scary thing is that western spyware is too normalized
into a point that it doesnt even concern me anymore
scary thing is that western spyware is too normalized
into a point that it doesnt even concern me anymore
Jokes aside these Chinese phones really come with extra completely unnecessary junk. Also they are not just spying on you but waste the system resources a lot. Of course other phone manufactors also inject their disgusting spyware into the phones they make but they dont make it THAT obvious. Chinese ones doesnt really care about hiding these bloatware apps.
I got a POCO phone recently and it came with HyperOS. I would have been changed the operating system and installed a custom ROM already if I wasnt lazy. I really didnt wanted to tinker with the ROM stuff. I have never done it before.
But HyperOS is really unusable out of the package. You really need to tinker to make it somehow a little bit usable.
So here is what I did, when setting up the phone at first, deselect all the options related to steal your data, spy on you on a regular basis, process your information to make their product somehow better and so on. Asking such questions at first is a humiliation to user. I cant believe they make us deselect the option, instead of making us select it.
Also dont forget to uncheck all the apps it asks you to download it. (Even if you leave them unchecked these apps somehow appear on your app drawer... Maybe these are just links to their app store I dont know. Oh also yes, they have an app store thing too. ew...)
Now after you set up your phone delete any app you dont want. Delete it if it allows you to. Dont have mercy for them. We have a special treatment for the apps we cant delete easily :)
Now this is nasty part, there are apps you cant delete and just disable as you know. These apps are considered to be system apps I think but I dont know. Anyway, there is a tool called ADB, Android Debug Bridge. Its a program for android developers to have more control over their devices I guess. You can do some next level things but I dont know much about them.
After downloading the ADB, you connect your phone to your pc via an usb cable (theres also other ways to connect like over the internet or something) Oh also dont forget to enable USB Debug setting from the developer settings on your phone.
ADB is a cli program so you will need cmd or terminal depending on your OS. After downloading the ADB, type adb devices it will show the devices connected to your computer. A pop-up on your phone will ask you to rather trust this computer or not to debug. Click yes and boom! type adb devices once again and it will properly show your device on the list.
Now you are the one in power! Not the device manufacturer nor the China! ADB is a powerful tool that will allow you to control your device however as you want. This time we will be using it to uninstall the unnecessary apps and all the bloatware that our phone come with!
Type adb shell and hit enter, now you are on the shell on your device. Type pm list packages and it will list all the packages on your device. Now before doing anything silly, as I said, ADB is a powerful tool and you might mess up something on your device if you are not careful, so double check anything you do if its important, and follow a real guide if you are going to try some of these things. This is my brief experience not a guide.
pm command is for managing your packages, we will use it to uninstall certain packages now. There are lists of unwanted software in chinese phones on reddit and xda forums. These lists contain spyware and/or bloatware apps' package names which we need to uninstall them. Typing pm uninstall --user 0 <package name goes here> uninstalls the package you write. Be careful and know what you are uninstalling, you dont want to brick your phone.
Here is a list of packages I uninstalled:
com.miui.analytics
com.xiaomi.mipicks
com.miui.msa.global
com.miui.cloudservice
com.miui.backup
com.xiaomi.glgm
com.xiaomi.payment
com.tencent.soter.soterserver
cn.wps.xiaomi.abroad.lite
com.miui.videoplayer
com.miui.player
com.mi.globalbrowser
com.miui.yellowpage
com.miui.android.fashiongallery
com.miui.bugreport
com.miui.miservice
com.miui.global.packageinstaller
com.xiaomi.joyose
package:com.facebook.appmanager
package:com.facebook.services
package:com.facebook.system
com.android.stk
com.google.android.apps.youtube.music
com.miui.micloudsync
com.xiaomi.discover
com.miui.daemon
com.google.android.videos
If my phone had emotions Im sure it would feel something like "😌" after this uninstalling process.
The hard part is done but we still have one more thing to do. Dont forget to unauthorize the apps you dont want. (simply all of them. uncheck everything on the list) You can find this authorization setting if you search for it in settings app.
So thats it overall! Enjoy the debloated experience! I recommend installing a custom ROM but if you insist on using this shady chinese software this the proeper way of using it!
Heres something extra;
adb shell pm list packages <filter term> lists only the package names containing the filter term
adb pull adb push pull/push a file from or to your device. Windows Explorer kept crashing when I tried to open folders in my phone that has so many files in it. I got job done with these two commands. I cant believe I stared the blank "explorer crashed" screen countless of times not knowing such tools exist.adb shell screencap adb shell screenrecord Takes a screenshot, records the screen (CTRL-C to stop recording).