Nothing’s new bloatware includes Facebook services that can’t be uninstalled
https://9to5google.com/2025/10/29/nothing-phone-3a-lite-facebook-instagram-apps/Open linkView original on lemmy.today620
Comments101https://9to5google.com/2025/10/29/nothing-phone-3a-lite-facebook-instagram-apps/Open linkView original on lemmy.today
Wow, nothing is a shit name, for one. On the other hand, this being reported on a website that requires tracking consent to view. I want a new Timeline.
Nothing would be a great brand name if they were dedicated to making good phones without any bloatware.
The misinterpretation with the name nothing to the regular word nothing in headlines and everything is really bad, especially since the internet is global and for countries who never heard the name.
Some people think they're really clever with their company name and cause lots of confusion with it for their narrow mindedness.
What do you mean? There are tons of shit names.
Of course there are. But in this case the headline could be read:
Nothing's new:....
I think you missed it. "Nothing is a shit name" can be read as "there are no shit names."
(Unless I misread your comment and missed something.)
Yes, got wooshed, haha 😁
Thanks for Nothing!
Good ass burn.
Forgot the hyphen
Context
You were supposed to be the fucking CHOSEN ONE
Don't stake your hopes on anyone or any entity and you will never be disappointed
There are only those companies for whom the incentives to betray you aren't yet high enough. Either the incentives become high enough for the chosen company to betray you, or the incentives become enough for another company with enough money to buy the chosen company and betray you...or bury the chosen company in the hopes that you'll open yourself to being betrayed or exploited by the other company.
Welcome to unfettered/unregulated capitalism aka the natural end result that capitalism pushes society towards.
Nothing already lost me when they put a tiny, useless OLED screen on the back of their flagship and called it innovation. They had something really great with the Glyph lights for two generations, so of course they ditched that technology completely.
Not even Unihertz put Facebook garbage on their new Titan 2 phone. And they also have an OLED on the back. A much bigger one. For a fraction of the price.
I still think it’s Motorola.
I'd like that. I've enjoyed being on Motorola for the last few phones. Good, serviceable, middle-of-the-road priced phones and a company that doesn't think so highly of themselves that the majority of the price amounts to a prestige tax. (ahem...Apple and Samsung)
Isn't Motorola's mobile division (with the exception of the PDA hardware acquired by Zebra Technologies) owned by Lenovo full stop?
I would imagine that might lead to issues later down the line for the Graphene team (although I'd love to be proven wrong).
I’m not sure what problems that would lead to. Lenovo is a big part of the reason I think it’s Motorola.
Yes it is. If you mean that becaise of china, I don't know why it would. Blossoming countries tend to open up. China is starting to blossom.
Ratchet mechanism of enshittification: click
I once had a phone with uninstallable Facebook bullshit and it is more than mildly infuriating. Fuck Nothing, they are dead to me now. This is unforgivable.
Just what the world needed
Oh good, one less phone to consider.
I would literally sooner intentionally install malware in my phone than anything from Meta.
Apparently enough to destroy the reputation over it.
To me I'm most supprised on this one, I mean, wasn't the whole point of the nothing to be a phone that doesn't distract you as much, lets you stay in the moment.
what the hell kind of partnership is this. This is as dumb as say an electric vehicle company partnering up with climate change deniers
Or nazis.
It is nazis.
Well yes or nazi's, but for the most part having a stance on Nazi-ism wasn't a driving factor for many to purchase EV's. People bought EV's specifically because that's one of the main advantages of an EV, is they were expected to be better for the environment.
Why I point that out in the nothing phone. It's selling point was the glyphs that let you roughly know what messages were coming in on your phone while it is face down. So in short you could set your phone down and know if your wife was texting you with an emergency, while not hearing a ping and turning away from your friends to see that you have enough energy for candy-crush. IE literally the exact opposite of facebooks marketing
which you know is literally the opposite of facebooks marketing plan.
Rivian partnering up with Motul
Not that reputation seems to matter a lot nowadays…
Isn't that one of the big problems?
Reputation doesn't mean shit.
Everyone knows Meta is terrible. Everyone knows Alphabet's and Google is terrible. Everyone knows fucking Disney is terrible. Everyone knows that the fucking Republican Party is terrible. Everyone knows that the Democratic Party is terrible.
