yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 6  General] stooley:
Looks like Verizon somehow got their backup bloat into the Nexus 6 5.1 image. I am on AT&T and have the backup app with Verizon's logo for it.

View attachment 3206340
[Nexus 6  General] bloodiedwraith:
That is disgusting to see. Then again, like SprintDM, the phones will have all of this so that all the models with have the same OS and therefore one model for all networks.
[Nexus 6  General] oldblue910:
Somehow I think you'll survive.
[Nexus 6  General] TheSopranos16:
Can it be uninstalled?
[Nexus 6  General] biggiestuff:
Doesn't look like Verizon. file name says com.motorola.android.buacontactadapter
[Nexus 6  General] nxt:
Yup, go to Accounts and click Add Account, you'll see 2 Verizon items in there, Backup and Verizon!!!! I'm on a T-Mobile Nexus 6 too. Grrrr

---------- Post added at 10:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 PM ----------

It's the same backup assistant my gf had on her Razr M from Verizon.
[Nexus 6  General] biggiestuff:
When I click add, I see backup but I don't see Verizon. I click on backup and it just goes to a blank account screen. I definitely don't doubt you but I just thought it was odd it has Motorola in the process name.
[Nexus 6  General] nxt:
You know what, I think Verizon shows up because I have the My Fios app installed, yeah that's why.
[Nexus 6  General] Daveoc64:
My Nexus 6 has this App and I didn't buy it in the US (nor do I use it there).

It's very disappointing to see stuff like that which can't be disabled.

There's also something called "VZWAPN"
[Nexus 6  General] biggiestuff:
YUCK. The worst part is you can't even disable it or uninstall it. OH well it's going right next to SprintDM in titanium backup frozen hell
[Nexus 6  General] SolsticeZero:
There's SprintDM and T-Mobile MyAccount too, on mine. Sounds like the risk of having a single update for all carriers is you gotta have the stuff for all carriers in it. I wonder if the factory image will have this stuff.
[Nexus 6  General] stas333:
Exactly. People need to get over this.
[Nexus 6  General] david279:
Think isn't that bad ?
[Nexus 6  General] SolsticeZero:
Yeah, it's really not bad. It's not like the apps are even being used at all. I mean, you can always delete the apks with a file manager if it hurts that much.
[Nexus 6  General] biggiestuff:
The t-mobile one you can uninstall. I don't have that one on my phone. The sprintDM and verizon backup wouldn't be such a big deal if it was just on the phone but the fact that it runs in the background is the annoying part for me. I'll probably end up needing that Verizon one as I plan on swapping my VZ and Tmobile sims from time to time. I hope 5.1 allows me to just swap the sim in instead of factory resetting the phone.
[Nexus 6  General] david279:
All you have to do is switch sims, no need to reset. Also you have 3 GB of ram in the phone. You'll be OK.
[Nexus 6  General] biggiestuff:
Good to hear they fixed that in 5.1 :). every ounce of RAM counts hahaha. I'm just OCD when it comes to memory management hahaha. :)
[Nexus 6  General] oldblue910:
Wow, people. You should really listen to yourselves. When you have a device that works on multiple carriers, there are ALWAYS going to be carrier specific libraries in order to make things work. Yes, there's a VZWAPN APK. Yes, there's a SprintDM APK, there are also US Cellular-specific APKs in there, and there's probably some very T-Mobile and AT&T specific code if you want to dig for it. Christ, people. You have a phone that works on just about every network in the history of the world. Do you think that all happens just like magic without any involvement from any carrier at all?

And for those of you outside the US, clearly Google doesn't want to have to manage two separate ROMs for the Nexus 6 just over a few APKs, so yeah, your ROM is going to have APKs for US based carriers in it too. Somehow, I think you'll survive.

Come on, now. I know y'all are smarter than this.
[Nexus 6  General] david279:
I think its funny people are calling it bloat. Like its bing maps, skype or the samsung S apps.
[Nexus 6  General] biggiestuff:
We are smarter than that. That's why we freeze it. :). It's just one of the things friends ask me is. Why do you like nexus phones and why should I switch? I tell them that nexus phones don't have all that bloatware carrier phones come with. And while it's still free of bloatware for the most part, I hope it's not a trend in the wrong direction. If they can install carrier apps depending on what carrier Sim, why weren't they able to keep these apps carrier specific? It's not THAT big of a deal for now but like I said I hope it doesn't go in the wrong direction.

