 6700 whatever of my songs -were- listed there. It just did it even though nothing on my device I use need it to function properly. Meanwhile it's sucking up cpu cycles to build and maintain it... or it was
Out of such frustrations comes WhatsRunning - my response to Android's denial of low-level access. See if it helps: https://mirfatif.github.io/WhatsRunning/help/cpu_usage_per_process_android

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.

Dumbing down phone as much as possible with Custom ROM

Hello.
I plan to turn my phone as "dumb" as possible, leaving only apps that are absolutely necessary and practical, essentially making my phone as minimalistic, simple and distraction free while at the same time maximizing the hurdle to install new apps due to the lack of willpower aswell as the general battery life.
I have the POCO F1 with LineageOS 19.1, root is currently enabled via Magisk.
I considered just buying a regular dumb phone, but unfortunately I do not feel they are worth it; plus I'd want to still use Spotify.
I'd greatly appreciate ideas/solutions for this particular project. Thank you in advance!
EnigmaticLife said:
Hello.
I plan to turn my phone as "dumb" as possible, leaving only apps that are absolutely necessary and practical, essentially making my phone as minimalistic, simple and distraction free while at the same time maximizing the hurdle to install new apps due to the lack of willpower aswell as the general battery life.
I have the POCO F1 with LineageOS 19.1, root is currently enabled via Magisk.
I considered just buying a regular dumb phone, but unfortunately I do not feel they are worth it; plus I'd want to still use Spotify.
I'd greatly appreciate ideas/solutions for this particular project. Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you'd like to do isn't really "dumbing down" XD - it is simply making a "barebones Android" phone with only the apps/functions you need without usual bloat that comes preinstalled on the new devices. This is in fact something a lot of people on XDA are passionate about, as it helps optimize for space, speed, battery life and privacy.
For the Android phone to be considered usable in modern day and age, it needs a handful of apps:
Dialer
SMS messenger
Contacts
File manager
Gallery
Clock
Calendar
Calculator
Web browser
Camera
Installing vanilla LineageOS rom (or any other rom with no GoogleApps) will give you this default Android experience. For 99% of tasks that do not involve Google this is enough.
However, most people want something more than just a dialer, and so phone manufacturers pre-install some other stuff for them: Google (play store, chrome, maps, drive, mail), Payment (Samsung Pay), Gallery/Music apps, social media apps, fancy wallpapers etc. This is what makes the phone "smart" for you, I guess?
In case you want to cut it down further, you can use adb to remove certain apps from this list. This includes certain system apps too, like unnecessary fonts or accessibility services (web search is your friend here). Theoretically the phone can serve as a GSM calling brick only with the following:
Dialer
SMS messenger
Contacts
But then you'd be doing the hardware a misservice - why lug around Octa-core 8GB RAM 4000mAh HD TFT6.1" 999GB device if you could achieve the same with a Nokia 1100 or 3310? These are still being sold
UPDATE: Just saw your additions about Spotify. If you only want to use the phone for Calling/Web browsing/YouTube/Spotify, go with the "Install No GApps LineageOS -> Sideload apps you need and nothing else".
Word of WARNING though: a lot of popular messaging/steraming/quality of life (maps) apps APSOLUTELY DEPEND on google ecosystem (i.e. GApps like google play, google play services and google services framework).
WITHOUT GOOGLE THESE APPS WILL LIKELY CRASH or won't work as intended. I.e. Whatsapp will not give you "New message" notifications and will not ring UNLESS you have it open in your face right when the call comes in. Delivery/Ride sharing apps that need google maps will not show you the map. Facebook messenger will has the same problem as Whatsapp. List of risks is far too long, and you will need to have an idea of whether the app requires google and whatsnot.
Therefore Make absolutely sure that barebones phone is what you want. If it is, a lot of apps that reliably work with the barebones setups can be found on Fdroid.
Despite having "dumb" in the name, this procedure requires one to be amazingly smart about it
To conclude, you have the following ways of achieving this:
1. Install no-Gapps (i.e. "vanilla") lineageOs, delete what you wont need, sideload .apk of apps you are after
2. Install stock android rom, then Degoogle and Debloat it. Guides for your particular model can be found here on XDA
3. Install SlimROM, a custom Android distro whose developers had the same idea as you did, i.e. optimized for simplicity.
Totesnochill said:
What you'd like to do isn't really "dumbing down" XD - it is simply making a "barebones Android" phone with only the apps/functions you need without usual bloat that comes preinstalled on the new devices. This is in fact something a lot of people on XDA are passionate about, as it helps optimize for space, speed, battery life and privacy.
For the Android phone to be considered usable in modern day and age, it needs a handful of apps:
Dialer
SMS messenger
Contacts
File manager
Gallery
Clock
Calendar
Calculator
Web browser
Camera
Installing vanilla LineageOS rom (or any other rom with no GoogleApps) will give you this default Android experience. For 99% of tasks that do not involve Google this is enough.
However, most people want something more than just a dialer, and so phone manufacturers pre-install some other stuff for them: Google (play store, chrome, maps, drive, mail), Payment (Samsung Pay), Gallery/Music apps, social media apps, fancy wallpapers etc. This is what makes the phone "smart" for you, I guess?
In case you want to cut it down further, you can use adb to remove certain apps from this list. This includes certain system apps too, like unnecessary fonts or accessibility services (web search is your friend here). Theoretically the phone can serve as a GSM calling brick only with the following:
Dialer
SMS messenger
Contacts
But then you'd be doing the hardware a misservice - why lug around Octa-core 8GB RAM 4000mAh HD TFT6.1" 999GB device if you could achieve the same with a Nokia 1100 or 3310? These are still being sold
UPDATE: Just saw your additions about Spotify. If you only want to use the phone for Calling/Web browsing/YouTube/Spotify, go with the "Install No GApps LineageOS -> Sideload apps you need and nothing else".
Word of WARNING though: a lot of popular messaging/steraming/quality of life (maps) apps APSOLUTELY DEPEND on google ecosystem (i.e. GApps like google play, google play services and google services framework).
WITHOUT GOOGLE THESE APPS WILL LIKELY CRASH or won't work as intended. I.e. Whatsapp will not give you "New message" notifications and will not ring UNLESS you have it open in your face right when the call comes in. Delivery/Ride sharing apps that need google maps will not show you the map. Facebook messenger will has the same problem as Whatsapp. List of risks is far too long, and you will need to have an idea of whether the app requires google and whatsnot.
Therefore Make absolutely sure that barebones phone is what you want. If it is, a lot of apps that reliably work with the barebones setups can be found on Fdroid.
Despite having "dumb" in the name, this procedure requires one to be amazingly smart about it
To conclude, you have the following ways of achieving this:
1. Install no-Gapps (i.e. "vanilla") lineageOs, delete what you wont need, sideload .apk of apps you are after
2. Install stock android rom, then Degoogle and Debloat it. Guides for your particular model can be found here on XDA
3. Install SlimROM, a custom Android distro whose developers had the same idea as you did, i.e. optimized for simplicity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is really interesting. I am thinking of trying to do this with a Google pixel 4a. Would I be able to do the lineage OS with that? I haven't found other threads that speak on this topic, am I right? Thinking that I would like to customize exactly what apps I have on the phone etc.
LineageOS for Google Pixel 4a exists:
LineageOS Downloads
download.lineageos.org

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