3 ways to remove preinstalled Facebook app on your Android phone

Booting up your new phone and going through everything in there is always a special experience, but this ritual is often soured by the presence of bloatware and unnecessary third-party apps.

| Published: Sunday, June 3, 2018, 15:00 [IST]

Booting up your new phone and going through everything in there is always a special experience, but this ritual is often soured by the presence of bloatware and unnecessary third-party apps. OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) are quite keen on cluttering up your phone with things you don’t need at all, there are a few manufacturers that go way beyond including apps like a calendar or a clock. Facebook is one such app.

3 ways to remove preinstalled Facebook app on your Android phone

Facebook has been the target of a really bad rep in recent days especially after the data leak scandal. If the app is preinstalled on your phone, uninstalling the app is not a matter of just clicking on uninstall, manufacturers do not provide you with the opportunity of doing this. If rooting your phone and making your phone’s warranty void is not something you wish to do, you can use one of the below methods to remove Facebook and other third-party apps. The three techniques given below can remove the app:

Disable the App in Settings

The option of disabling Facebook is available within Settings. In order to do this, you need to select Apps from the Settings app. On newer versions of Android, you will need to expand the list by tapping on "See all apps."

The next thing you need to do is select the Facebook app to access the App Info page. There are two buttons saying "Disable" and "Force Stop." Selecting the option called "Disable" and clicking on "OK" will disable the app.

Package Disabler App

There are currently reliable apps available in the Play Store for LG and Samsung devices which can remove Facebook and other bloatware as well. The LG version is priced at $1.99 and the reliability of the app varies as well. Samsung has an app that is much reliable, unfortunately, like the LG version, this app comes with a pretty little price tag as well. It costs around $3.49.

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Using ADB Commands

Using ADB commands is free and the process to follow in order to remove the unwanted bloatware is quite straightforward.

You will need to download and install ADB on your computer first. You will need to install USB drivers on your phone in order to ensure proper communication between your computer and your phone.

In order to disable the apps using this method, you will need to know the exact package name of the app you want to get rid of. For this, you will need to head over to the Play Store and install App Inspector. Go to the app and select App List and then tap on the Facebook app. You can find the package name under the name of the app. This starts with a "com" or "net" followed by words separated by dots.

After this, connect your phone to your PC and enable USB debugging. Input the following command with the package name in the place of XX.

adb shell pm uninstall -k --user o XX

This will get rid of the app.