Does Apple forbid bloatware on iPhones?

[dcs.79c]

I've always had an Android phone. I have a Samsung S10 that's been acting crazy lately like rebooting on its own, waking up from sleep without me touching it & deleting pictures on Google Photos. Needless to say, this is my first, last & only Samsung phone that I will ever buy.

I have 2 Mac computers - a 2023 mini & a 2022 MacBook Air.

I'm on Verizon.

I've considered getting a Google Pixel 8 Pro. I can get an unlocked phone with Verizon WiFi but if I have a problem with the phone, Verizon would probably refuse to help me because it is not a Verizon-branded phone. If I bought a Verizon-branded iPhone, I wonder if it would come with Verizon bloatware. Would it?

I've never had an iPhone. I have a lot of friends & family that have iPhones. I wonder what the learning curve is like?

 

[MacInWin]

You can see exactly what comes on an iPhone here:

iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max - Technical Specifications

View all technical specifications for iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

www.apple.com

Scroll down to the bottom to see what Apple provides. Some, in fact most, can be deleted if you don't want them, but they don't take up much space and don't do anything annoying.

I can get an unlocked phone with Verizon WiFi but if I have a problem with the phone, Verizon would probably refuse to help me because it is not a Verizon-branded phone. If I bought a Verizon-branded iPhone, I wonder if it would come with Verizon bloatware. Would it?

Not sure what "Verizon WiFi" means, as the WiFi doesn't actually come from Verizon, but in any case, if you get the iPhone through some deal with Verizon, they do support it for use on the Verizon system. Problems with the iPhone itself are covered through Apple, and can be extended with Apple Care+ for more years. AFAIK, Verizon doesn't add any bloatware to the iPhone. At least they didn't for any iPhone I had with them.

I don't know the transition, I've never had an Android phone.

 

[ferrarr]

Why not get the Google Pixel 8 through Verizon?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

I believe Apple doesn't allow installation of carrier specific crap on the iPhone. I've bought phones directly from Apple and through T-Mobile and never have had anything special added onto it.

This isn't the same with Android phones..

 

[Rod]

When you say "bloatware" I suppose you are talking about apps you neither want nor need pre installed on your phone. I know from personal experience a Samsung Galaxy comes with a suite of Samsung apps like a photo library, notes, contacts ect as well as some Google stuff and the Play Store so you can get more. Both Google and Samsung would like you to use their cloud based services so there are apps and reminders for them.

With an iPhone you get a suite of native Apple apps all of which you would be familiar with from your Mini and MBA.

As with Microsoft, Google and Samsung they all expect you to have or register for an ID which as you have Apple computers I assume you'll already have.

The beauty of the so called "Apple Walled Garden" is that once all your devices are signed into the same Apple ID on iCloud everything you select is synced across all your devices, eg. add a contact on your iPhone and it's added on all your devices ect.

Personally I always leave all the native apps installed but whether you choose to use them or not is up to you. As mentioned in this thread they dont take up much space. These days you can choose your own default web browser, email client, word processor and others.

For me the simplicity and integration of all my Apple products is the pleasure I take in little things like getting up in the morning, putting on my Apple Watch, glancing at my iPhone which unlocks it which in turn then unlocks my watch, when I sit down at my Mac my watch unlocks my Mac. A quick look at the Dock shows an icon for my third party browser (thanks to Hand Off), clicking on that launches the browser on my Mac at the page for this forum so I can continue this reply which I started on my iPhone.

Obviously this takes a little setting up but you would be familiar with all that because iPhone's and Mac's menus are more and more alike these days.

So having tried a windows phone, various Android phones over the years the iPhone is still my favourite for quality, reliability and all round performance.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I've always had an Android phone. I have a Samsung S10 that's been acting crazy lately like rebooting on its own, waking up from sleep without me touching it & deleting pictures on Google Photos. Needless to say, this is my first, last & only Samsung phone that I will ever buy.

I've had both Samsung Galaxy's and iPhones, from just about all of the major carriers. The Galaxy's were fun from the standpoint that, if you are a techy type, there are a bunch of levels of settings and options in the phone to play with. However, that might make some folks hate them, because it can be very difficult to find some simple things.

My Galaxy's were always on the unreliable side. They tended to badly overheat randomly for no reason, and that in turn would mean that they didn't last long on a charge. They also had software added by Samsung on top of the Android OS, and other software added by the carrier. The former was a bit confusing, because it tended to duplicate what was already in the OS. The latter wasn't much of a problem, because it could usually be easily deleted.

The huge advantage the Galaxy's had over getting an iPhone is that I could usually get one for a song compared to an iPhone. It was a phone that was good enough, but I'd never have another one. They were clearly an inferior phone, with an inferior design and inferior reliability.

By comparison, my iPhones have all been rock solid, and easy to use. My current iPhone 13 goes for days on a charge and is a joy to use.

If I bought a Verizon-branded iPhone, I wonder if it would come with Verizon bloatware. Would it?

I've never gotten an iPhone with any software added to it by the carrier. I strongly suspect that Apple forbids it, as it would cause a security risk, and Apple is a stickler for security.

I've never had an iPhone. I have a lot of friends & family that have iPhones. I wonder what the learning curve is like?

If you've used a Galaxy, there may be close to none at all. Apple doesn't hide much in the interface, and software that you download from the App Store is just about never hard to set up or figure out. The OS on an iPhone is very similar to the OS on a Galaxy, but as you use it you get more and more of an impression that Apple gave a lot more thought to the iPhone's interface than Google gave to Android. The iPhone is more intuitive and less complex to figure out.

If you have a brick and mortar Apple Store near you (or any carrier's store that carries iPhones), you should go and play with an iPhone in their store. I predict that you will take to it quickly and learn to love it almost immediately.