Installing "clean" Android On A Mobile Phone.

Paul · August 22, 2020

Just over a year ago I bought a reconditioned Sony Xperia from Giff Gaff to replace one I threw into the River near Horning. Super phone, was listed as "as new" and appeared to have never been out of it's box. I have been very pleased with it but would like, now it's out of warranty, to install a clean fresh Android OS clear of all the mind bogglingly pointless Sony Apps and the Sponsored Bloatware they add, and you can't remove.

If I can do my phone then I would like to do Elaine's, which not only has the pointless Sony Apps, the Sony bloatware but as it came originally from Vodafone has all their rubbish on it too. There are 97 apps on her phone that can't be removed! It's getting silly.

Is it possible, anyone any experience of doing it?

oldgregg · August 22, 2020

You may find that there is a build for your device of AOSP (the Android Open Source Project), which is the base 'stock' Android direct from Google.

The best place to look is the XDA Developers forum, which has little to do with development for XDA's these days.

In practice, these builds tend to have things missing or not working quite right and of course there will be no support so honestly I wouldn't really recommend it. One of my Samsung devices had a lovely new OS build available, but with a warning that the drivers for the sound didn't work properly. :default_icon_rolleyes: Cheers guys, that's useful.

Unfortunately this is the issue with Android - Google were desperate for market share in the early days and let manufacturers put their own junk on top of Android. What this means is that it's now a bit of a monster which they are trying to fix but with considerable resistance from manufacturers who need to differentiate their offering from other Android hardware vendors.

If you want a 'clean' Android device, either one of the first-party Google Pixel devices or something from OnePlus are probably the best bet given that they are actually properly tested and supported rather than having been chucked together by someone in their spare time.