How to block or remove built in apps on an android phone

[Iwan Muller]

Hey everybody, this is my first post, quite intimidating I must say.

Is there a way to block or remove built in applications on an android phone. I want to limit what you can do on the phone e.g. only call, text, email and use one or two third party applications. Is it possible to do that without rooting the phone?

Looking to do this on a Samsung Galaxy Pocket

 

[Kelly Burby]

Hey everybody, this is my first post, quite intimidating I must say.

Is there a way to block or remove built in applications on an android phone. I want to limit what you can do on the phone e.g. only call, text, email and use one or two third party applications. Is it possible to do that without rooting the phone?

Looking to do this on a Samsung Galaxy Pocket

Built in apps can only be removed by rooting your device there is no other way to remove the inbuilt apps !!

 

[Sizzers]

A lot of built-in apps can be disabled by going in to Settings>Apps>All and selecting “Disable” inside the app you don't want.

The app itself then disappears from your app drawer although it can be re-enabled at any time by going Settings>Apps>Disabled and selecting the appropriate app from there. Most apps can safely be disabled, although some may interact with another app or function you may want to use in which case that particular app/function may not work.

There are other seperate processes and functions which can also be disabled: e.g.disabling com.android.providers.partnerbookmarks will remove the annoying unwanted bookmarks in Chrome, but I would be very careful about disabling any of these options if you're unsure about what you're doing..

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Are you primarily looking to remove unwanted apps, or are you looking to prevent anyone from using anything besides basic functions? You could install something like AppLocker, which would require a PIN for anyone to use apps specified by you.

 

[Iwan Muller]

Thanks for all the responses!

I would like to prevent anyone using basic functions, I want to use the phone for a survey but don't want the users to access applications or functions that are not necessary. This includes the settings function. I downloaded Hi AppLock but was just wondering if there were other ways to do it. I guess that is the only root. I plan on removing most of the useless apps and then locking the rest , then put them in a folder and hide the applications in it.