Owners of Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge will not only witness a massive overhaul in terms of design and features, but also get the freedom to disable any preloaded app they want. Earlier it was reported that the flagship smartphones will allow users to delete any app they want, including Samsung and Google's preloaded ones. But a new video by MobileSyrup clears the claim by showing the apps can only be disabled, not deleted.
A post on XDA Developers last week attracted a lot of media attention with the claim of Samsung Galaxy S6 letting users delete any app they want. To support the claim, user Jeshter2000 posted screenshots showing a Delete icon (minus symbol) next to core system apps like Google Chrome, Samsung S Health, Google+, Voice Search, Gmail, Play Music and more. Usually, the minus icon allows users to delete an app directly from the home screen on Samsung phones without navigating into the Settings menu.
In reality, Samsung has just added the delete icon to core apps on main screen to let users disable and hide any app user wants. The Korean tech giant has widely been criticised for its forceful preloaded apps that users resist using. The option to uninstall those apps has been out of the picture but Samsung has constantly been trying to cut down on the number of such apps, often referred to as bloatware, with Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S6.
There are several apps that can neither be disabled nor deleted from Galaxy S6 phones such as Phone, Contacts and Email. But these apps are useful and play a vital role in the normal functioning of the phone. Letting users disable core apps isn't entirely new as the option existed since Android Jelly Bean. But the current flagship allows users to disable more apps now, such as Memo, Calculator, Drive and more.
While disabling unwanted apps may not be the best solution, but it shows Samsung's commitment to improving the overall user experience by giving more options. Hopefully, future flagships may include extended ability to delete unwanted apps. It's worth noting that disabling some important apps like Maps, which are used by other apps too, can result in malfunction.
