Samsung reportedly ‘removing bloat’ from TouchWiz moving forward

BY Evan Selleck

Published 29 Jan 2015

image Samsung logo

Rumors regarding Samsung’s Galaxy S6 have begun to pick up, which makes sense considering the release date of the handset is more than likely coming up.

Most of the reports regarding the unofficial handset have been positive in one way or another, especially a recent report that suggested Samsung was gearing up to tone down TouchWiz in a big way, and more or less optimize the Galaxy S6 to be more like a Nexus device than the TouchWiz-heavy handsets that came before it.

Indeed, Samsung has been removing some of its usual pre-installed software as of late, including some missing beats and pieces from the Galaxy S5 in 2014. That trend is apparently continuing, according to a report published by SamMobile that states the Galaxy S6 will feature a much more trimmed version of TouchWiz, and that Samsung is actually going to “remove bloat” that would ordinarily weigh down the software.

The report states that Samsung is going to keep those stand-alone applications, which would normally be on the handset right out of the box and traditionally need to be updated (usually making the list of apps needing an update out of the box well over a dozen), and make them a downloadable option after the fact. This actually works in the favor of Samsung, too, as it means these apps can be updated on their own, independently of the rest of the software.

It’s likely that baked-in features that give Samsung a bit of differentiation from the other Android manufacturers, like Smart Stay and what not, will still be on the device, but apps like Story Album, S Voice and others should see downloadable options.

What do you think of this idea?

[via SamMobile]