In the meantime between testing out rebuilding my mini distro and life, I decided to turn my smart phone into a dumb phone!

The reason for this is I have an addiction to my phone, youtube, searching, anime, porn, etc. All of it is turning into a massive waste of my life. It should be noted that not all apps can be removed; some of them I tried wouldn’t let me. Also any of these apps could be reinstalled with a factory reset or from adb with:

adb shell cmd package install-existing com.package.name

To get started we need a few things. First your phone must be in developer mode. This is a bit different per phone so I strongly recommend googling for your phone. Then you’ll need an android studio for adb.

Download Android Studio: https://developer.android.com/studio

As a heads up I used claude to figure out what apps I can safely remove. I’m not an expert and didn’t want to spend for ever searching the forums for answers. –

setting up your environment

Wherever you extract the Android Studio tarball cd into it and run the studio bin. We need to install the platform tools at a minimum.

cd android-studio/bin
./studio

The default install location is in your home dir under the Android directory. Lets add that to the path temporary so we can run adb from anywhere.

export PATH=$HOME/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/:$PATH

Get current apps

./adb shell pm list packages | sort

It should be noted that every phone will have a different set of installed apps both default and the ones you installed. Be very careful about the ones you reuse and be ready to factory reset your phone. – Make sure you’re google account is signed into a tab on your computer and open to settings. I almost lost access to my google account because of this, because trying to sign from my phone it keeps trying to authenticate against the phone that is no longer signed in and thus cannot authenticate the sign in.

Recovery by email doesn’t work…. You must remove all smartphones from your device list from the computer. (hence why you need to already logged in.) Then it will work. – Learn from my mistakes.

remove the apps.

You cannot just copy and paste this for your phone. I’m putting it here for references

This is saved as bloat.sh

#!/bin/bash
# Galaxy S25 Bloat Removal Script
# Uses --user 0 so everything is reversible via factory reset
# To restore a single app: ./adb shell cmd package install-existing com.package.name

ADB="$HOME/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb"

echo "Starting bloat removal..."

# T-Mobile
echo "Removing T-Mobile bloat..."
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.tmobile.tuesdays
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.tmobile.echolocate
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.tmobile.pr.adapt
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.tmobile.m1
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.tmobile.dm.cm
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.tmobile.dm.ms.services
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.tmobile.vvm.application
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.ironsrc.aura.tmo
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.dti.tmobile

# Facebook
echo "Removing Facebook bloat..."
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.facebook.appmanager
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.facebook.services
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.facebook.system

# Amazon
echo "Removing Amazon bloat..."
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.amazon.appmanager
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.amazon.avod.thirdpartyclient
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.amazon.mShop.android.shopping

# Microsoft
echo "Removing Microsoft bloat..."
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.microsoft.appmanager
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.microsoft.office.excel
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.microsoft.skydrive

# Bixby
echo "Removing Bixby..."
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.agent
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.wakeup
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.ondevice.enus
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixby.ondevice.esus
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.bixbyvision.framework

# Samsung bloat
echo "Removing Samsung bloat..."
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.dressroom
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.moments
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.sketchbook
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.forest
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.game.gametools
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.aremoji
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.aremojieditor
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.stickercenter
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.themestore
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.themecenter
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.app.samsungapps
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.spay
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.spayfw
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.sharelive
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.smartswitchassistant
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.kidsinstaller
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.app.kidshome
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.dofviewer
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.rubin.app
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.soundpicker
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.secsoundpicker
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.storyservice
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.lool
#$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.calendar
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.mediasearch
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.interpreter
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.smartmirroring
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.audiomirroring
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.app.ve.vebgm
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.app.vepreload
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.video
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.app.camera.sticker.facearavatar.preload
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.smartsuggestions
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.service.peoplestripe
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.bbc.bbcagent
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.mhs.ai
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.samsung.android.aicore

# Google bloat (keeping Maps, GMS, Play Store)
echo "Removing Google bloat..."
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.youtube
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.apps.tachyon
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.apps.photos
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.apps.bard
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.apps.docs.editors.docs
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.apps.docs.editors.sheets
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.apps.aiwallpapers
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.gm
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.projection.gearhead
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.apps.turbo
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.apps.accessibility.voiceaccess
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.chrome
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.app.sbrowser
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.as
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.ar.core
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.adservices.api
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.mainline.adservices
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.mainline.telemetry
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.federatedcompute
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.ondevicepersonalization.services
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.gms.location.history
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.aicore
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.vending

# Other preinstalled garbage
echo "Removing other preinstalled apps..."
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.netflix.mediaclient
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.grubhub.android
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.slicelife.storefront
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.hiya.star
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.mobisystems.msdict.embedded.wireless.oxford.dictionaryofenglish
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.adobe.reader
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.easyMover
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.easyMover.Agent
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.mimage.avatarstickers
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.mimage.photoretouching
$ADB shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.sec.android.autodoodle.service

echo ""
echo "Done! The following apps were kept:"
echo "  - Samsung Dialer, Contacts & calander"
echo "  - Google Maps"
echo "  - Musicolet & mpv"
echo "  - Google Messages"
echo "  - Proton Mail"
echo "  - Claude"
echo "  - All core Android/Samsung system services"
echo ""

echo "Google play is gone reinstall it with ./adb shell cmd package install-existing com.android.vending"
echo "To restore any app: ./adb shell cmd package install-existing com.package.name"

Conclusion

My smartphone is now dumb and still functions fully as a phone. It can call, text, take photos and use maps. That is about it. There isn’t even the playstore, any app will require side loading or reinstalling the playstore first from adb.

Sincerely, a concrete worker.
May the peace and grace of our Lord be with you.