How to disable factory installed apps on Samsung mobile

Samsung smartphones often come with several factory-installed apps, and many of them may be useless to most users. Most of these programs can not be completely removed from the device, but the manufacturer can disable them. Disabled apps are still stored on your phone, but they take up less space and do not populate the apps drawer with icons you never access.

Samsung offers at least three ways to disable an app on your smartphone. Here’s how to do the procedure in the tutorial below. The step by step was done in a Galaxy A5 2017 running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but tends to be similar in the other handsets of the brand.

Disabling app on home screen
If the unwanted app is on the home screen, press and hold the icon to see the “Disable” menu. Confirm deactivation of the pop-up window that appears.

How to disable an app by dragging and dropping the icon
Open the apps drawer and look for the app you want to disable. Hold down the icon and drag to the top in “Disable.” Then confirm your choice.

Disabling app in apps drawer
Step 1. To deactivate an app without leaving the general list of installed programs, go to the menu and select edit.

Step 2. Touch the red “-” symbol in the corner of the unwanted icon and approve deactivation of the application in the confirmation window.

Reactivating an app disabled

Step 1. Access the device settings and go to the application menu. Look for the disabled app in the list.

Step 2. On the app screen, touch “Activate” to make the program again usable.
There is no limit to disable or re-enable an app. The user may be unconcerned because they can always recover an app if they regret the deactivation.