Suprajathvam: Uninstall system apps like Youtube, Chrome, Google from your Android

Your default android apps like Youtube, Chrome, Google etc.. are sucking hijacking focus and time? Unable to find the option to uninstall them? Here's the way-out. There's always an option of uninstalling them present. But we have to go round about to achieve this and we have to use our desktop to do this.This post is an explainer on how to uninstall these zombies. Here we go!!!

1. Enable Developer options on the phone

Go to Settings > About phone on your Android phone. Then tap 7 times consecutively on “Build number” to enable Developer Options.

The location of the build number may vary slightly based on the device, Android version, and Android skin. For example on Huawei phones on EMUI 9, you will need to go to Settings > System > About phone.

2. Enable USB Debugging

In Redmi, it doesn't come by default. One needs to go to Setting>About phone>Tap on MIUI version about 8 times in order to enable USB debugging.

Now you need to go to Developer Options and enable “USB Debugging”. USB Debugging allows you to use ADB (Android Debug Bridge) commands.

Go to Settings > System > Advanced > Developer Options. Then enable the switch for “USB Debugging”.

3. Download Platform Tools

Download the platform-tools (ADB and fastboot) on your Windows PC. You can skip this part if using a Linux computer or a Mac.

One can download ADB from the following URL:

https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools

https://androidmtk.com/download-universal-adb-driver

(Click on the link "Download SDK Platform-Tools for Windows")

4. Find the package name of the app to uninstall

Open a command window or Terminal in your platform-tools folder. Then run the following set of commands to get a list of the package names of the apps currently installed on your phone.

adb shell – to open an ADB shell

pm list packages – to list all of the currently installed packages

5. A. Copy the package name of the app which you want to uninstall and then proceed further.

B. If you are unable to find out the actual app name from the package name, then you can use the Android app “Package Name Viewer” on your phone to find out the package name of any installed app.

C. List installed Android app packages using ADB

D. You can also find the package name of the app to be uninstalled from playstore. Go to google playstore. Search for the app you want to be uninstalled. For example, if one wants Youtube uninstalled, search for youtube in the playstore. In the address bar, one can find the package name of the app suffixed (Encircled in the below image)

6. Uninstall the app(s)

Finally, run the following command within the adb shell to uninstall the app. Remember to replace the package-name with the package name discovered by you in Step 4.

pm uninstall -k --user 0 package name

For example, if you want to remove the YouTube app (as in the above screenshot), run the following command:

pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.youtube

7. You will get a confirmation of a successful uninstall in the form of a “Success” response.

8. Screenshot of my uninstalling of system apps