I made the mistake of letting my cellphone
update and now have nearly constant warnings
that something needs Google Play Services. Everything
that can be disabled is disabled. Everything that can
be set for no notifications is set that way.

Example: "GBoard", whatever that is. I've
disabled notifications. I've disabled the app. But
I still get popups saying GBoard needs Google Play.
These settings seem to be mostly meaningless. All
I do normally is make phone calls. Occasionally I
need to go online. I've disabled or removed as much of
Google as I possibly can and use APKPure if I need
an app.

So my question: What would it take to get deeper
into the Android system and control this kind of
idiot functionality? I'm guessing it might be something
like controlling services on Windows? Maybe editing
config files in the core filesystem? I've enabled
developer tools, but that functionality is limited.

I don't use the phone much, but it's still maddening
to have icons covered over by dummy messages.

Newyana2 <Newyana2@invalid.nospam> wrote

> I made the mistake of letting my cellphone
> update and now have nearly constant warnings
> that something needs Google Play Services. Everything
> that can be disabled is disabled. Everything that can
> be set for no notifications is set that way.
>
> Example: "GBoard", whatever that is. I've
> disabled notifications. I've disabled the app. But
> I still get popups saying GBoard needs Google Play.
> These settings seem to be mostly meaningless. All
> I do normally is make phone calls. Occasionally I
> need to go online. I've disabled or removed as much of
> Google as I possibly can and use APKPure if I need
> an app.
>
> So my question: What would it take to get deeper
> into the Android system and control this kind of
> idiot functionality? I'm guessing it might be something
> like controlling services on Windows? Maybe editing
> config files in the core filesystem? I've enabled
> developer tools, but that functionality is limited.
>
> I don't use the phone much, but it's still maddening
> to have icons covered over by dummy messages.

Hi Mayayana,

Like Paul and Vanguard, I hate to see someone ask a good question
but not get any comprehensively complete answers out of that quest.

Windows freeware for DeBloating unrooted Android phones is available.
<https://i.postimg.cc/QxgFNqWS/adbdebloater01.jpg> Windows DeBloater

Which is nice, because it's like using non-Adobe PDF editors to remove
permissions - you have more power when you don't follow the rules.
<https://developer.android.com/training/package-visibility>

And there are lots of people on the net who debloated and then they
supplied the list of apps they debloated so you can put 'em in scripts.
<https://xdaforums.com/t/new-package-disabler-works.4196047/post-84050223>
<https://xdaforums.com/t/share-your-package-disabler-pro-list-of-disabled-apps.3593368/>

Of course, there are apps on Android itself to remove bloatware
but they tend to come and go as they're too specific to a brand.
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ccswe.appmanager.samsung_20201007>
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.elmklmsamsung.batteryaddon>
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ospolice.packagedisablerpro>
Most of which are no longer in the Google Play Store repo.

Some of which cost money even if they are still in the repo.
<https://www.packagedisabler.com>

Or they're adware...
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rrivenllc.shieldx>

And that's why I use more generic free methods, from Windows, to debloat
any app on my unrootable Android phone that I want to remove from it.

That is, I typically debloat all my unrooted Androids using Windows adb
command-line freeware (note that "adb" does MUCH MORE than simple
command-line debloating (which everyone already knows about)).
<https://www.makeuseof.com/uninstall-android-app-adb-system-apps-bloatware/>

Nowadays, my phone is on my Windows screen all the time, over Wi-Fi
<https://i.postimg.cc/pr8NPNKs/scrcpy33.jpg> Android is on Windows
So there's really nothing you do on Android that isn't done on Windows.
Especially as the entire Android phone is just a set of drive letters.
<https://i.postimg.cc/9FJMKYch/scrcpy21.jpg> Windows Drive: === Android

Given Windows is the easiest way to debloat Android, I've taken the liberty
of adding the canonical Windows newsgroup (& its automatic archives)
so that everyone can benefit from this guide and so that they add value.
C:\> adb devices <== connects over USB
C:\> adb connect 192.168.1.4:44285 <== connects over Wi-Fi
C:\> adb shell pm dump com.google.android.webkit
C:\> adb shell am force-stop com.google.android.webkit
C:\> adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.webkit
C:\> adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.webkit

If I ever wanted to re-install it, that's just as simple to do with adb.
C:\> adb shell cmd package install-existing com.google.android.as

