Carrier bloatware on Android devices is nothing new. Some are worse than others about it, especially Verizon and AT&T, but just about every service provider is guilty of tossing at least one or two apps onto every phone they sell. It looks like some carriers are investing in a way to make sure that you keep those apps installed on your devices, though.
When T-Mobile recently updated its Galaxy Note 4, the update came with a system app called “Digital Turbine Ignite.” This app essentially functions as a way for the carrier to get applications loaded on the phone. That doesn’t sound too terrible on the surface, but if you uninstall the apps that Ignite installs, the service will actually redownload and reinstall those apps the next time you restart your phone without your consent, at least on T-Mobile’s Note 4.
If you don’t want those apps on your device, your only option would be to go in and disable Ignite in Android’s app manager. It won’t uninstall the service, but at least it can’t keep repeatedly installing new things on your phone. As of right now, T-Mobile is the only carrier implementing Ignite in such an intrusive way, but Verizon did use it on the G3 to make some of the bloatware apps uninstallable. However it’s implemented, it’s clearly focused on serving the carriers, not the end-user.
Hopefully we’ll get some clarification from T-Mobile and possibly some of the other carriers on how this app will be used going forward.
source: Android Police
Come comment on this article: Carriers might start silently installing bloatware on your devices
from Android News, Rumours, and Updates http://ift.tt/1pHB6VT
No comments:
Post a Comment