Most computer and phone operating systems come loaded with pre-installed applications called Bloatware, starting from Windows 10, which we explained earlier how to remove it for better performance, to Android phones that also come loaded with some Google apps that cannot be uninstalled. Of course, Bloatware is not our topic for today, but we will talk about the 3 hidden Facebook applications that come pre-installed on your device and that you may not have noticed before, or noticed but did not know their role on your Android phone.
As an Android user, you know that in recent years and with modern phones, the Facebook application comes pre-installed on the phone, in some cases you can delete it from the phone, and in other cases you can only disable it. In addition to the main Facebook application that you use for social networking, there are 3 Facebook applications installed on your device in a hidden way, meaning that these applications do not appear on the home screen for a reason we will know later, but you can access them from the phone settings, how?
Just go to phone settings (Settings) then type Facebook in the search box and wait a bit, then the three named applications will appear: Facebook App Installer, Facebook Services, and Facebook App Manager . These are the three hidden Facebook applications, in addition to the appearance of the regular Facebook application. If you don’t see anything, your phone is probably not modern, or your phone originally does not come pre-installed with Facebook applications.
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2 The purpose of having these applications on your phone
According to what Facebook stated about the matter and in short, these three applications work as background tools to ensure that the Facebook applications used by the average user (Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger) are updated and installed on the latest version and work without problems. For example, considering this user very lazy to update the Facebook application from the store, these applications – which cannot be opened and have no user interface- make sure that he is using the latest full version of the Facebook application. You can find more information about each application individually by going to its page in the settings (App info) then go to App details and there you will know more details about each application.
In detail, Facebook said about the subject: “To ensure people get the best experience, we work with mobile network operators and device manufacturers for pre-installing Facebook apps on devices. Android apps are not hidden – you can find them within Settings> Apps on your device. System apps often do not have app icons because they do not have a user interface – they are background utilities to support other applications, and in this case, they ensure that consumer applications on Facebook are updated and notifications delivered“
3 What about deleting these applications from your phone
After learning the nature of these applications and what they do, you may think about the possibility of deleting these applications from your phone. If you use Facebook applications, of course it is better to leave these applications running as they are because they ultimately help you get a better experience with Facebook products.
If you are not a fan of Facebook products and applications and do not use them, then it is better to disable these applications, because first you cannot delete them from the phone permanently unfortunately, and secondly, despite Facebook’s statements and phone companies that these applications do not affect the performance of the phone and do not collect any personal data, we know that Facebook has a rich history regarding the topic of collecting user data, so it is always best to disable these three applications from your phone if you do not need them.
4 How to disable these three applications
As mentioned earlier, you cannot delete these applications from your phone permanently, but you can disable them if you do not use any of the Facebook applications (Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger). To do this, go to the Settings application (Settings) then use the search tool and type the word Facebook then the three applications will appear: Facebook App Installer, Facebook Services, and Facebook App Manager. Open each one of them and click on the Disable button one by one, and this way you have disabled these three Facebook applications from your phone, and if you want to re-enable them, just follow the same previous steps but this time click on Turn on.
