My LG Optimus Net P690 is a small 3.2" 500 mb ram smartphone, which runs much better without bloatware, Google Play Store and the Google suite.
Sometimes certain things “outgrow” their welcome. This was true for the Google Play Store. When the Google Play Store automatically updates itself and take up precious internal memory, uncontrollably loading updates is also a waste of bandwidth and battery power, even when you’ve told it many times to stop, you wonder who is in charge of your phone. That answer, is decidedly Google. Yes, Google is in full command of your phone, and for the average non-tech person there’s not a damn thing you can do about it. I’m going to even the score here, for all the tech people out there.
I have an older smartphone, an LG Optimus Net P690B, circa 2011. It should run very well as a device to talk, text and the very odd app, of which I have very few. I even run QQ with Chinese input, and it runs very well. Battery power is quite good in standby, and I do love the smaller size. It came with a whole crapload of bloatware, of which I deleted off more than half the apps and customized it to my liking.
You want a smartphone battery that lasts longer? Here’s some ideas. Get a phone with a smaller screen, root it, remove all the crap bloatware on it that you will never use or has expired, put the screen timeout to 10 secs, and watch what apps you load, because some of them will be constantly trying to update, killing your battery. Facebook and Google are two culprits, but there are more. For lower powered phones kick the Google Play Store out the door.
The problem was that Google’s behavior was very rude. Google’s apps would automatically download and update, eating up precious internal memory, and slowing down my phone so that it was no longer workable as a phone. It started with Google Maps, which I use infrequently. Once I removed Google Maps the Google Play Store would rev up, by itself, and auto update, eating up internal storage and rendering my phone to the usability of a double thickness chocolate bar. As this is my phone, Google should not do this. Dump the cache, dump the updates all you want, but you just cannot turn the damn Google switch off.
Recently Google cut my phone off from the Google Play Store. Apparently it is too old, so they simply cut off my generation of phones? Anyway Google Maps did not work very well, so I removed it. Now that I had no access to the Google Play Store, the app was still trying to update, taking up 40MB of precious internal memory. No amount of deleting updates and cache would keep it quiet, as it was set to auto update by Google, with no obvious shut off switch. Google’s policy of no legacy does not bode well for older technology nor longer lasting technology, such as Android Auto. What will Google do with older car head units older than 5 years old? Have the car software auto update but deny them the ability to access the updating source?
You will need to root your phone, and install a recovery method, such as ClockworkMod. If you don’t know what this is or how to do it you’ll need to read up on the huge volume of info on the Internet, and is individual to the make and model of phone. Make a CWM backup so that if anything goes wrong you can do a simple restore to your phone. Copy the backup to your PC for safe keeping. Skip this backup step, and if something goes wrong you’ll be crying the blues, but on someone else’s shoulder except mine. You were warned. Also disable all auto updates and synching.
If you do not know or are unwilling to root your phone and remove bloatware, then you should buy a new phone with a larger battery, gobs more internal memory, all for a higher price, and do this every 2 years. The bloatware included will decimate your battery more than Google’s suite, so you might as well stop reading now.
Disable/rename the following apps: You can rename them to .apk.bak, so that if you need to undo anything it will be easy. Total savings of 8.478M
- Gmail.apk need this or your Play store will not validate, 2.8M
- GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk 316k
- GoogleQuickSearchBox.apk 900k
- GooglePartnerSetup.apk Needed to verify Google account options, 132k
- GoogleServicesFramework.apk 3M
- MarketUpdater: updates Google Play, 13k If you don’t have MarketUpdater, you might have Vending.apk. Disable this.
- GenieWidget.apk: Google’s weather and news 1.2M
Even with these apps disabled, the Google Play Services will continue to self-update. Dump all Google Play Services cache and updates. Next, similar to disabling apps, use the same method and from the root, then /data/app/ directory, change com.google.android.gms-1.apk to com.google.android.gms-1.apk.bak, reboot and Google Play Services will no no longer run. source. You may instead have a gms-2.apk. As the Google Play Store is already running, it will start giving you errors like “What happened to my program, I can’t find myself”. After you reboot it will be gone. I’m unsure about deleting this app because it is owned by system and not root.
