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feat(scope): We should consider disabling apps IN ADDITION to uninstalling them #670

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celenityy opened this issue Oct 5, 2024 · 0 comments
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enhancement New feature or request

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@celenityy
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Describe the feature you want

Hi there,

Thank you for your great work on this project.

I believe that when uninstalling an app through UAD, rather than only uninstalling it, we should uninstall and disable the app.

(Yes, it is possible to do both... Android is weird sometimes :p).


The reason I think this would be worth pursuing is that I have noticed instances where uninstalling apps alone causes breakage, as other apps on the device think the app is still installed, so they will still try to call the app as a dependency. But of course... the app doesn't actually exist since we uninstalled it. The end result causes unnecessary issues & breakage. When an app is both disabled & uninstalled, this is no longer a problem, as the app can see the dependent app is unavailable and fallback appropriately.

For examples:

  1. I've noticed on Android TV devices, Google's built-in screensaver completely breaks & refuses to launch if Play Services is uninstalled. If Play Services is both disabled & uninstalled, the issue resolves.
  2. I've noticed some apps such as Netflix will complain & give errors that Google Play Services is "updating or temporarily unavailable." Again, once Play Services is disabled in addition the uninstallation, the error goes away, and the app works as expected.
  3. Similar issues can be commonly seen with Signal, where the app completely breaks if Play Services is uninstalled, but not disabled, giving the same error as Netflix above. Ex. Not able to use app without play services signalapp/Signal-Android#10368 Play Services Error signalapp/Signal-Android#11139 Can't install Signal without Google Play Services signalapp/Signal-Android#9279 - As with the other 2 examples, Signal works perfectly fine once Play Services is also disabled, as Signal can then use its fallback code.

All 3 of these examples are with Play Services - but I imagine there are many other cases like this, especially with different system apps. In fact, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this causes a majority of the issues people have when debloating & removing certain apps from their device. I believe that this if this change is implemented, it would fix a lot of problems.


To sum up my proposal:

  • Leave the disable feature as is.
  • Change uninstall to both uninstall and disable apps, rather than only uninstall it.
  • Similar when reinstalling apps removed this way, instead of only re-installing the app, it would also re-install and re-enable it.

I'm curious to hear thoughts on this - I'm not aware of any downsides this would introduce, but I'm curious if there's something I'm missing?

🙏

Acknowledgements

  • This issue is not a duplicate of an existing feature request.
  • I have chosen an appropriate title.
  • All requested information has been provided properly.
@celenityy celenityy added the enhancement New feature or request label Oct 5, 2024
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