My theory is that eventually the upcoming Google wireless service will be compatible across all 4 carriers. Imagine never having a coverage issue because you have a phone that works on all 4 concurrently with one service.
[Nexus 6  General] rock7632:
TMO and ATT are GSM and don't require any proprietary crap to be installed. There's nothing from T-Mobile or AT&T on the system partition. I looked
[Nexus 6  General] biggiestuff:
Was there anything for sprint on the N5? I don't remember anything being sprint specific like sprintDM on the N5.
[Nexus 6  General] david279:
It was always there. Thats how you're able to able prl and profile on sprint.
[Nexus 6  General] Daveoc64:
I find an application that I cannot ever use (because I don't live in the US) being permanently enabled on my phone to be a complete waste of resources.

If this was included in the ROM but only activated when used with the relevant network then I wouldn't care.

You'd have a point if it wasn't for the fact that the only carriers with such an APK are Sprint and Verizon - both only in the US and both CDMA which is used in few countries.

I don't think that Google/Motorola - or you would find it acceptable if there were dozens of carriers from all over the world with their own contact migration wizard etc. on the phone.

"Backup Assistant Plus" does not mention its name that it is related to Verizon. My phone shows it in the list of accounts I can add - but when I try and use it, I get a white screen and the settings app becomes unresponsive.
[Nexus 6  General] rock7632:
Yes there was. That same SprintDM app
[Nexus 6  General] oldblue910:
First off, though there are no T-Mobile or AT&T specific APKs on the device, there is most definitely code specific to those carriers in the ROM...even the "pure" ones purchased from Motorola or Google will still engage in a tethering check if it has an AT&T SIM card in it. Also, there's code to properly route T-Mobile tethering traffic via pcweb so that it gets counted properly against your tethering limit.

The point is, unlocked devices really aren't completely carrier free. Google has relationships with carriers worldwide, and sometimes that results in things being on an unlocked device. The only option to not have all this stuff is to have multiple different ROMs that run on the Nexus 6 depending on region and where you purchased it. That's a logistical nightmare to manage and there's absolutely zero reason to do it. Every single Nexus 6 in the world runs the same ROM and rightfully so. That means yeah, you're going to see APKs from CDMA carriers because, despite the fact that it's not a common thing worldwide, two of the four biggest carriers in the US use CDMA, for better or worse. Oh well.

Oh, and as for that Verizon backup APK, it's a stub. It doesn't actually do anything. It's there to provide an update path in case there's a Verizon SIM in the phone.

This entire thread is a tempest in a teapot.
[Nexus 6  General] Daveoc64:
Why does the option show up in my Settings app then?

I've never seen a Verizon SIM, let alone put one in my phone.
[Nexus 6  General] oldblue910:
Where does it show up in your settings? It's showing up in your app list because it's an APK that exists on the device. That's not a setting.

EDIT: Looks like you can add it as an account, but without a Verizon SIM, doing so just gives you a blank white screen. This is a bug on Google's part. That shouldn't show up without a Verizon SIM installed.
[Nexus 6  General] Daveoc64:
Yep, that's it.
[Nexus 6  General] DanielNTX:
There are multiple packages for Sprint and Verizon that you can disable through ADB shell (pm disable <package>):

Verizon:

com.motorola.android.buacontactadapter

com.verizon.omadm

com.verizon.permissions.appdirectedsms

com.vzw.apnservice

Sprint:

com.android.sdm.plugins.sprintdm

com.android.sprint.lifetimedata
[Nexus 6  General] qnc:
Yes you can delet it, if you have root.

Go to: system/priv-app/

Make a back up just incase of the folder "BuaContactAdapter" and it's contents

Then delete the folder.

