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Bloatware, a mobile problem that everyone should know about

These are the applications that come pre-installed on cell phones when you buy them.

It is normal that with the passage of time and technology, certain terms are adopted from the past to the present, changing their meaning a bit. As is the case with bloatware, a concept that was born in computing to refer to programs designed to take up extra space and make the system heavy.

This was adapted a little differently for the cell phone marketwith the aim of explaining a practice implemented by mobile phone manufacturers that can cause various problems for users.

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What does bloatware mean?

This arises from the union of bloat, which means inflated, and ware, related to an article or element. This term was used to describe programs that were bloated with features, taking up a lot of space, and often being slow to run. computer.

In the case of cell phones, it was adapted to explain the applications that came from the factory, developed by brands, by third parties or in some cases by mobile operators, and that likewise took up storage space and offered functions that are rarely used. .

These are the applications that come pre-installed on cell phones when you buy them.
These are the applications that come pre-installed on cell phones when you buy them.

So, in a few words, bloatware refers to the applications that appear installed on the cell phone at the time of purchase, but in the end, the user does not find them useful.

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A characteristic of these platforms is that they are usually difficult or practically impossible to remove. Although it is a practice that has been reduced, at least in the West, and we see fewer and fewer new phones with these types of apps.

The applications that usually come from the factory are those associated with brands, such as video game, health, optimization and other services, but third-party references such as e-commerce, social networks or games also appear.

What are the problems of bloatware

There are two points about this: storage and security. The first of these is the most obvious to the user.

When buying a phone that has 128 GB of storage, for example, a part of that will go towards the resources that the cell phone needs to run the operating system and key functions, which can be between 20 and 25 GB. Another part will be taken by these filler applications, occupying an average of between 5 and 10 GB, when there are more than 15 apps.

These are the applications that come pre-installed on cell phones when you buy them.
These are the applications that come pre-installed on cell phones when you buy them.

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This leaves the user 100 GB of storage, despite having paid for 128 GB, something that over time will be a problem due to the number of files that are stored. Especially since a piece of bloatware can’t be deleted, just stopped, and it means wasting space with something that’s never going to be used.

But a bigger problem is that of security. A recent investigation of the University of Edinburgh and of the Trinity College of Ireland found that in cell phones Xiaomi, OnePlus and Realme User data would be taken through these pre-installed applications.

According to the report, thanks to the permissions, the platform had access to the data, which was taken to the manufacturers of the device and the owners of the application, thanks to the fact that they ran in the background and did not require the person to use them.

This opens the door for other companies to be doing the same, taking advantage of the ignorance of some users and the impossibility of uninstalling these apps. For that reason, Google is developing for Android 14 options that allow for easier removal of bloatware.

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