Debloat Poco F4 GT: Remove Bloatware and Remove ads

Poco F4 GT was launched globally, which is a rebranded version of the Redmi K50 Gaming Edition handset that was launched in China earlier this year. The smartphone features a 6.67-inch full-HD+ AMOLED display, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC and offers up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM with the phone.

Furthermore, these devices run on Xiaomi’s own customized OS skin dubbed MIU I 13. This is highly regarded by many as among the most customizable and feature-rich skin. While all these are quite commendable, there are a few downsides to it as well. First and foremost, Xiaomi, Redmi, and Poco devices run on MIUI which is always known to incorporate a ton of bloatware apps.

Furthermore, these apps are treated as system apps, hence you cannot uninstall or remove them from the App Info page. However, the issue doesn’t stop here. Xiaomi has gone a step ahead and has incorporated ads inside the OS itself. These ads are present everywhere, even on the device’s Settings page. This infuriates the users and rightly so. However, you could now remove all these ads as well as the bloatware with the help of some ADB commands and a few handy tweaks. Here are all the required instructions to carry out both these tasks on the Poco F4 GT.

Poco F4 GT Device Overview:

The Poco F4 GT features a 6.67 inches AMOLED panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate. It is an FHD+ panel with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and an aspect ratio of 20:9. We get Gorilla Glass Victus protection at the front of the device. Under the hood, we get the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor built on a 4 nm manufacturing process. It is an octa-core processor with one Cortex X2 core clocked at 3.0 GHz, three Cortex-A710 cores clocked at 2.5 GHz and four Cortex-A510 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz. For handling the graphics-intensive tasks, we have the Adreno 730. The smartphone comes with Android 12 out of the box with MIUI 13 skin running on top of it.

In terms of optics, we get a triple camera setup at the rear and a single selfie camera at the front. The triple rear camera setup consists of a 64MP primary sensor paired with an f/1.9 lens, an 8MP ultrawide sensor paired with an f/2.2 lens, and a 2MP macro sensor paired with an f/2.4 lens. The selfie camera at the front is a 20MP primary sensor paired with an f/2.4 lens. The rear camera system can capture 4K videos at 60 fps, while the front camera is limited to 1080p video recording at 60 fps.

The smartphone comes with two storage options: 128GB internal storage + 8GB RAM and 256GB internal storage + 12GB RAM.  We also do not get a MicroSD slot for storage expansion. In terms of communications, we get Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, NFC, Infrared port, and USB Type-C 2.0.  And for sensors, we get a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, gyro, compass, and color spectrum. Powering it all is a 4,700 mAh battery that can be topped up quickly using a 120W power adapter. The company claims that the smartphone can go from 0 to 100 in just 17 mins. The smartphone is available in three color options: Stealth Black, Knight Silver, and Cyber Yellow.

How to Remove Bloatware from Poco F4 GT

First off, we will have a look at the steps to remove the bloatware or the pre-installed apps, including the apps belonging to Mi. There are two different methods for the same: using the Xiaomi ADB Fastboot Tools or via the ADB commands. Instructions for both are given below. But first, make sure you go through the requirements section and carry out the mentioned steps.

Prerequisites

• To begin with, enable USB Debugging on your Poco F4 GT. This is needed so that your device gets recognized by your PC in ADB mode. So head over to Settings > About Phone > Tap on MIUI Number 7 times > Go back to Settings > System > Advanced > Developer Options > Enable USB Debugging.

• Next up, download and install the Android SDK Platform Tools as well as Xiaomi USB Drivers on your PC.
• Now, if you are going to use the Xiaomi ADB Fastboot Tools, then download the latest version: XiaomiADBFastbootTools.jar. This tool also requires you to have Java 11 installed. On the other hand, if you are taking the ADB Command route, then you don’t need both of these applications.

You may now proceed with the steps to uninstall or remove bloatware from your Poco F4 GT devices.

Method 1: Via Xiaomi ADB Fastboot Tools

1. Connect your device to the PC via USB cable.
2. Select PTP Mode from the menu that appears (and not the FTP mode.)
3. Now select all the apps that you wish to remove from your device. If you wish to know the list of all the apps that are safe to remove, then have a look at the below list (given in the ADB section below).
4. Finally, hit the Uninstall button.

Method 2: Via ADB Commands

1. Connect your device to the PC via USB cable. Make sure USB Debugging is enabled.
2. Head over to the platform-tools folder, type in CMD in the address bar, and hit Enter. This will launch the Command Prompt.
   
3. Now execute the below command and make sure you get a string of alphanumeric characters along with the device keyword:

   adb devices

   

4. Next up, execute the following shell command (this will display your device’s codename on the CMD window):

   adb shell

5. Use the below syntax to remove the desired bloatware from your Poco F4 GT device:

   pm uninstall --user 0 <package name>

Here, replace the package name with the below-given application package names. All these apps are safe to remove from your device. Thanks to XDA Senior Member bacitoto for this list.