App gone from the installed apps view.
[Nexus 6  General] vtmike:
Come on people, you are using a nexus phone. Unlock the boot loader, install twrp and su, and start deleting all the system bloat you don't want.
[Nexus 6  General] SHADOW-XIII:
I see quite a lot of apps were added within pure 5.1:

(based on full backup done with Titanium Backup before wiping and installing 5.1 image)

- Backup Assistant Plus

- com.android.moto.appdirectedsms

- com.android.sdm.plugins.dcmo

- com.android.sdm.plugins.diagmon

- com.motorola.service.ims

- com.qualcomm.atfwd

- com.qualcomm.qti.rcsimsbootstraputil

- com.verizon.permissions.appdirectedsms

- DM Config Update

- Google Connectivity Services

- Hidden Menu

- MotoSignatureApp

- org.codeaurora.ims

- RCSService 5.1-eng.ameyat

- VZWAPN

Really surprised Google put so much bloat onto 5.1 (IMS and 3rd party sms handling etc) into a Nexus device :(
[Nexus 6  General] Surge1223:
Wtf is Google high?
[Nexus 6  General] DebianDog:
So you would rather have Verizon and the other carriers in charge of releases? It's either a few k of bloat (you can delete) or that. Which do you want exactly?

Sent from my Nexus 6
[Nexus 6  General] JulesJam:
Absolutely, if you didn't want to do that, get a Note 4.
[Nexus 6  General] Surge1223:
Why on earth would you jump to that conclusion first? Also there has to be more options rather than accepting a few MB of bloat.
[Nexus 6  General] DebianDog:
It is K not megs and there is only one version of the code why would Google want to maintain 4, 6, or 20 versions? Sprint Verizon AT&T and all other carriers have specific things they want/need unless you give it to them so they can put out their own version Google needs to include these small programs so it can run on all carriers.

I hate bloat and things in my app drawer as much as the next guy but this is the first phone I've ever had on Verizon that I could update the same day that Google released a new version of Android. You take the good with the bad.

And honestly if you have titanium backup it'll take you less than a minute to freeze all the things you don't want to see since these persist through upgrades within the titanium backup app you will never see them again .

Sent from my Nexus 6
[Nexus 6  General] Surge1223:
Right Kb, I didn't actually look at the size until now. Google does not need to include these small programs so they run on all carriers...in fact when we build AOSP we specify and add code for carriers without including their bloat. There are obviously more options than what you have laid out.

Anyways I think even they had to include 20 versions, if anyone is equipped to do it, Google is and you'd think they'd want to avoid alienating their customers. I don't want to derail this thread any further so if you want to continue this discussion feel free to pm me.
[Nexus 6  General] DebianDog:
We have no idea what Google's plan is for service with providers http://readwrite.com/2015/03/06/google-nexus-6-get-first-crack-at-wireless-service

I think email, Gmail, and chrome are bloat because I don't use them, but it is not that big of a deal. Click freeze

Sent from my Nexus 6
[Nexus 6  General] Morningstar:
To be fair, I don't think Surge ever said it was a big deal, and he definitely knows how to freeze and/or remove them. He does have a point, too. The inclusion of these things, however small or insignificant they may seem, isn't entirely necessary, and Google could have chosen to implement it in a different manner, even if they didn't.

Personally, I don't think Google ought to include anything that's carrier-specific, except perhaps the basic infrastructure to get the device to connect to a given network. When you first set up and register/provision your phone, it's downloading files directly from the carrier, a few of which are larger than some of the files being discussed here. I see no reason why these small carrier-specific files couldn't be downloaded and installed at the same time that other small, carrier-specific files are downloaded.

But unless one of us secretly has some serious pull at Google and/or the carriers themselves, it is what it is.
[Nexus 6  General] DebianDog:
I agree. I was a programmer back in the BBS days and we had to keep things under 50KB compiled. So I have hated bloat for decades. But like you say no one but Google can say why they did what they did.

Sent from my Nexus 6
[Nexus 6  General] GrayBoltWolf:
My opinion is essentially this:

I bought a Nexus phone after 2 HTC phones because I wanted stock Android. I was sick of bloat. I even compile my own versions of AOSP in which I remove basically everything I can and even only install Google Play Services and the Play Store instead of the full GApps. I want Android. Not Verizon crap, nor Sprint, or even some free trial of an app. Now that Google has opened the door there will just be more and more bloat slowly leaking into our updates.

As for people saying that it is easily removable, I shouldn't have to unlock the boot loader, root, install TiBu, and manually remove packages that shouldn't be there in the first place. I went Nexus because I hate clutter and bloat.

And lastly carriers shouldn't have to install apps to make a phone compatible with their network. Stock Android works just fine.

