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OnePlus is Bogging Its Phones Down With Unremovable Facebook Bloatware (phandroid.com) 57

Posted by msmash from the poisoning-the-well dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Remember back in the early days of the smartphone when carriers would install all kinds of bloatware on devices sold through their channels? For the most part, this practice has kind of stopped, or at least it isn't as bad as it once was, but unfortunately it looks like OnePlus users have to grapple with another kind of bloatware -- Facebook. This is according to a tweet by XDA's Max Weinbach who discovered that the Instagram app on his OnePlus phone was updating through a Facebook App Manager instead of the Play Store, where one would normally expect to see app updates. Android Police dug further and discovered that this Facebook App Manager tool is present on the company's more recent handsets that are shipped with OxygenOS. According to OnePlus, they claim that by using the Facebook App Manager, it will apparently offer "better battery efficiency," although we can't really see why that would be the case. They also allege that this would allow for enhanced HDR playback on Netflix. The bad news is that you can't even uninstall them.
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OnePlus is Bogging Its Phones Down With Unremovable Facebook Bloatware More

OnePlus is Bogging Its Phones Down With Unremovable Facebook Bloatware

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  • Trump needs to ban Facebook (Score:3, Insightful)

    by i'm probably drunk ( 6159770 ) on Thursday August 06, 2020 @09:47AM (#60372603)

    IMHO, It's far more of a national security concern than TikTok

    • M$ and Google first.

      • Re:Trump needs to ban Facebook (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Luckyo ( 1726890 ) on Thursday August 06, 2020 @10:00AM (#60372669)

        On Android phones, Google is #1 threat for obvious reasons. Facebook is a close second because it comes pre-installed and unremovable without rooting on most Android phones today. Microsoft has a fairly small access to Android in comparison.

        • Yeah. but their reach into PCs and Servers is a lot more concerning.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

            I agree, because PCs and servers are where human productivity is focused.

            However this is a thread about specific manufacturer of android phones. Hence me talking about android phones specifically.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

          I didn't get much bloatware, and absolutely not F-book on the phone I purchased last - the CAT S61. There's now a newer version, CAT S62 [catphones.com].

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

            I use Nokia's/HMD's phones for the same reason. I will continue avoiding reptilian anal probe for as long as I can.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by zephvark ( 1812804 )

      IMHO, It's far more of a national security concern than TikTok

      Facebook needs to ban Trump. IMHO, he's far more of a national security concern than TikTok.

    • But Facebook is filled with Boomers who think that they are with it for modern technology.

  • Privacy settings (Score:3)

    by omnichad ( 1198475 ) on Thursday August 06, 2020 @09:55AM (#60372649) Homepage

    Well - this is one way to get around having Play Store style permissions. Just don't use the Play store to put your app on the device and get all permissions by default.

    • Well - this is one way to get around having Play Store style permissions. Just don't use the Play store to put your app on the device and get all permissions by default.

      You may have a point about play store requirements, but I think you're confusing the play store with app permissions on Android.

  • Facebook is easy to remove with ADB (Score:5, Informative)

    by Svperstar ( 7113323 ) on Thursday August 06, 2020 @10:04AM (#60372683)
    The first thing I do on a new phone is remove Facebook everything with ADB. It isn't enough to just get rid of the Facebook main app you have to get rid of EVERYTHING. If you are comfortable using command line tools here is a guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/Andro... [reddit.com]

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tomz16 ( 992375 )

      The first thing I do on a new phone is remove Facebook everything with ADB. It isn't enough to just get rid of the Facebook main app you have to get rid of EVERYTHING.

      Except you can't truly remove a system app without root!!!!

      And using a rooted phone has been getting increasingly problematic with time (i.e. Google is working overtime to ensure that they make it as annoying as possible because they don't want anything eating into their ad or play revenue). If you root in 2020, you will most likely lose the ability to stream videos in HD from most of the major online platforms (i.e. widevine cert). You may also periodically lose access to banking, contact-less payment, w

      • Re:Facebook is easy to remove with ADB (Score:4, Interesting)

        by stikves ( 127823 ) on Thursday August 06, 2020 @02:30PM (#60373975) Homepage

        It is getting worse.

        Samsung has a nice secure enclave platform. That is entirely disabled if the phone suspects anything about being rooted. It goes one step further, and permanently marks this in the hardware, so unrooting will not fix the situation. It is gone forever.

        I once had a bug where this was broken in software. Fortunately a full factory reset fixed it, otherwise I would be unable to use work accounts on the device. I suspect it was because I used an app to disable the bixby button.

        I expect more manufacturers going this way. Rooting will permanently mark your phone as bad, and many things that you paid for will no longer work. (It even stopped syncing with my Samsung smart watch (band), citing health data issues. My phone, my smartwatch, and they don't speak).

        And they don't help when you are affected by a bug. They would most likely assume you were guilty at one point. A thousand dollar phone could have gone down the drain.

        • I stopped buying Samsung hardware because of behavior like this (and forcing useless shit like Bixby)

          Nothing with Samsung on it ever again.