With adb on Windows, you can do almost anything, e.g., pull the package.
C:\> adb pull /system/framework/framework-res.apk
/system/framework/framework-res.apk: 1 file pulled, 0 skipped. 26.2 MB/s (20594725 bytes in 0.750s)

Then you can look inside the package if that's what you want to do.
C:\> aapt d xmltree framework-res.apk res/xml/config_webview_packages.xml
E: webviewproviders (line=17)
E: webviewprovider (line=19)
A: availableByDefault=(type 0x12)0xffffffff
A: description="Android WebView" (Raw: "Android WebView")
A: packageName="com.android.webview" (Raw: "com.android.webview")

Of course you can clone & then edit any Android package using Windows
freeware APK editors - but that's already the topic of other threads.
APK Editor Studio <https://qwertycube.com/apk-editor-studio/>
Apktool <https://bitbucket.org/iBotPeaches/apktool/downloads/>
CloneMyApp <https://clonemy.app/>
etc.

But you might not know you can just SWAP OUT the Google packages with
de-googled packages, such as what I'm doing now with that webview.
<https://i.postimg.cc/8kfsyKdV/webview01.jpg> Android System WebView here
<https://i.postimg.cc/dtLBhFqh/webview02.jpg> Android System WebView gone
<https://i.postimg.cc/yN3BzM4k/webview03.jpg> Dev Options shows it's gone
<https://i.postimg.cc/T197B0b1/webview04.jpg> Get the Bromite zip overlay
<https://i.postimg.cc/xT6pRsYF/webview05.jpg> Run the ADB reboot sideload
<https://i.postimg.cc/cCZkD2rP/webview06.jpg> Treble Info & cmd overlay

This means every app that calls up a "chrome" overlay, gets your swapped
out de-googled "bromite" overlay instead of the one Google put there first.
<https://github.com/arovlad/bromite-webview-overlay>

The point of those explanations is to let you know the power of doing the
debloating on Windows, instead of doing that debloating on Android itself.

For example, just last week Jeff Layton and I worked on debloating these
three pernicious Google packages which claim to do everything you need to
do (and it's all lies) which we found out simply by removing them.
*Google Partner Setup*
<https://yoodley.com/google-partner-setup/>
C:\> adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.partnetsetup

*Android System Intelligence*
<https://www.androidpolice.com/what-is-android-system-intelligence/>
C:\> adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.as

*Android System WebView*
<https://appuals.com/android-system-webview/>
C:\> adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.webview

As always, I can't tell you everything but I can give you a short
description of some of the factors - where my experience is that it's best
to debloat Android from the Windows platform - especially as Windows and
Android are already inextricably intertwined in your daily use of them.
--
Disclaimer: There's a "local adb" which runs on Android, but it's more work
to run on Android because you have to build the source to get it for free.
<https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/say-hello-to-ladb-a-local-adb-shell-without-needing-root-or-a-computer.4204855/>

Newyana2 <Newyana2@invalid.nospam> wrote:
> I made the mistake of letting my cellphone
> update and now have nearly constant warnings
> that something needs Google Play Services. Everything
> that can be disabled is disabled. Everything that can
> be set for no notifications is set that way.
>
> Example: "GBoard", whatever that is. I've
> disabled notifications. I've disabled the app. But
> I still get popups saying GBoard needs Google Play.
> These settings seem to be mostly meaningless. All
> I do normally is make phone calls. Occasionally I
> need to go online. I've disabled or removed as much of
> Google as I possibly can and use APKPure if I need
> an app.

GBoard is Google's keyboard. I would guess that you have that installed,
and maybe set as your current keyboard. I'd try using another keyboard -
maybe there's a system keyboard you can switch to instead? Can you
uninstall GBoard?

Do you have Google services installed (Play Store etc)? You would probably
know about it if you were running a degoogled phone, so I suppose the
question is why is something complaining about the lack of Play Services
when you likely already have that installed?

If the phone very old? It's possible something has upgraded itself in a way
with something not compatible with eg the hardwired apps that come with your
phone. Letting everything upgrade could fix it.

> So my question: What would it take to get deeper
> into the Android system and control this kind of
> idiot functionality? I'm guessing it might be something
> like controlling services on Windows? Maybe editing
> config files in the core filesystem? I've enabled
> developer tools, but that functionality is limited.

I'm not sure - Google Play Services is 'special' in that it has more
privilege than most other apps. I don't know how you control things at that
level.

