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This song has been in my head when I was writing this

I got a new phone the Realme XT.

the issue

I wanted the phone to ask which browser before opening the app, unfortunately oppo had chrome as the default, and chrome was unable to be removed/disabled (even after uninstalling all the chrome updates).

I decided to document my process of solving the problem here

the research

I decided to search realme disable google apps
I found this xda forum thread

that had the following as a solution

using adb on fedora linux

updated instructions

  1. setup android usb debugging
  2. navigate to the directory cd /platform-tools
  3. run ./adb + command for all adb commands
  4. pair your android with adb using ./adb devices and click allow on your phone
  5. initialize adb shell ./adb shell
  6. run your pm commands

the solution

I ran pm list packages | grep googleand found the gboard and google search packages. Then I tried looking for chrome the way to find it was to run pm list packages | grep android

to delete the packages, I ran pm uninstall -k --user 0 <package name> to remove the google search, gboard, and chrome.

examples

remove youtube

  • pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.youtube
    remove chrome
  • pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.chrome
    remove gboard
  • pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.inputmethod.latin
    remove google search
  • pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
    remove google photos
  • pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.photos
    remove google hotword
  • pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.hotwordenrollment.okgoogle
    remove google lens
  • pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.ar.lens
    remove google assistant
  • pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.googleassistant
    remove facebook
  • pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.facebook.services
  • pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.facebook.katana
  • pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.facebook.system
  • pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.facebook.appmanager
    remove linkedin
  • pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.linkedin.android
    remove tidal
  • pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.tidal.campaigninstaller

tiny bits

When I was uninstalling the chrome package I accidentally ran pm uninstall -k --user 0 android, luckily the phone denied the request and disconnected from my computer. I thought I had borked the phone.

After removing chrome, I decided to remove facebook since, I didn’t think it was actually removed. Running pm list packages | grep facebook found the facebook packages. I removed each individually.

reflection

After using Linux for 4 years and solving problems in the command line, I have gotten me more comfortable with the command line. I doubt I would have felt as comfortable running these commands

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