How real is 'adware' ?

[johne53]

Rightly or wrongly I've been reading that a lot of Android apps are nothing more than Adware - i.e. even when they're not being used they're constantly scanning for ads they can display if ever they do get used. I bought my Galaxy Z Flip 3 about 8 months ago and I must admit it's using a lot more battery power now - even though I'm not giving it any more usage and I still use the same apps as back then.

So is it worth uninstalling apps that I'll likely never use? Or if I uninstall them, will Android simply re-install them again during its next update

[Cliffg]

If you do not use apps then the phone will disable them. You will usually get a mesage stating this. When installing apps be careful waht priveleges you give. Some will ask for camera, mic and location when you can be sure this would never be needed. Of course many "free" apps also contain adverts.

[AndrewL]

@johne53: Please be assured that if you uninstall an app, then it will not be reintroduced to your device following an update. To uninstall an app, either press and hold on the app icon and select 'Uninstall', or head to Settings > Apps > Select an app > Uninstall. Some apps that came pre-installed on the phone cannot be uninstalled, but can be disabled in some instances to prevent background activity. Further to your query, however, pop-up adverts will almost always stem from third party apps that you have downloaded. 

If you would rather not uninstall a certain app, but want to limit it's background activity, then please head to Settings > Battery and device care > Battery > Background usage limits > Deep sleeping apps > Tap the '+' symbol in the top right, and select any apps you'd like to add from here. Deep sleeping apps will never run in the background, and will only work when you open them. 

[johne53]

Sorry if this comes through twice.... I checked my Background Usage Limits and it's set to automatically put unused apps to sleep. But under Sleeping Apps there were no entries so I've added about 20 apps manually and I'll see if that changes anything. Thanks for the tip.

[johne53]

An interesting development... prior to moving those files, the battery would drop by around 4 percentage points overnight (i.e. when the phone's switched off). And if there were no calls during the day, it'd drop by a further 5 percentage points when I first bought the phone. But the daytime usage has shot up to about 15 percentage points now - even though I'm using the same apps by the same amount (mostly just the browser...)

But bizarrely - although daytime usage hasn't reduced, moving those 20 apps has reduced the night time usage (when the phone's turned off) to just 1 percent!! Surely apps wouldn't be using the battery when the phone's turned off??

MS Windows has something called Task Manager which'll tell me how much CPU usage is assigned to the various running apps. Does Android have anything similar - so I could identify what's eating up all that extra battery time?

[johne53]

It's looking like bluetooth was the culprit here... I've never quite been sure what bluetooth does, so I've tended to run with it disabled. But a couple of days ago I noticed it was suddenly enabled on the Flip3 so I disabled it again. Since then, the battery usage has gone back to normal. In fact it's slightly better than normal - because of the night-time usage being lower now.

I'd always thought of bluetooth as some kinda "poor man's wifi" and yet it seems to need a lot more power than wifi.

[johne53]

I just noticed that if I click and hold an app, it'll give me some info about itself - including how much battery it's been using since the last battery charge. But isn't there some overall app that'll tell me this information for all the installed apps - i.e. without me needing to examine each of them individually? Something a bit similar to Task Manager on Windows?

[johne53]

Another slight breakthrough (maybe??)

My Flip3 spent about a week back at its older settings (i.e. not drawing huge power) but then everything updated and it's gone back to using quite high battery usage each day - BUT...

I've realised that if I open Apps it'll let me list apps in order of most recent usage and that then gives me an approximate idea of which apps are using the most battery. Apart from internet access, the two hungriest apps seem to be called Device Care and One UI Home. Does anyone know if those 2 apps are vital? I'm just wondering if I can safely try moving them to Sleeping Apps with the others?