Theo

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote

> GBoard is Google's keyboard. I would guess that you have that installed,
> and maybe set as your current keyboard. I'd try using another keyboard -
> maybe there's a system keyboard you can switch to instead? Can you
> uninstall GBoard?

I think all Androids come with that pre-installed but you can select any
keyboard you want to use - where I favor the open source keyboards myself.

*OpenBoard* Privacy Focused Open Source Keyboard by dslul, FOSS
free, ad free, gsf free, 3.8star, 2.41K reviews, 100K+Downloads
<https://github.com/dslul/openboard>
<https://f-droid.org/packages/org.dslul.openboard.inputmethod.latin/>
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dslul.openboard.inputmethod.latin>

I like it because it does speech-to-text while other keyboards (for some
reason unknown to me) don't have the microphone icon to easily do that.
*Hacker's Keyboard* by Klaus Weidner,4.2star,60.4K reviews,10M+Downloads
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketworkstation.pckeyboard>

But he has the choice of something like a billion keyboards if he wants.
<https://play.google.com/store/search?q=keyboard&c=apps>

> Do you have Google services installed (Play Store etc)? You would probably
> know about it if you were running a degoogled phone, so I suppose the
> question is why is something complaining about the lack of Play Services
> when you likely already have that installed?

You have to be careful whenever talking about "Google Play anything"
because Google Marketing realized it's a recognized keyword of value.

So Google renamed almost everything (e.g., Project Mainline) to "Google
Play something" (in that case it's "Google Play update services").
> If the phone very old? It's possible something has upgraded itself in a way
> with something not compatible with eg the hardwired apps that come with your
> phone. Letting everything upgrade could fix it.

While that may be sound advice, I'll betcha' only 1 in 1000 people know how
to "let everything upgrade" (because they don't know how Android upgrades).

We have lot of threads on that topic, so I'm just making the point that,
unless Mayayana has been keeping informed, he won't know how to do it.
>> So my question: What would it take to get deeper
>> into the Android system and control this kind of
>> idiot functionality? I'm guessing it might be something
>> like controlling services on Windows? Maybe editing
>> config files in the core filesystem? I've enabled
>> developer tools, but that functionality is limited.
>
> I'm not sure - Google Play Services is 'special' in that it has more
> privilege than most other apps. I don't know how you control things at that
> level.

When I look at my MuntashrAkon App Manager for "Google Play stuff", almost
all of the packages with that in the name are already wiped out by me
or they're forced-stopped and disabled (turned on only when required).

The only thing left that has "google play" in the name is Google Play
Services itself (because removing it caused a ton of errors, that's why).

Everything else with "Google Play" in the name can be wiped out on
an unrooted phone using simple adb commands from Windows as I explained.

"Theo" <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote

| GBoard is Google's keyboard. I would guess that you have that installed,

Ah. Yes. I can't uninstall any of this stuff. Everything I can
uninstall, I have uninstalled. I can disable some things, but
not remove. Then there are things not in apps that also
complain about Google Play, such as "Carrier Services" and
"Device Health". It's a parade of complaining popups.

In my last phone I installed a Microsoft keyboard. In this
phone, despite being disabled, GBoard is still working!

At any rate, I was hoping to disable the popups altogether.
It's a Tracfone. TCL. I mostly only use it for occasional phone
calls. I suppose I can replace GBoard, but that won't solve
the popups. I'm guessing that there's some legal reason that
Google can't force their store to be used, so they're just
harassing people into turning it on.

| If the phone very old? It's possible something has upgraded itself in a
way
| with something not compatible with eg the hardwired apps that come with
your
| phone. Letting everything upgrade could fix it.
|

The phone is fairly new. Maybe a year old. Letting it
upgrade was what started this problem. :)

| I'm not sure - Google Play Services is 'special' in that it has more
| privilege than most other apps. I don't know how you control things at
that
| level.
|

I looked the problem up online and found that others
have had the same issue of demands to enable Google
Play, but I found no answers. Thanks for your time,
anyway.

This is one of the reasons that I avoid regular
cellphone use. It's too hard to control and too much
work to figure it out from scratch. There's a pile of
Google apps that I can't remove. And the hidden settings
are like a cave system. After you told me what GBoard
was, I opened Firefox to bring up the keyboard, then I
found a small settings icon along the top of it. That led
to a discovery that by default I was enabling GBoard to
report my keyboard usage. All that from an app that's
officially disabled!