TL:DR; Nexus devices used to be pure AOSP, but that era is over.
[Nexus 6  General] JulesJam:
OK well, the reason to get a Nexus is to unlock and root, it is a developer device. While no clutter and bloat may be why you picked a Nexus, that wasn't the impetus for the Nexus program.

As long as we can unlock and root, most of us are quite happy with our Nexus devices. And if you aren't, what is your alternative? The next best thing to a Nexus device if what you want is a vanilla android is the Moto X, which I love but the Verizon Moto X 2014 wasn't unlockable and that just sucked.
[Nexus 6  General] GrayBoltWolf:
80% of the people that buy a Nexus 6 will never unlock the boot loader.

The point is that it shouldn't be there in the first place. If Verizon wants their backup crap to be available, then they should put it on the Play store so that the 4 people who use it can have it without affecting the rest of us.
[Nexus 6  General] JulesJam:
Where did you get that "data" from other than your arse? Seriously, no one keeps that data so you literally just pulled it out of your arse.

Says who? Last I checked Google ran the Nexus program and decided what is and is not appropriate for a Nexus device. A Nexus device is for developers and if that "bloatware" is something Google deems appropriate for devs to have on a developer device so that they can develop in the context of what the majority of devices have pre-installed, then the Nexus is serving it's purpose.

But Google thinks the Nexus device is for developers first, then the rest of us next. You seem to think Google should treat the Nexus as if it were intended to be a consumer device first and foremost. It's not.
[Nexus 6  General] joshm.1219:
This bloat is ridiculous. Ridiculous! I'm returning the phone.
[Nexus 6  General] SolsticeZero:
I'm having trouble figuring out who is serious in here anymore. The era of Nexus being over? Carrier bloat taking over in the future? Christ, people, it's a few measly APKs that are meant to make the phone usable with almost every carrier in the world without having those carriers manage their own updates (remember how VZW screwed the pooch with the updates for the Galaxy Nexus?).
[Nexus 6  General] Daveoc64:
I agree.

I'm bothered because Google is letting carriers that I don't have any relationship with (and can never have a relationship with) have a process that runs on my phone with full system privileges which can't be disabled.

Do they access my contacts without my permission? I would certainly hope not, but Verizon isn't going to attempt to comply with European data protection laws if it does.

Furthermore it results in a generic sounding feature "Backup Assistant Plus" appearing in the Settings app which pretty much crashes the Settings app if you try to use it. We have one user facing carrier app in the ROM and it's got a bug like that. Not exactly winning me over to the idea that this is gonna be ok. When will it be fixed? In the next release for the Nexus 6? When Verizon decides it needs to change something in the app?

I have no real problem with apps like SprintDM - they are actually useful to everyone on that carrier. But I really can't see any reason why the "Backup Assistant Plus" app should be included (and absolutely no reason why I shouldn't be able to disable it).
[Nexus 6  General] crachel:
As has already been pointed out by [MENTION=3423169]oldblue910[/MENTION] and others, carrier specific APKs/services have existed on this device and other Nexus devices since launch. What Verizon has done here isn't any different and I didn't realize this is what people considered "bloat".

For me the issue here is privacy, not 350kb services taking up resources. I've chosen AT&T as my carrier. I have not entered into any agreements with Sprint or Verizon or T-mobile. So when Google installs say, SprintDM, which has every privacy permission possible, theyve effectively given my information to a 3rd party. This violates my understanding of their Privacy Policy:

They are going to great lengths to secure the phone with encryption, Device Protection, etc.. yet they will continue to give personally identify information to carriers you don't do business with.
[Nexus 6  General] _Dennis_:
Few things.

1) Nexus devices have never been pure AOSP, even the Nexus One had extra code, and included Google apps.

2) IMS and Hidden Menu, along with a few other apps, are good bloat. Sprint uses Hidden Menu to help with connection issues. IMS is used by service providers to provide service in some areas.

3) while 80% (a great made up number) may never unlock their boot loader, 95% of those will never even see the apps as most are hidden.

4) If you want pure AOSP, build it. Just don't forget, GApps is not AOSP.
[Nexus 6  General] the_rooter:
80% dont unlock the devices? I dont believe that unless u provide the facts. Please provide where you get these numbers.
[Nexus 6  General] DebianDog:
He says right in there its a made up number but I believe 80% is way too high. I know hundreds of people and I'm the ONLY one that unlocks my phone... besides my son.

