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Samsung phones are well known for One UI, one of the most functional and intuitive Android interfaces. While it’s highly customizable, these phones often come with preinstalled bloatware. Some built-in Samsung apps, such as Wearable and Wallet, are useful within the Samsung ecosystem. However, there are at least five first-party apps that even dedicated Samsung users rarely touch.
The preinstalled bloatware apps can vary by device, price, and lineup, but many are common across all Galaxy phones. While you might not be able to uninstall all of them, they’re easy to disable and can be re-enabled if you ever need them.
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While these apps aren’t necessarily useless or mindless bloatware, every user’s needs differ. If you’re not using them, it’s a good idea to uninstall or disable such Samsung apps to save memory and reduce background battery usage.
1. Global Goals
Samsung’s Global Goals app promotes sustainability. Users can earn money through the app by watching ads or donating to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“Samsung Global Goals is a worldwide effort to improve our planet and daily lives by 2030,” says the company. It is a noble idea, but I don’t think every Samsung user wants to donate through an app, and not everyone wants it on their devices.
2. Samsung Free
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Samsung Free offers a way to watch movies, TV shows, live TV, latest news, and more for free. If that sounds similar to Samsung TV Plus, it is. In fact, this app has a button for Watch on TV Plus, which takes you to another app to watch the same stuff. In addition to TV Plus capabilities, you get two additional tabs called Read and Play, which let you read the latest news articles and play games.
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The Samsung Free app is a mix of Galaxy Store, Samsung TV Plus, and more, but it isn’t required. It’s one of the useless bloatware apps that I recommend uninstalling as soon as you set up your phone.
3. Samsung TV Plus
This is a free ad-supported streaming TV service owned by Samsung. It could be useful if you haven’t subscribed to any streaming service. If you’re lucky, you might even find some movies that are behind a paywall on Amazon Prime Video for free. It offers over 1,200 channels across 24 countries.
That said, Samsung TV Plus isn’t like Apple TV or Prime Video. The South Korean company doesn’t produce original TV shows or movies. If you don’t watch TV on your phone and are already subscribed to Netflix, HBO Max, and the like, it might be a good idea to uninstall Samsung TV Plus.
4. Samsung Shop
The Samsung Shop app is, well, a shopping app for Samsung devices. It is aimed at delivering more personalized content, like product recommendations and special offers for registered products. Like the Apple Store app on iPhones, you can check out new deals and benefits on Samsung products.
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However, these offers can often turn into unwanted notification clutter and hinder the One UI experience. You can always go to the Samsung website to learn more about current deals, so it makes sense to declutter your Galaxy phone and save the on-device storage.
5. Samsung Kids
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This app is designed for kids and aims to help them develop thinking skills. Samsung says it is a safe place for little humans and enables them to build healthy digital habits. If you have a child, Samsung Kids might be worth trying.
However, not all Galaxy phone users have children. For them, it is a storage hogging app that sends unsolicited notifications if you tap on the Allow button.
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Most Samsung Galaxy phones come with preinstalled Microsoft and social media apps like Facebook and Snapchat. There are other Samsung apps like Gaming Hub, which might be useful for gamers but not so much for productivity-focused users.
Each preinstalled app can be helpful for some users and a memory hog for others. I strongly recommend going through your installed apps once you have set up your phone, so you can uninstall bloatware that doesn’t appeal to your usage.
