Disabling downloaded app

Question

In Android, you can disable a built-in app so it won't run and will disappear from the app list. But it will still remain on the phone and
can be easily re-enabled.

However, there's no such option for downloaded applications, you can only uninstall it.

Is there, perhaps, a hidden way to do so?

A use case could be a public transport app for a city that you visited for
a while, and may visit some time again. You don't want to lose bookmarked routes, but you don't want it to update its schedules and waste
internet traffic and other resources, either.

— WGH | Sources

Answer

Requires root (at least on 6.0.1). System permissions (uid<=1000) is required but `adb` runs as userid 2000.

The Package Manager (pm) will do exactly what you want.

In either adb or Terminal Emulator (both require root), run the pm command and you can see its capabilities.

We look at 2 of them:

pm list packages

pm disable <package>

pm list packages lists all installed packages, this list is unsorted but if you know some easy bash, you can use grep to search for substrings in the package names:

pm packages list | grep google will list all packages with "google" in their name, effectively returning just Google's apps:

Sample output:

package:com.google.android.apps.unveil

package:com.google.android.gsf.login

package:com.google.android.apps.translate

package:com.google.android.backuptransport

package:com.google.android.apps.books

package:com.google.android.apps.giant

package:com.google.android.ears

package:com.google.android.keep

package:com.google.android.talk

package:com.google.android.apps.ads.publisher

package:com.google.android.apps.youtube.music

package:com.google.android.play.games

package:com.google.android.apps.magazines

package:com.google.android.apps.adm

package:com.google.android.inputmethod.latin

pm disable <package name> disables a single package you specified. Disabling the Google Keyboard would then be pm disable com.google.android.inputmethod.latin.

To find out what package name maps to what app try this url: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=<package name>

Replace <package name> with the package name you want to check.

Instead of using pm, you can use Titanium Backup, given that your device is rooted.

In Titanium Backup you can scroll through all your apps, filter that list and select the app you want to disable or in TB's case freeze.

This, however, requires the paid version of Titanium Backup.

— GiantTree | Sources

Requires root (at least on 6.0.1). System permissions (uid<=1000) is required but adb runs as userid 2000.

Topics

Requires root (at least on 6.0.1). System permissions (uid<=1000) is required but `adb` runs as userid 2000.