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For experts only - what exactly remains after you've deleted Google apps using adb on the PC without being rooted on Android?

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Andy Burnelli

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Mar 30, 2023, 2:41:15 PM3/30/23
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For experts only - what exactly remains after you've deleted Google apps
using adb on the PC over Wi-Fi or USB without being rooted on Android?

In a recent thread it was shown the "user" _can_ delete default Google apps
(such as Chrome, YouTube, GMail and Google Maps) without being rooted
(if they know how to use adb connections on a Windows PC over Wi-Fi or USB)
*Remove Google Apps from Android?*
<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/7qLXTRuzHCU>

List installed Google apps using adb on Windows over Wi-Fi or USB:
C:\> adb shell pm list packages | findstr com.google.android

Uninstall Chrome from Windows over Wi-Fi or USB using adb:
C:\> adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.chrome

Uninstall YouTube from Windows using adb over Wi-Fi or USB:
C:\> adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.youtube

Uninstall the GMail app from Windows over Wi-Fi or USB with adb:
C:\> adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.gm

Uninstall Google Maps using adb on Windows over Wi-Fi or USB:
C:\> adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.maps

List remaining installed Google apps (all the above are now gone):
C:\> adb shell pm list packages | findstr com.google.android

Note: The -k option uninstalls the app while retaining the data/cache.

And then the user can replace those canonical Google functionalities with
FOSS equivalents such as Bromite/Chromium/UngoogledChromium, NewPipe,
FairEmail & OSMAnd+ where most of those are _better_ than Google clients.

Install FOSS Chrome replacement:
<https://www.bromite.org/>
<https://www.bromite.org/chromium>
<https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium-android>

Install FOSS YouTube replacement:
<https://newpipe.net/>

Install FOSS GMail replacement:
<https://email.faircode.eu/>

Install FOSS Google Maps replacement:
<https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.osmand.plus/>

My question, for experts, is what remains, given I am aware of this:
"This works because applications truly aren't fully uninstalled
from your device. They are just being uninstalled for the current user
(user 0 is the default/main user of the phone). That's why, if you omit
the --user 0 and -k part of the uninstall command, the command won't
work. These two flags respectively specify the system app will
only be uninstalled for the current user (and not all users,
which is something that requires root access) and that the
cache/data of the system application will be preserved
(which can't be removed without root). Therefore, even if you
uninstall a system app using this method, you can still receive
official OTA updates from your carrier or OEM."
<https://www.xda-developers.com/uninstall-carrier-oem-bloatware-without-root-access/>

What exactly remains after you've deleted Google apps without being rooted?
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information
which, in this case, is to faithfully try to learn more about uninstalling.
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