If you use an Android phone or tablet, you have no doubt installed loads of different apps on it. But if you want to delete one of those apps, you’re in the right place, because in this article, that’s exactly what I’m going to show you how to do.
Prefer to watch a video about how to delete apps on Android? Click here.
How To Uninstall Apps On Android
To delete (or “uninstall”) an app on your Android device, all you need to do is find the app you want to delete (either in the app drawer or on the home screen).
And then hold your finger down on it for about half a second until you feel a vibration and/or some sort of menu appears.
Exactly what happens and how it looks will vary depending on the brand of phone you have (I’m using a Google Pixel), but it will be a fairly similar concept on all of them.
Now, with your finger still on the app, you’ll need to slightly slide your finger in any direction as though you’re trying to drag the app somewhere.
And a menu will appear at the top of the screen (possibly the bottom on some phones) with the options to either “Remove” or “Uninstall” the app.
If you want to remove the app icon from your home screen, but still keep it on your device so that you can access it via the app draw whenever you want, you can do that by dragging the app up to the “Remove” option in the menu and letting go of it.
But, if you want to actually delete the app from your device, you’ll just need to drag it up to the “Uninstall” option and let go of it.
Then, once you’ve dropped the app onto uninstall, you will see a popup message asking if you want to uninstall the app, and you’ll just need to tap “Ok” to uninstall it.
Now, the app will uninstalled, and after a second or two you’ll see a little message pop up near the bottom of the screen letting you know it’s been uninstalled.
And that’s all there is to it! The app is now deleted from your device!
How To Delete Preinstalled Apps On Android
When you get a new Android device, it will often come with some apps pre-installed on it. And if you want to delete one of the pre-installed apps, it can sometimes be a bit complicated.
You might be able to simply uninstall the app using the regular method, so it’s worth trying that using the steps above. But for some preinstalled apps (like Youtube on some phones), this simply won’t work, and if that’s the case, it means the app can’t easily be uninstalled.
So if you have one of these preinstalled apps that you never want to use, unfortunately, the only easy solution is to just remove it from the home screen by using the steps above but dragging the app onto “Remove” instead of “Uninstall”.
And then you can try your best to pretend it doesn’t exist.
Or, if you’re quite techy, you could actually do something called “rooting” your phone which would then allow you to delete the app.
This is a rather difficult process and there is the possibility that it could harm your phone, but if you’re more advanced and comfortable with doing this, it could be the way to go.
However the process is honestly a bit beyond my expertise and it’s a bit out of the realm of this website, so if you want to try rooting your android phone or tablet, I would suggest you read this article from lifewire.com.
So, whether you wanted to delete some apps from your device to free up space, or you have a specific app that you just really want to get rid of, you now know how to delete apps on Android.