Everyone knows all of this shit is terrible, and nobody stops giving them money.
Probably more than what they get from selling it. That’s similar to why sports are all hands on deck with gambling now and they don’t give a shit about the fans at all
FUCK THAT
Bruh. This is truly surprising. I feel like for a phone like this, it must be like 90% of the target market that would hate this? Seems like an unimaginably bad business decision. Of course, if FB gave them enough money, then this is kinda like taking a bribe to stop competing.
They are pivoting to a new customer base, people who are vaguely aware privacy is a concern but aren't capable of figuring out nothing phones are a scam.
Wait they are monetizing this hard so soon? They barely launched the brand
Shareholder pressure? Asshole CEO that masked who he was so far? Who can say. Seems to be the general trend now though.
So I've been holding onto my OnePlus 6T because it was the closest thing to a Nexus after they destroyed it and migrated it into the Pixel program.
I've been eyeballing Nothing for a while now, but it looks like before I could even get one, they're already off the market for me.
So, the Nothing 3a, AKA The Something.
Nothing's new.
FTFY
Bummer, I thought nothing was a good brand.
Yes, nothing is a good a brand, including Nothing
Fairphone?
So far so good.
The problem with Meta (also russian Yandex) is that it was caught having web-side trackers that send stuff to localhost, where it gets caught by Meta apps and then sent to Zucker servers. This two-bit scheme was noticed by researchers and isn't there anymore, but it is a clear display why having these apps preinstalled is a problem. Regular ads are better than Mark looking over your shoulder whenever his meta pixel triggers.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/03/meta_pauses_android_tracking_tech/
Nothing could have been Something.
Nothing says 'I'm shitty' more than naming yourself 'Nothing'. Oh, wait, using meta/facebook makes you even shittier.
I mean...that's an odd take. Don't know how someone could be so upset over the name of a company, but hey let that anger out.
No arguments there though.
I mean I am pretty happy with my nothing phone. It came with a pretty minimal stock android that runs on hardware that's quite good for what I paid. Despite the shitty name that people have indeed made fun of, the phone's been pretty good so far.
That does sound edgy and pointless, like x dot com, but it fits their focus on visual style and branding over everything else.
Thanks for reporting it. I was eyeing a 3a phone, but no more.
This is a major bummer. I was kinda rooting for them to be the OEM that GOS would be working with.
LMAO, lol even. Nothing 3 had shit hardware for the price, I was hoping it wouldn't be them.
Oh? TIL. I guess if they’ve ruled out fairphone and nothing is as bad as you say, maybe it’s a larger player. Can’t think of many other small ones.
Moto seems like a contender. Or one of the Chinese players like Oneplus or Xiaomi, they are also looking for an edge over the market.
Personally I think it'll be one of the bigger Chinese OEMs. Their phones have gotten a lot better recently, and security is pretty much the only thing they're lacking. A move like this would perfectly fit some of their strategies.
We'll see what happens. I'm enjoying analyzing the market to speculate which company it may be.
Before reading this, it would have never occurred to me that anyone even considered this possibility. And thank God it's not happening. Their phones are abysmal dogshit.
So it is oficially a shitphone.
Can they even be removed with adb?
I'm sure they can, it's just sad to see they're giving such a sleazy company a spot on every phone no matter what. Also, who knows what type of system access Facebook has been given to track us. They track people even if they don't have a fb acct.
Wow they've fallen hard in the last 24 hours
Disappointing.
I bought one of their phones nearly a year ago. The UI was... Not great, IMO, but I was able to re-skin it. The SD card slot was the biggest reason for me. Well, now I know taht my next phone is going to be a Pixel with Graphene installed.
Yes, come over to the dark side. I haven't had any issues so far, except for the whiplash it is to go from YouTube I scrolled for hours every day to using NewPipe which takes two seconds to load a new video. It has made me very mindful of what I want to watch because from searching to watching I need to wait like 10 seconds.
Haven't dipped my toes into banking apps though. Thats a frontier I'll deal with when I get to it.