Finally, there will be a lone Market app, which if pressed will ask you for a login ID. Disable or rename Phonesky.apk, and the Market app will disappear. 5.4M apk and odex
Now watch your phone’s internal memory. You will have saved a good 40mb, and more importantly, your internal memory just does not disappear by itself. You now better control your phone. I am happy to assist you in reasserting your power over this inanimate object. Savings on disk space should be 13.8M if you remove all apps except for GMS-1. Savings on downloaded disk space is ~40M. If you do not see your internal memory change much after you delete apps, then do a recovery and wipe your dalvik cache, which will redo the file’s tree structure and recalculate your free memory.
What to do without the Play Store if you want an app? If you need gmail, use the browser to login. If you need an app in the future, use another phone to download the app from the Play Store and side load it into /sdcard/downloads, then use a file manager to install it. In China there is no Google or its Play Store, and they get by just fine. You can find anything on the internet.
A friend has recommended f-droid.org as well as the Amazon Play Store. There are other alternatives but I have yet to explore them.
I really detest software that autoupdates when you do not wish it. Google should ask first and have a permanent method to disable these updates. Since they do not offer an “off” switch, we use more drastic measures. Without the boat anchor that was the Google suite my smartphone runs really well with more than sufficient amount of internal storage. Android is not Google. In fact, the majority of smartphones in China are Android but without the forced Google infrastructure. They get along just fine without Google.
My phone runs much better without Google. Yours can as well.
2018 Jul 19 How does an Android phone work without Google apps? Look at China
chrisk sent a message using the contact form at http://dontai.com/root/contact.
Hi,couldn’t find a contact form on your other blog (nice stuff there!). My question re your “anti-google”-method:
doesn’t this manner of disabling/renaming the GPServices sub-programs also impinge on GAccountManager (which is a sub-part of GPServices) and therefore (as some people report) DELETE the google accounts (and, they say, one has to recreate gmail accts. and contacts every time one uses GPServices later on)??
Would be interested to have your input on the basis of your practical experience.
Thanks,
cheerio
chris
[Don: Hi Chris. Yes, Google services are imbedded in a different area for Android, and Google does not want you to disable it. When you disable Google Play Services you also disable Gmail and all Google-related programs. It is unfortunate that Google couples its services so tightly.
If you want to access gmail you can still use a browser.
Don]
Hi Don,
and thanks for your speedy reply.
All you’re pointing out has become quite obvious after (geee) days of reading up to try finding a solution. (My basic outlook on the whole Google-scam is very close to yours)
Huge amounts of posts; for nearly all methods, the vast majority of posts report failure or inefficiency (and sure enough Google with every update fights in the trenches); by now, very few methods seem to remain which are (relatively) successful. Looks to me like yours might be one (although I haven’t come across any reports from other users applying your method)
My question was whether you yourself had encountered any DIRECT effects after applying your method for disabling/removing GPlayServices.
Did you lose your list of contacts? (one poster even reports losing UNsynced contacts, exclusively on his/her machine!! )
Did you (in case you had had Gmail accounts before disabling Services) lose those? (and when/if you maybe decided to reactivate Services, did you have to recreate your google accounts?)
Thank you for your attention re these questions of mine
best
chris
[Don: Hi Chris,
I disabled all Google services such as play store, maps, music, gmail, search, etc since March this year, 2016. I’ve had my gmail account for over 10 years and had no issues continuing to use gmail. All my contacts are intact, without any problem.
I have had temporary use of other smartphones and tablets, have used my gmail account to update them, all without issue. I then delete my gmail account when I either return the devices or give them away. No issues.
Since deleting all Google services my phone runs faster and reacts better, I have more free memory, can add apps from alternative sources, and when I text and talk my phone simply works faster. This, for a 5 year old phone. For me it was the right step to take.
All of China works without Google and its suite of services and they work very well. All my relatives do not use none of Google’s services, so they don’t miss them at all, and they function just fine.
Divorcing yourself from Google is not for everyone. My friends and family think I’m crazy but for me it works.
Don]