[General Questions and Answers] GalaxyA325G:
BTW, since I last posted here, I found out on an unrooted phone such as mine is, you can uninstall the default system apps such as YouTube and Chrome from the USER account using adb (either from a PC or locally on the phone, using ladb).

Unrooted will only uninstall the apps from the USER account.

Rooted can uninstall the apps from the SYSTEM account.

So, it's never really uninstalled- but - from the user's perspective, it is.

Off the top of my head, here are the basic instructions if you want to approach deleting Google apps in a sane manner.

First thing I'd do is install a FOSS replacement for each Google app.

YouTube => NewPipe (much better YouTube client in almost every way)

Chrome => Ungoogled Chromium (not always kept up to date)

Maps => OSMAnd+ (not as good as Google Maps, but almost as good)

GMail => FairEmail (privacy aware & doesn't create an account)

Google Play Store search => App Finder (The best Google Play Store search engine)

Google Play Store install => Aurora Store (The best Google Play Store installer)

And then I'd do these three things to the original Google apps:

I'd first force stop them...

C:\> adb shell am force-stop com.google.android.youtube

Then I'd disable them...

C:\> adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.youtube

And lastly, I'd uninstall them from the user partition...

C:\> adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.youtube

By way of example, here's how to uninstall the default Chrome without needing to be rooted.

C:\> adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.chrome

Without adb, you can only use the Android GUI where you can usually force stop a default app but you might not be able to uninstall a default system app using only the Android GUI on an unrooted device.

Worst case, if you can't uninstall it, you can remove it from your sight on the homescreen. And, if you really don't want it showing up in the app drawer, you can hide it from the app drawer. Finally, you can also firewall Google apps from access to the Internet (either by Wi-Fi or data, or both).

NetGuard no-root firewall, by Marcel Bokhorst, FairCode BV

free, ad free, gsffree?, 4.3 star 25.8K reviews 5M+ Downloads

<https://netguard.me/>

Bear in mind there is never a need to set your phone to a Google Account if you replace the Google apps you like with their FOSS equivalents.

Here are more complete links to the Google FOSS replacements.

- YouTube

*NewPipe* by Schabi (FOSS YouTube client)

<https://newpipe.net/>

<https://f-droid.org/packages/org.schabi.newpipe/>

<https://f-droid.org/repo/org.schabi.newpipe_992.apk>

<https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe>

- Chrome

*Ungoogled Chromium*

<https://uc.droidware.info/>

<https://uc.droidware.info/fdroid.html> Adds the repo to the F-Droid app

<https://beebom.com/how-install-ungoogled-chromium/>

<https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium-android>

<https://groups.google.com/g/comp.mobile.android/c/UiGff11AV6o/m/1yyhk5h-AAAJ>

<https://uc.droidware.info/release/Ungoogled-Chromium/TrichromeChrome/TrichromeChrome_arm64.apk>

<https://www.malavida.com/en/soft/ungoogled-chromium/android/>

- Maps

*OsmAnd+ Maps & GPS Offline by OsmAnd, FOSS

<https://f-droid.org/repo/net.osmand.plus_431203.apk>

<https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.osmand.plus/>

<https://github.com/osmandapp/OsmAnd>

<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand.plus>

<https://www.amazon.com/OsmAnd-Maps-Navigation/dp/B00D0SA8I8>

- GMail

*FairEmail*, privacy aware email by Marcel Bokhorst, FairCode BV, FOSS

Free, ad free, gsf free, 4.6 star, 24.3K reviews, 500K+ Downloads

<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.faircode.email>

<https://email.faircode.eu/>

<https://github.com/M66B/FairEmail/releases>

<https://f-droid.org/en/packages/eu.faircode.email/>

<https://www.xda-developers.com/fairemail-email-app-privacy-conscious-android/>

<https://www.xda-developers.com/fairemail-open-source-privacy-friendly-email/>

- Google Play Store search (the google search is atrocious)

*App Finder* by Skryica

XDA Thread

https://xdaforums.com/t/app-6-0-app-finder-the-most-advanced-search-engine-for-android-apps.4578809/

Google Play Store URI

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=scadica.aq

Developer Home Page

https://skyica.com/

- Google Play Store (download, install & do not delete the APK!)

*Aurora Store*

GitLab: Releases

https://gitlab.com/AuroraOSS/AuroraStore/-/releases

AuroraOSS: Downloads

https://auroraoss.com/AuroraStore

AuroraOSS: Stable

https://auroraoss.com/AuroraStore/Stable/

F-Droid: Link

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.aurora.store/

Telegram: Channel

https://t.me/AuroraOfficial

XDA Forum: Thread

https://xdaforums.com/t/app-4-4-aurora-store-open-source-play-store-client-april-8-2021.3739733/

Any others?

Once you install, set up & test these FOSS replacements, then you can force stop & disable the Google equivalents.

First you have to find the unique package name.

list all packages on the device

C:\> adb shell pm list packages

list third-party packages

C:\> adb shell pm list packages -f -3

list only the disabled packages

C:\> adb shell pm list packages

list only the system packages

C:\> adb shell pm list packages -s

list only uninstalled packages

C:\> adb shell pm list packages -u

Then if you want, you can force-stop the package.

C:\> adb shell am force-stop com.google.android.gms

If desired, you can then disable the package

C:\> adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.package.name (disables package)

If you make a boo boo, you can always re-enable the package

C:\> adb shell pm enable --user 0 com.package.name

You can choose to wipe out both package data & cache

C:\> adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.package.name

Or, if you want to wipe out the package but keep the cache

C:\> adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.package.name

If you make a boo boo, you can always re-install the package

C:\> adb shell cmd package install-existing com.package.name

Examples:

C:\> adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.youtube

C:\> adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.chrome

C:\> adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.gm

C:\> adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.apps.maps

List remaining installed Google apps

C:\> adb shell pm list packages | findstr com.google.android

Note: The -k option uninstalls the app while retaining the data/cache.

As always, together we know more than any one of us knows alone, so if there's useful information I missed or erred upon, please add it.