      • I've been rooting my android phones for years and I think it's getting increasingly less problematic. I have a Oneplus 7 Pro rooted with Magisk and it passes all the safetynet checks. I get work email on my phone. I just tried playing a 4k video from Amazon Prime and it seemed to work, although I can't really tell if it was actually 4k on my phone's screen (so maybe it doesn't matter).

        That said, you have to choose your phone wisely. Pixel, Oneplus, and Motorola are great for rooting. Sony will trash your

      • Well, if you're rooting your phone for privacy or security, you probably wouldn't be silly enough to use your phone for contactless payment anyway.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by chrish ( 4714 )

      I did this on my old phone (HTC One M9), but on my current phone (LG G5), there are a bunch of things I can't remove, including Facebook. Best I can do is disable them.

      The rest of the family is on "Android One" versions of the LG G7 so they can actually remove everything they don't use.

      Did the "Android One" thing fizzle out already thanks to those sweet, sweet bundling dollars?

  • Question: isn't this explicitly forbinden by Google on a certified for Google device?

    • Is this a "Certified for Google Device"? I know its permitable under Android's license (see Amazon's Fire tablets) I don't know what a "Certified for Google Device" is, nor have I seen anything advertised as such.

      • My OP7 is. My OG PixelXL runnging a custom rom isn't. Acording to google:

        Devices that aren't Play Protect certified may not be secure.
        Devices that aren't Play Protect certified may not get Android system updates, or app updates.
        Google apps on devices that aren't Play Protect certified aren't licensed and may not be real Google apps.
        Apps and features on devices that aren't Play Protect certified may not work correctly.
        Data on devices that aren't Play Protect certified may not back up securely.

        How is my certi

  • If true, this is somewhat surprising from Oneplus (Score:4, Insightful)

    by pegasustonans ( 589396 ) on Thursday August 06, 2020 @10:18AM (#60372725)

    OnePlus basically built their brand on phones with versions of Android very close to Google's with no fancy or unneeded add-ons and the ability to easily unlock/root the device.

    If they're now adding this kind of bloatware, it represents a significant departure for the brand.
    Now that they've raised the prices of their phones to match Samsung/Apple, consumers who previously fit into the OnePlus niche may look elsewhere.

    It's too bad, the mobile market sorely needs more competitors challenging the status quo and it looks like OnePlus may no longer be challenging much of anything.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The reason is Facebook $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ that are supporting OnePlus.
      I'd like to go farther than banning Facebook... I'd make sure that Zuck spends the rest of his life in a SuperMax for crimes against humanity.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        The reason is Facebook $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ that are supporting OnePlus.

        I'm sure that's why OnePlus phones are extraordinarily cheap for what you get. Bloatware pays good money and it's often why the low end cheap phones so filled with it - it subsidizes the hardware.

        Similar things have happened on the PC side, which is why at its peak you had both Norton Antivirus AND McAfee installed on the same PC - both paid out per PC. Also why Linux PCs are more expensive - they lack the hardware subsidy that pays for the

  • This is not new, or relegated to OnePlus (Score:3)

    by kalpol ( 714519 ) on Thursday August 06, 2020 @10:28AM (#60372773)
    AT&T was putting Facebook on phones as part of the factory image (LG G4) as far back as 2017, could not uninstall or disable. You could force-stop it but it just restarted on the next reboot.

    • While true, that's not the point. The facebook app pre-installed by AT&T would update through the playstore,. On this case, the instagram App is being updated from a third party app downloaded from a unknown server bypassing the Playprotect and common Playstore restrictions.

      They could force you to download a instagram app that each time it's opened it would snap a selfie and upload it the a facebook server without you knowing it for example.

      • Oh I guess an uninstallable bloatware that updates through app store is fine?

        • Not the point, the fact that OEMs have been bundling unremovable apps unnecessary for the smartphone is a long discussed subject. I don't like it, i don't agree with it.

          But installing a app made by XPTO, that can be updated by XPTO without us, the user, be able to permit, and circunventing the known paths of updates breaking the trust in the OS is entirely on a different level.

          How can you be sure that the instagram app installed by facebook app manager is the same that's on the Play Store ?

    • LG has been doing this for a decade. One of the reasons I hate LG, specially carrier branded versions. Bliatearw is just a beginning. Carrier branded LG and other phones are more likely to have slow updates compared to OEM, impossible to unlock bootloaders. Just say no. I'll take a cheap Moto g any day over LG, specially a carrier brand model.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by bjwest ( 14070 )
        I recently upgraded my LG V20 to an LG G8. The V20 was from my carrier (Verizon) loaded to the hilt with bloatware while the G8 was from Best Buy, unaffiliated and factory unlocked. It was $200 less than if I were to buy it form the "special deal" from my carrier, and no bloatware at all. No Facebook or Twitter, Instagram was on it, but it was easily uninstalled. FB and Twitter may have been on there and I just uninstalled them as well though, I can't remember. Either way, what bloatware is/was on it i

  • But it probably does enable Facebook to do a lot of wonderful tracking, even if you doesn't use Facebook. :/

  • They've been on my phone since Day 1. I can't uninstall them to free up resources. The best I can do is to make sure they're not on any of the screens so they're never accidentally activated. And $DIETY only knows how outdated and insecure they are since my mobile company hasn't pushed out an Android update for two years.

