Removing apps from Android devices.

A quick and easy guide to uninstalling apps from Android devices. This guide isn't meant to be a professional guide, but rather provides quick and easy recommendations and steps for uninstalling apps from Android devices that any PC or laptop user can follow.

To uninstall apps, you'll need ADB debugging software and access to the USB debugging option in the Developer Options menu.

1. Download the ADB app. ADB stands for Android Debug Bridge, a debugging tool for Android devices that allows you to control them from your computer using the command line. It's an official app created by the Android developer community. The package itself includes an Android development shell and other interesting tools that we don't need, so we'll download only the ADB archive. You can download it from this link for Windows, Linux, and Mac. The site offers a wealth of technical and educational information on Android development, and I recommend checking it out, if only out of curiosity. The package we downloaded is called "platform-tools-latest-," where the last word after the hyphen in this example indicates the operating system for which you downloaded the package. Since I'm working on Windows, my package is called "platform-tools-latest-windows." It's packaged as an archive, so you'll need to unzip it. After unzipping, you'll see a platform-tools directory inside, which contains the tools we need.
2. Now you need to start the ADB service and test the application. To do this, open the unzipped "platform-tools-latest-windows" directory, navigate to the "platform-tools" subdirectory, highlight the directory path in the window at the top, and enter "cmd" at the beginning of the path, adding a space before the drive letter, for example: cmd C:\Downloads\platform-tools-latest-windows\platform-tools
   Press "Enter" to open a command prompt. Your path will be different. In the command prompt, enter: adb
   This command will output help information about ADB parameters and their functions to the terminal. You can also redirect this output to a file with the command: adb > adb_help.txt
   This command will create a text file named adb_help.txt in the root directory (i.e., "platform-tools"), which will store help information. You can use it for quick translation by copying it into an online translator. A detailed description of the parameters is also available on the developers' website. Launch ADB by running the command: adb start-server
   This command will start the adb service. After running the command, you will see the message "daemon started successfully," indicating that the server is running.
3. We connect our Android device to the computer via USB.
4. To use ADB, you'll need access to the developer options menu on your Android device and USB debugging enabled. To access developer options, go to Settings, then About Phone, and tap Build Number or Software Version seven times. The number of taps required and the available options may vary depending on the manufacturer. If the developer options menu doesn't open when you tap the above options, try searching online for information on how to enable this feature on your device. You'll see a message saying "You are now a developer" or something similar. The developer options menu item will appear under System, Additional Options, or Advanced Options, depending on your Android version and the manufacturer of your phone. Once enabled, you can also find this option by searching for "developer" in the Settings menu. Go to the enabled "Developer options" menu and enable "USB debugging." If your Android device is currently connected to your computer via USB, a message will appear informing you that developer mode has been activated and prompting you to save the device configuration. Accept this message and agree to save the settings. Go to the command prompt terminal window on the computer we worked with earlier. Run the command: adb devices
   Now that the device is connected and detected by the program, we can begin cleaning the device of unnecessary apps. Let me clarify in advance that without superuser rights, also known as root, it is impossible to remove system apps. Moreover, different apps can be functionally linked to each other, and removing one may disrupt the operation of another. System apps are removed from the user's workspace, meaning they will no longer automatically launch, run background tasks, or perform other functions, and will also disappear from the app drawer. However, the app package itself will remain inactive in the system and can be restored if damaged during a factory reset. This will return everything to its original state. Non-system app packages can be removed in any way without special software, simply through the Android device menu. Here is a list of simple commands for removing and finding a package.
5. To view all packages in the system: adb shell pm list packages
   Show only system packages: adb shell pm list packages -s
   Show only disabled packages: adb shell pm list packages -d
   Disabling packages allows you to see packages you've disabled in your Android device's interface settings by tapping the "Disable" or "Close" buttons. This can save you a lot of time, as you won't have to search for package names if you've previously disabled them; they'll appear in this list. You can also find the name of the package you need by going to Settings on your Android device, selecting "Applications," selecting the desired app, and tapping the three-dot menu "App Info." The line "Package Name" should appear there.
   To search for packages by name pattern: adb shell pm list packages | findstr "pos"
   This will search all installed packages for matches with the name "pos," and display the results in the terminal. Accordingly, this command is only relevant for Windows, as in Linux, the search will be performed using GREB or another utility. "|" is a pipeline that passes the results to another command for processing. This means that instead of searching the entire list, you can search exactly where you need by substituting another command. The command lists packages that depend on the package specified in the command: adb shell pm dumpsys (package name)
   If you see [DELETE_FAILED_INTERNAL_ERROR] in the output, it means that the package is system-specific and cannot be completely removed. The command shows previously removed packages from the primary user space, i.e., 0: adb shell pm list packages -u
   Example command to uninstall a package: adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.mi.globalbrowser
   --user 0 is the user ID for which the package is being removed. If there is only one user, then 0. com.mi.globalbrowser is an example package name. This command reinstalls a previously removed package for the primary user: adb shell pm install-existing --user 0 (package name)
   As a reminder, resetting your device to factory settings reinstalls all system packages.
6. After the uninstallation is complete, disconnect your Android device from your computer and run the command to shut down the server in the console: adb kill-server
7. Turn off the "Developer mode" switch in your Android device's menu.

Now you know the most basic commands that will help you quickly and easily clean your Android devices of unnecessary apps. I also recommend exporting the contents of the help command to a file and translating it for a personal cheat sheet. If you're interested in developing for Android devices, I recommend checking out the guides on the ADB developers' website; they have instructions and examples.