Revive Your Galaxy: Remove Samsung Bloatware for a Fresh, Faster Experience

Published Apr 28, 2026, 1:31 PM EDT

Digvijay is a Computer Science graduate with a deep passion for technology. His journey into tech writing began in 2018 with software and product reviews, and he’s been exploring the digital space ever since.

He joined MUO as a full-time writer in 2022, where he covers how-tos, explainers, and tech guides focused on Android, entertainment, and the internet.

Digvijay has previously contributed to several reputable publications, including Alphr, GuidingTech, TheWindowsClub, and MakeTechEasier.

Outside of writing, he enjoys traveling and learning about different cultures, as he believes new experiences spark creativity.

I've had my budget Galaxy phone for about three years. It was fine for the first few months, but it got sluggish fast. Then I spent half an hour removing the tools Samsung pre-installed on it. No rooting, no warranty voided. Just a laptop, a USB cable, and a few terminal commands. I should have done it the week I bought the phone.

What bloatware does to your phone

More than just clutter

Every Galaxy phone comes loaded with apps you didn't ask for. Looking at my app drawer, I found over a dozen of them. Then there were the duplicates: Samsung Internet sitting next to Chrome, Samsung Messages doing the same job as Google Messages, and even a separate Galaxy Store when the Play Store was already there.

These apps don't wait for you to launch them. They automatically refresh, sync, pull updates, and request permissions. On budget phones with 4 or 6GB of RAM, all that background activity can slow down the processor. You tap an app and wait a beat too long for it to open, type a message, and the keyboard can't quite keep up. By midday, the battery is dipping into the red despite barely using the phone all day.

Samsung ships these apps through partnerships and licensing deals that make them money before you even power the phone on. You paid for the hardware, but some of that power is already tied up in running software you didn't choose. And on Samsung phones, you can't even uninstall most of them through settings.

I put up with it for months, assuming that was just how cheaper phones aged. Then I looked into what was actually hogging the resources, and it wasn't the hardware.

Related

How I cleaned house without rooting my phone

No root access needed

I needed a way to remove these apps without voiding my warranty. On a budget Galaxy phone, you can't uninstall most of these apps. Tap and hold on Gaming Hub or Samsung Max, and there's no Uninstall option. The only option Samsung offers through settings is Disable, which hides the app from your drawer but leaves it on your phone.

To go further, I used ADB, or Android Debug Bridge, a free command-line tool from Google that lets your computer communicate with your phone over USB. It can remove apps from your active user profile without root access, so your warranty stays intact. If needed, a factory reset can restore the removed apps.

Setting it up took about five minutes. On my phone, I went to Settings -> About phone -> Software information and tapped Build number seven times. That unlocked Developer Options. From there, I toggled on USB Debugging.

On my laptop, I downloaded the Android Platform Tools from Google's developer site and extracted the folder. To open a Command Prompt inside it, I clicked the address bar in File Explorer, typed cmd, and pressed Enter. Then I plugged in my phone, typed adb devices, and the connection was live.

Every removal followed one command: adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 followed by the app's package name. The -k flag preserves cached data as a safety net. I started with Samsung Messages, ran the command, and the terminal printed Success. Same process for every app after.

Here are the ones I removed along with their package names, so you can copy them directly:

• Gaming Hub (Game Launcher) — com.samsung.android.game.gamehome
• Samsung Messages — com.samsung.android.messaging
• Samsung Max — com.samsung.android.vmanager
• Samsung Shop (Samsung Members) — com.samsung.android.voc
• Smart Switch — com.sec.android.easyMover
• Galaxy Themes — com.samsung.android.themestore

Samsung doesn't show these package names anywhere in the settings, so if you want to remove other apps beyond this list, a quick Google search like "Gaming Hub ADB package name" pulls up the exact string you need.

Before you try any of this, back up your phone through Samsung Smart Switch and note down every package name you remove. If something feels off afterward, running adb shell cmd package install-existing followed by the same package name restores the app without needing a factory reset.

After the cleanup

Samsung software updates can re-enable or reinstall apps you removed through ADB. After every major One UI update, run the same command (adb shell pm list packages samsung) again to check if anything came back. If it did, the same removal command works exactly as before.

And be selective about what you install going forward. Free apps from the Play Store, especially utility tools and games, often run background processes the same way Samsung's bloatware did. There's no point clearing out Samsung's junk if you replace it with someone else's.

Samsung Galaxy S26