Slashdot Mirror

Not just an abandoned Google project

Well since there was over 20 releases in the past 4 months some may say not an abandoned project at all.

https://www.apkmirror.com/uplo...

That, and Facebook, are the 2 biggest memory hogs on my phone I wish I could delete

If they came pre-installed with the phone, and you can't actually reflash a decent ROM (LineageOS) because of locked bootloader, you can still uninstall the update and then disable them. The App will still take place on your flash, but at least they won't be running and hogging system ressource (memory and CPU cycles).

If you *need* them installed (because of networking effect because all your friends, your family, your significant other(s) keep stupidly using them), you can try the Lite version that Facebook produces for 3rd-world countries. They consume much less resources. (But might miss some feature : Facebook Messenger Lite only features text chat, no video/audio calls).

Regarding the other common hogs:

- For Snapchat, I don't have any idea.
- Skype also has a Lite version, but Microsoft hasn't enabled it in the playstore for all users, so you need to side-load it yourself, e.g.: from apkmirror.

With the mobile push to India/Africa a couple of vendors have started to push "Lite" versions of their Android apps. Although not available via the Google Play store in the US/UK they still work fine and dandy if side-loaded. Highly recommended... Facebook Lite: 1.5mb - https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/... Linked In Lite: 0.64mb - https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/...

With the mobile push to India/Africa a couple of vendors have started to push "Lite" versions of their Android apps. Although not available via the Google Play store in the US/UK they still work fine and dandy if side-loaded. Highly recommended... Facebook Lite: 1.5mb - https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/... Linked In Lite: 0.64mb - https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/...

Just uninstalled this garbage from my Android. Went to APKMirror, downloaded an older version, sideloaded it (Settings -> Security -> Unknown sources needs to be on for this.)

Skype is back to normal.

Went to Google App Store -> Settings -> Auto-update apps and turned it off.

Unless they change Skype back to normal this is the last version I will use and if it becomes unusable I will use a different app.

Messenger Lite is your friend. I would never install the full-blown, privacy-invading Messenger.

http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/f...

Android users can easily recover.

It is an update to the Google Play Services, which are still updated for Android 2.3: see http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/g... for the current versions.

I downloaded the APK from apkmirror which I trust: http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/n....

Furthermore, I'm running Android Marshmallow and it allows you to grant or deny specific privileges to each app. This app asked for 4 permissions: contact list, camera, location and storage. This is how you know it's "authentic".

If it's asking for more than that (i.e. microphone), you've got a malware ridden copy.

You can always download the apk from the mirror and keep it, turn off permissions so it won't update. http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/s...