Many of us have numerous apps installed on our smartphones, and a significant portion of them go unused.
For me, the reason behind this accumulation of apps is that whenever I come across an interesting one on platforms like Reddit or YouTube, I tend to install it immediately, holding onto the hope that I may use it in the future. The consequence of this habit is that my phone becomes cluttered with a graveyard of forgotten apps, occupying valuable storage space, consuming bandwidth, and draining battery life.
One potential solution that has crossed my mind is the concept of “app bookmarking” or virtual installations. Play store can add a button for this type of installation. Bookmarked apps would be distinguishable in the app drawer, with their icons present while the app itself is not actually installed. They would remain dormant until needed, at which point they would be automatically downloaded and launched.
Please note that this idea differs from instant apps in its approach. Basically you would only install the icon of the app and place it wherever you want (on home screen, in folders, etc.) but it’s not there until you actually decide to open it.
What do you think?
Another way to go is to freeze apps, so that launcher “uninstall” said app, but not quite, it just removes all permissions and denies app’s attempts to send and receive data from the Internet.
Easy way to achieve this (and the one I personally use) is Insular, it let’s me create and install apps on a work profile (so it doesn’t have access to main profile data) and it let’s you manage main profile apps too, although you need root for it (or Shizuku nonetheless)
I love Shizuku. I wish more people were talking about it.
I used to use it, but the apps I was giving root privileges to were resetting every time I locked-unlocked the phone, so I got rid of it. Might give it a try later tho.