  • One man's bloat is another man's critical feature, especially considering the number of people who do use Facebook on a daily basis combined with the number of people who watch Netflix.

    • Allowing people to remove it does not interfere with people that "need" it. Truthfully if you need Facebook that bad.... need I say more.

    • One man's bloat is another man's critical feature ...

      Sure - and that's why both men should be given the choice to keep it or to get rid of it. This move by OnePlus truly sucks ass - it makes them no different than most of the other Android purveyors.

  • Missteps (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Thursday August 06, 2020 @11:24AM (#60373043)
    I would have definitely considered OnePlus as a possibility for a phone. Had one for my daughter that blew away the Galaxy that it replaced at a much cheaper price. But then they took away the headphone port; I guess as an attempt to get more iPhone users but it alienated me as an Android user. Now this is just a further progression. Seems to be a lot of missteps.

  • The practice has stopped? (Score:3)

    by PCM2 ( 4486 ) on Thursday August 06, 2020 @11:24AM (#60373045) Homepage

    For the most part, this practice has kind of stopped, or at least it isn't as bad as it once was

    Really? The most recent updates to top-tier Samsung phones seem to have added advertising to all of the Samsung bloatware apps, thus making them even more annoying and intrusive than they used to be.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nnull ( 1148259 )
      They're even slowly bringing back ads back in the menus on their TV's. The very thing that got them in trouble in the first place. They keep hoping people will accept this practice when the reality is people don't accept it and never have in the first place.

  • Remember back in the early days of the smartphone when carriers would install all kinds of bloatware on devices sold through their channels?

    Actually, I don't remember that - the only smartphones I've owned have been iPhones. One can debate about what, or how much, of the default apps in iOS count as bloatware or not, but it certainly wasn't (isn't) 3rd party crap installed by carriers. And these days most of the standard iOS apps can be deleted cleanly and easily if you don't want them.

  • The "Facebook" / "Twitter" / "Instagram" crap you get on firmware is just a placeholder that instantly gets masked out by the latest version which means your phone gets doubly bloated, first with a larger firmware partition and second with crap eating into the user data.

    If phones MUST ship this crap, then why not just do put it in the user partition to begin with so people can just uninstall them? Or offer to install those apps during set up and allow people to choose no. It's not rocket science and hones

  • I was looking at the One Plus a year or so ago to replace my rooted Moto G3 running Cyanogenmod. and AFWall. I decided to stand pat and now I'm glad. Getting rid of Faceplant is the first thing I ever do or attempt to do on a new phone - I'd be really pissed at not being able to excise that particular cancer.

  • If you buy something, you must be given complete control over it for it to be considered a sale. If the seller insists on putting stuff in the product which the buyer cannot remove or replace, it's a lease, not a sale. And since it's a lease, the device is still owned by the seller who is responsible for fixing problems which crop up for the duration of the lease. If the seller wishes to be freed from the responsibility of maintaining the product, they need to hand total control of the product over to the

  • We are talking about hundereds of megabytes for Messanger. There is no
    reason for it to be so bloated when a full
    featured mobile web browser takes up far less space.

      There needs to be some sort of consumer protection law that forbids denying the phone's owner the ability to uninstall apps that are not needed for the phone itself to work. What OnePlus did is akin to theft, robbing the user of the space Facebook is taking up.

  • My current and previous phones are both OnePlus (1 and 5T). Looks like I'll have to look elsewhere in a few years' time :(

  • I use OnePlus 3T now, New phone will be /e/ (Score:3)

    by SysEngineer ( 4726931 ) on Thursday August 06, 2020 @04:43PM (#60374511)
    I want privacy! I do not use FB or want FB on anything I use.

    • FB is the evil tentacle monster that gets it's tendrils into everything, including 3rd party websites.

      As much as I wasn't a fan of M$, Facebook is much worse than M$ has ever been, and this is the one company that needs to be broken up and regulated to death.

      M$ screwed with competitors. Facebook screws with your life down to the core.

  • I went to OnePlus when it was without bloat - the 5 & 5T series, etc. It has been an awesome phone, and I have no complaints. But I don't want Facebook on my phone, period.

    From another thread, I started looking into the Motorola series of phones. I bought two of their cheaper models for my kids - and have been extremely impressed. I'm thinking a slightly upgraded version with NFC will be my next move.

  • Or any Chinese phone for that matter.

    Apple or Samsung

    • What if it gets to the point where there is
      nowhere to run, when everybody is pulling this crap? Hold on to your old phone and
      hope it will still keep working? Buy into one of those Kickstarter pipe dream phones? Go back to flip feature phones?

      We're gonna be running out of options.

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