Sent from my Nexus 6
[Nexus 6  General] the_rooter:
missed that part. I unlock and i also know well over 20 maybe more that unlocked their nexus's
[Nexus 6  General] _Dennis_:
That number was made up on page 5, I used it from there.
[Nexus 6  General] DebianDog:
Then I would guess you're in your twenties. Most older people just want the phone to work. They don't know what version of Android they're on they don't care about customization they just want to text their friends and play candy crush.

This is a big phone which means the text is going to be big which means it's going to be easy to read. My father is already asking me about it because as you get older it gets harder to see smaller text on smaller devices.

Sent from my Nexus 6
[Nexus 6  General] the_rooter:
late 20s lol
[Nexus 6  General] GrayBoltWolf:
I do build from AOSP, but the issue is that you have to include a ton of other sources and commits to get everything to work. Even now AOSP 5.1 doesn't have working stereo speakers, earpiece, or even YouTube.

My main point that I keep going back to is that the Verizon backup should just be an app from the Play store.
[Nexus 6  General] _Dennis_:
I agree with Verizon backup being a play store app. I also understand why AOSP dies not work 100%, proprietary drivers and such makes it either not 100% open source, or you get sub-par hardware that can be sourced from a company with no proprietary software included. Even CM and most custom ROMs use vendor blobs to include the proprietary software.

That being said, someone should look into the backup app, see if it has calls or some such that would require it to be on /system.
[Nexus 6  General] kwurky:
When Lollipop was about to be released wasn't there some new feature that allowed each carrier to download their required apps through the Play Store or Internet based upon what SIM was inserted? Why Google didn't use this? This would solve everyone's problem.
[Nexus 6  General] _Dennis_:
My guess:

The app requires something, being on /system or sharing signature with system or something that can not be done via the play store.
[Nexus 6  General] mgerbasio:
The privacy is also an issue for me. I won't install the T-Mobile Account Manager or T-Mobile Visual Voicemail apps because looking at the permissions needed, basically they have full access to your phone. Verizon is the same and although I have Fios, I don't believe the level of access they demand is worth the app features. I was planning on installing the Xposed and Xprivacy module but really haven't had enough time to dig into it. Once I receive the WiFi calling for T-Mobile, I'll root and delete what I can.

Google is really getting to be disappointing.
[Nexus 6  General] GrayBoltWolf:
The proprietary drivers are fully available from Google. You have to use them or basically nothing works. So as I said, it should just work.
[Nexus 6  General] _Dennis_:
I know they are, they still are not part of AOSP thought, that was my point. Google != Open source. They provide some (honestly only what benefits them) as open source, but not everything.
[Nexus 6  General] LeoRex:
I was surprised at the overreaction... Then I remembered that hyperbole and overreaction are now as big a part of the Nexus community as anything.

Get over it... These do nothing to your phones unless you are on the respective carriers. It's not sharing data with Sprint or backing up your data to Verizon. If you don't like it, return the phone and get something else and then come back and tell us how clean it came. Enough with the outrage.
[Nexus 6  General] DanielNTX:
But it is an active process running. I think I saw it taking up 4-5 mb of memory before I disabled it.
[Nexus 6  General] _Dennis_:
OMG 4-5mb? On a 3GB phone that will manage it's RAM? Sorry , I've a pet peeve about people complaining about RAM usage unless they can prove android is not killing background apps when it needs RAM.
[Nexus 6  General] sonofevil77:
It's not a big deal. There is Sprint crap in there since launch. It's an unlocked device for all carriers so it's a good thing for those of us on Verizon. We will have volte in 5.1.
[Nexus 6  General] d.chatten:
Does anyone know if this so called bloat is also included in the factory images direct from the google developers site?
[Nexus 6  General] cam30era:
It is.
[Nexus 6  General] d.chatten:
Thanks for the reply, personally i'm not that bothered, at least if i ever travel to the USA i know i can use any one of the networks.
[Nexus 6  General] sgloki77:
can anyone provide a comprehensive list of the bloat, this thread is rustling my jimmies with google adding crap to the factory images, I already wiped with tibu all that says verizon and sprint

now need to get rid off the less obvious stuff, can any provide all offending files?