I’m just switching to Android from an iPhone and am finding it a great improvement. Except I can’t figure out how to delete unwanted apps and programs. How do you do that in Android?
Migrating from Apple’s iOS 11 operating system to the Android platform is pretty straightforward, though most of the gestures change up. The biggest differences are related to settings and preferences, but even then, a swipe from the top down gets you a notifications & quick settings area in both, so even that’s become pretty similar. Deleting apps and moving them around is different, however, and if you’re used to tapping and holding on an app icon until they all jiggle, well, it’s kinda like that, but not exactly.
The biggest difference between the iPhone and your Android phone, however, is the range of versions of the operating system in play. Not only do different Android vendors support different versions of Android, but many vendors like Huawei actually put their own “skin” or user interface on top of the Android experience. This means that the version of Android I’m running on my smartphone probably isn’t exactly the same as what you have on your phone. Still, the general concepts hold, so even if your dialog box looks a bit different or a button is worded differently, you should be able to follow along!
To demonstrate, I’m going to delete two apps from my Android phone, because there are two different ways to delete things depending on exactly what they are. The more common one is a standard app deletion, and for that we’re going to – horrors! – delete the Starbucks app. Here’s my home screen before I start:
Probably the #1 most important button to know about is the 3 x 3 grid on the bottom center. Tap on that and you can see EVERY app on your phone, not just those on the home screen. But you already know that, I’m sure.
To delete the Starbucks app, pretend for a moment that you’re on your old iPhone and tap and hold the app icon until you get a tiny window pop up:
Tap on the “App info” window and you’ll see quite a bit of interesting information shows up, actually:
You can guess that what you want to tap on is the “Uninstall” (because “Delete” is so, well, passé I suppose). Tap on “Uninstall” to delete the app. A confirmation dialog will appear:
If you really do want to axe the app, simply tap on “OK” and after a moment or two it’ll vanish. Done.
Some apps – that are probably actually Android widgets – have a different removal process, however, and it’s a bit disconcerting because you’ll tap and hold the app icon as above, but no “app info” window shows up. Instead, on the very top two landing zones appear, as you can see here:
You can see that I’m just starting to drag the clock widget upwards. To remove it from the screen, drag it to the REMOVE on the top right. To change its settings, drag it to the EDIT on the top left. It’s pretty straightforward from there.
And that’s it. Keep playing with features and settings on your Android phone and you’ll be loving it soon enough!
Pro Tip: We have lots of Android help here on the site too. Take some time, explore and learn even more about how to get the most out of your Android smartphone! Thanks.
Hi Dave, trying to transfer everything from my Sansumg Galaxy Prime 4 to my new Sansumg Galaxy 9S.Have not internet on my old cell to install Smart Switch. When they they changed my phone number yesterday for my new service–I lost my internet connection on the old cell. How can I get my contacts from my old cell t my new one? I have called and talked for hours to 4 different people at Consumer Cellular. Can you please help me?
Thank you,
Wanda
Many apps require rooting in order to delete them
If you get them from the Google Store you should never need to ‘root’ them for deletion…
I have an android question I hope you can help me with. Why aren’t my playlists in my youtube library they same on my android as they are on my PC? I use Google chrome on both. Thanks in advance.