Meta/Facebook preinstalls an app called Meta Services (previously Facebook services) on a very large percentage of android devices (I’ve never used one without it) and while they claim it helps updates and synchronisation between different meta apps, it is very suspicious. Why preinstall it on devices of people who will potentialy never use a single meta app?
Go to your app list/app management and show system apps and find anything with the words “meta” or “Facebook” then turn off network access for those apps (if you can) and disable them. (eg. Meta app manager, Meta app installer).
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/meta-services-an-android-app-or-not/
https://fixyourandroid.com/about/facebook-app-manager/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS20FE/comments/ttmx4t/meta_services/
Edit: Looking around I have found several people complaining that this app is using their ram for 10 hours a day even though they don’t use anything Meta. That’s even more suspicious.
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Shit like this is why I use a DeGoogled phone. Get a Pixel and install GrapheneOS or CalyxOS and use open source apps wherever you can, and sandbox any Google Play apps you have to use (banking, etc).
Pixel phones don’t have this app. It’s not Google adding it to the OS.
I don’t think they were implying that it was. Pixel phones don’t have this, but they have loads of other methods of stealing your data. Ungoogled ROMs are focused on complete privacy, not just from google.
I always, disable or remove anything to do with Facebook or Meta, & lots of other crap, as a first sweep of a new phone or installation…👍🏼
For those that aren’t aware, Universal Android Debloater is a great tool to uninstall/disable bloatware.
It lists out all potential bloatware found on your device and you could disable them with a mouse click. I always use it to debloat my new devices.
The problem with this app is that it’s very liberal on its definition of bloatware. Specially on Samsung devices, it considers bloatware and marks for disable/uninstall many critical apps, including the dialer
Quite true that it recommends removing a lot of the apps, but we could always select and remove those we are sure we wouldn’t need.
I personally don’t and also wouldn’t recommend selecting all of the apps on the recommended list and removing them all.
The author provides comments on most if not all of the apps stating it’s use and whether it’s safe to remove, and it’s the very reason why I like the app.
Thanks for sharing. Had no clue and just went and disabled all 3 of these apps of theirs
used to have one on my phone, thank god I switched to a custom ROM, shit feels 1000% better than stock
Is that an RSS reader for Meta products?
Yes, but you’re the source of their feed
Some phones used to come with Facebook pre-installed, it’s probably from that. Don’t get a Samsung lol
Thanks for the heads up!
Just disabled this and a few other “Meta services” apps for “app download” and all the other nonsense…
Unfortunately using a bloated S23 at the moment but toying with getting a P7 Pro 🤦🏼♀️
Fairphone 3, don’t have it 👌
Xiaomi 11 Lite NE 5G on PixelOS, also don’t have it.
One more reason to use a custom ROM. Death to the bloat!
This is why it’s so nice to use CalyxOS. All the functionality of an Android with none of the crap and minimal bloat.
absolute bloatware, i just uninstalled this a few days ago
Samsung (in the UK) doesn’t seem to have it.
Is this a US problem?
No ,iam in a European country and one of my phones had it.
I think its specific to devices. Ive never seen this before on samsungs in the us
One of the pros of using a Pixel! Absolutely no bloat on my previous 4a or my current 7 besides a T-Mobile app that was installed because of my SIM card. Uninstalled that and I was golden.
Unless you don’t consider google software bloat.
With pixel you can install grapheneos and have no bloat! (or optionally sandboxed bloat)
True, but most of it is useful and not useless games and shit. Google tracking me is better than Meta, I suppose.
I agree, at least with Google you get maps, timeline, a password manager, photos, drive, an entire suite of Microsoft office-like software, streamlined 2FA on my pixel phone (just pops up on screen, no text or email needs sending), etc. If I have to strike a deal with a devil, I may as well choose the useful devil.
Honestly, if I have the choice, I will choose Google to keep my data over Facebook/meta. While they will do the same stuff with it, at least they give me good products in exchange for my personal life. I also think Google is more transparent about how they collect their data and they let you pretty easily opt out of most of the very intrusive stuff. I also trust their security a whole lot more than Meta’s as they are pretty innovative in that space (like with webauthn)
That’s always been my only reason for holding google to a different standard. I know what data they harvest and see really clever optimizations and tailored experiences for me on their services. I actively see the benefit of my data being collected as the end user. I’ve ever felt that with meta products.
Well, using Samsung (and whatever other brands) smartphone you my have Samsung spying on you (because he can install whatever he wants) AND Google because he provides Samsung the OS. With a Pixel phone, you’re spied only by Google.
While technically it is, it mostly depends on whether you use Google products. I use some of them, but not all of them so the ones I don’t use I still consider bloat personally. Regardless of how I feel about it though anything pre-installed that you can’t uninstall is bloat and Samsung, in my experience, is the fucking worst I’ve used.
consider grapheneos. i use it and its been great
Updoot from LineageOS land!
based :) how r u liking it? i considered it but didnt want the risk of bricking my phone
I like it because it stays out of my way, for the most part. I’ve been a modder sinve the Cyanogen days, and the windows.phones before that. I like lineage because it’s just a stock android experience with decent permissions management and support for phones I like to buy.
Gettng GPay and bank apps working can be a bit of a To Do, but there’s a lot of support over at XDA for that when you run into weirdness. 5 stars, will flash again
yeah the hardware support is a big difference to graphene.
If they’re using a phone with Meta services pre-installed, it won’t support GrapheneOS
true (i think). i bought a pixel to use grapheneos