com.android.chrome | Chrome Browser (you may loose webview)
com.android.deskclock | Stock Clock app
Google Bloatware on Xiaomi Phones
com.google.android.apps.docs | Google Docs
com.google.android.apps.maps | Google Maps
com.google.android.apps.photos | Google Photos
com.google.android.apps.tachyon | Google Duo
com.google.android.apps.subscriptions.red | Google One
com.google.android.music | Google Play Music
com.google.android.videos | Google Play Movies & TV
com.google.android.feedback | Feedback app
com.google.android.youtube | Youtube
com.mi.android.globalminusscreen | App Vault
com.mi.android.globalFileexplorer| Mi File Manager
com.mi.android.globallauncher | POCO Launcher
com.mi.globalbrowser | Mi Browser
com.mipay.wallet.in | Mi Wallet (India)
com.miui.analytics | MIUI Analytics (spyware)
com.miui.backup | Backup app
com.miui.bugreport | Bug reporting app
com.miui.calculator | Mi Calculator
com.miui.cleanmaster | System Cleaner
com.miui.cloudbackup | Cloud Backup service
com.miui.cloudservice | Cloud service
com.miui.micloudsync | Cloud Sync
com.miui.cloudservice.sysbase | Cloud service
com.miui.compass | MIUI Compass
com.miui.fm | MIUI FM
com.miui.freeform | MIUI Picture in Picture service
com.miui.hybrid | Quick Apps (data mining app)
com.miui.hybrid.accessory | Quick Apps (data mining app)
com.miui.miservice | Services & feedback
com.miui.mishare.connectivity | Mi Share
com.miui.miwallpaper | Wallpaper app (may not change lockscreen wallpaper after)
com.miui.msa.global | MSA or MIUI Ad Services
com.miui.notes | Notes
com.miui.phrase | Frequent phrases
com.miui.player | Music Player
com.android.soundrecorder | Sound Recorder
com.miui.screenrecorder | Screen Recorder
com.miui.touchassistant | Quick Ball feature
com.miui.videoplayer | MIUI Video player
com.miui.weather2 | Weather app
com.miui.yellowpage | Yellow Page app
com.xiaomi.account | Mi Account
com.xiaomi.calendar | Mi Calendar
com.xiaomi.discover | Xiaomi System apps updater
com.xiaomi.glgm | Games
com.xiaomi.joyose | Junk and safe to remove
com.xiaomi.midrop | Mi Drop
com.xiaomi.mipicks | GetApps(Xiaomi app store)
com.xiaomi.miplay_client
com.xiaomi.mircs | MIUI to MIUI Message
com.xiaomi.mirecycle | Mi Recycle (MIUI Security)
com.xiaomi.misettings | Mi Settings
com.xiaomi.payment | Mi Pay
com.xiaomi.scanner | Scanner app
com.xiaomi.xmsf | Xiaomi Service Framework
com.xiaomi.xmsfkeeper | Xiaomi Service Framework
com.netflix.partner.activation | Netflix
com.netflix.mediaclient | Netflix
com.tencent.soter.soterserver | Chinese Payment service
com.facebook.appmanager | Facebook
com.facebook.services | Facebook
com.facebook.system | Facebook
com.facebook.katana | Facebook

That’s it. These were the two different methods to remove bloatware from Poco F4 GT, let’s now check out out the steps to remove ads from your device.

How to Remove Ads from Poco F4 GT

In this section, we will list the instructions to remove ads from various sections of your Poco F4 GT. We will be eliminating ads from the MIUI folders, Themes, Google Play Store (while installing an app) as well as from Mi Security, Mi Browser, Mi Music, Mi Video, and Downloads. Follow along.

Disable MSA

To begin with, we would be disabling the MIUI System Ads (MSA). For that, head over to the Settings page on your device and tap on Passwords & Security. Then go to Authorization & Revocation and disable the MSA toggle. Then again go back to the Authorization & Revocation page. This time go to Privacy > Ad Services and then disable the “Personalized ads recommendations” option.

Remove Ads from various Apps in Poco F4 GT

Here, we will show you how to remove ads from the MIUI folders, Themes, and Google Play Store.

• Folders: Hold the name of the folder for a few seconds and disable the “Promoted apps” option.
• Themes: To disable ads from the Themes page, head over to the Personalized option situated at the bottom right. Then go to Settings and disable the “Show ads” & “Personalized recommendations” options.
• Google Play Store: As soon as you have installed an app from the Play Store, switch to another page (screen). Then tap on Settings and disable the “Receive recommendations” option.

Remove Ads from MIUI Apps

Let’s now check out the steps to hide ads from various MIUI apps.

• Security App: Tap on Settings which would be above the startup screen and disable the “Recieve recommendations” option
• Mi Music: Head over to Settings, situated to the left, above the startup screen. Then go to Advanced Settings and scroll down to the “Show ads” option and disable the toggle. Likewise, you should also consider disabling the “Online Content services” option.
• Mi Browser: In the case of the browser, go to the Personalized section situated at the bottom right. Then tap on Settings from the above right corner and scroll down to the Other section. Tap on Advanced and then disable the toggle next to “show ads”
• Mi Video: Go to the Settings page, situated right above the startup screen, and disable the “Personalized recommendations” option.
• Downloads: Head over to Settings, just right above the startup screen, and disable the “Show recommended content” option.

With this, we conclude the guide on how to how to remove bloatware as well as ads from Poco F4 GT. We hope the above tips will give your device a bloat-free as well as an ad-free experience. If you still have any queries, do let us know in the comments section below. Rounding off, here are some iPhone Tips and Tricks, PC tips and tricks, and Android Tips and Trick that you should check out as well.