Haven't tried NewPipe yet. I currently use YouTube for specific videos, and I'm usually operating it from a private tab in my browser through a VPN, rather than the app. (So far I'm not getting served ads that way, although sometimes I have to skip to different countries to get around sign-in nags.)
Banking apps are the one thing that worries me. My prior bank didn't allow rooted phones to be used for online banking; I haven't made an attempt with my current phone. Given that I now live in a... Rather remote part of the country, access to online banking is fairly important.
Would a website know if you're using a rooted phone? I don't think so. Banking apps are different, they might have access to device details but I thought browsers were device agnostic.
The problem is that the website doesn't allow some of the critical features that the app allows, such as depositing checks. IIRC there are a few things that I was trying to do--link accounts for payments, I think?--where I had to use the banking app.
It is really worrying how a traditionally lethargic service, banking, is also moving to non-privacy respecting methods. I thought we'd be able to fix this internet panopticon shitshow before banks moved fully to apps.
i knew they was fake as shit bro
Surely this can still removed with ADB?
how much do these places pay to make their apps into terminal cancer that cant be excised.
Gotta be possible to remove with root permissions, no chance I'd let that spyware sit on my phone
No chance I'd buy a phone that had this in the first place.
especially one by META, whos all in datamining.
root permissions, which will disqualify it from being able to run the banking app, the mandatory age verification app, and others.
Depends on the bank, mine doesn't have a problem with root.
all banks I know have a problem with it in my country. one of the didn't, but recently decided to end their good tradition referring to some unclear legal obligations
ah too bad... I got one for me and one for my wife earlier this year, we liked them... but these would be our last based on this crap
I thought nothing was going to be the OG oneplus, bringing flagship killers at decent prices. Not the case, I got the first ear ones, had heaps of issues, no help from support and they stopped updating them. Years go by, looking for a watch, try the CMF watch by nothing, I've had nothing but connection issues and bugs and a dislike for the weird lack of customisation (can't make a timer widget unless its one of the set times they choose? Why??) It's put me off ever getting a phone by nothing.
Nothing good will come of this.
Something
Sad.....
Not at all surprising for anyone who followed this company for a while. They've pretty much been all marketing. The phones are far from what they are advertised to be. Hell, it'd be great if they at least worked properly.
Besides the point but man, that phone looks hideous.
I like the look of the 3a, but this one just looks lazy.
@Mattr @Toasted_Breakfast They're trying some things like lock-screen ads on some models too. Turned "off" by default (for now). But their Phone (3) isn't getting that, if i understand correctly. Just the (a) models.
Doesn't everyone know not to buy nothing by now?
Privacy, user control and consent means nothing to these companies.
Is there atleast roms?
With ongoing enshittification in the quest for the lowest common denominator, why it might as well be mandatory to keep a 3310.
Man, Nothing really fell off . And dœs 3a Lite need to exist like at all ⁉️
This is one of the main reasons I don't run Android, the bloatware that comes with the phone that can’t be removed without root.
Just fyi you can uninstall them without root, though it's slightly technical https://www.xda-developers.com/uninstall-carrier-oem-bloatware-without-root-access/
You don't have to even get very technical, you can use a GUI instead of terminal controls, as mentioned in the same article.
I used ADB App Control to debloat my stock, unrooted Galaxy Tab.
Shizuku and Canta works for me 🙂
But it only removes them from the user side.
Not that it isn't scummy, but the screenshots in the article show that the Facebook app can be uninstalled, and the "Meta Services" app can be disabled. So it's not the end of the world.
Can it be uninstalled, or just "uninstalled"? I'm concerned it's going to be like andoid, where it gives you the option to "uninstall" chrome, but it just reverts it to the factory image and leaves a gaping hole in your security.
I only ever get a "disable" option. Which is basically the same thing, but it doesn't even "uninstall" in quotes.
Wild, maybe its because I'm using an ancient phone. It gives me an uninstall option, but it doesn't uninstall it.
I figured this might be the case. I hate how inconsistent Android is. It's like not even the same OS depending on the phone it's on. There's always random little differences like this. 😬
Yeah, I'm still using my Samsung Note 8, haha
I think it's just that the playstore doesn't know it's a system app like the settings panel does.