Welcome to Ask Jerry, the place we speak about any and all of the questions you might need in regards to the sensible issues in your life. I am Jerry, and I’ve spent the higher a part of my life working with tech. I’ve a background in engineering and R&D and have been protecting Android and Google for the previous 15 years.Â
Ask Jerry
Ask Jerry is a column the place we reply your burning Android/tech questions with the assistance of long-time Android Central editor Jerry Hildenbrand.
I am additionally actually good at researching information about the whole lot — that is a giant a part of our job right here at Android Central — and I like to assist folks (one other large a part of our job!). When you have questions on your tech, I might love to speak about them.Â
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What’s that app? What ought to I do with it?
I have never up to date the Google Companion Setup app because it appeared on the Play Retailer ought to I do it?
The perfect and worst half about having a smartphone are the apps. The best ones can entertain us, assist hold us organized, and do all kinds of helpful issues that make life a bit of simpler. The dangerous ones monitor what we do or worse. Someway, now we have to know the distinction.
It may be robust as a result of generally an app is each good and dangerous. Keep in mind that a free app is not free; you are simply not spending cash. You are paying with an alternate foreign money within the type of information an organization finds helpful.
That is the type of app Google Companion Setup is. It is a part of the Google Cellular Providers suite of software program that corporations like Samsung use below license from Google and never a part of Android itself. It is not open supply, so no person outdoors of Google can take a peek below the hood to see precisely what it does.
Formally, the Google Companion Setup app is a helper software for correct system performance. The corporate that made your cellphone put in it into the system software program.Â
It does issues like assist join apps to Google providers or assist distributors troubleshoot software program points. It is vital to understand it is not the identical as Google Companions for advertisements or Play Video games despite the fact that they’ve an identical title. It is on the Play Retailer as a result of the app has been damaged out of the system for simpler updating.
Most say it is a required software, and you’ll’t uninstall it. The reality is that It is probably not required, and when you cannot simply uninstall it, disabling it’s easy. However until you already know what you are doing and are keen to reload the software program in your cellphone, you in all probability should not as a result of it (probably) does so many alternative issues.
To reply your query, I like to recommend you replace the app. I might by no means purposefully run an older model of any system software on my cellphone until I might be 100% sure of what the app does. However this brings focus to the true situation — there are apps on our telephones that we do not know the aim of.
Android is like another working system and is chock stuffed with executable packages that make it work. The software program powering an iPhone, a Chromebook, or another laptop computer or pill is identical approach.
It is tempting to disable or uninstall a few of these packages generally, privateness and efficiency being the 2 greatest causes. Typically, it really works, and the whole lot acts usually with out all of the items. Typically it would not work. When a brand new model of Microsoft Home windows comes out, you will see a whole lot of speak about this, and it takes some time for folk to find out what’s protected to eliminate and what’s not.
Sadly, my finest recommendation is to go away issues alone. If you happen to’re trying to an article like this for recommendation, you in all probability do not have the means or the background to find out precisely what eradicating or disabling an app does. Even worse, disabling the improper app means you have borked the software program in your cellphone and will not have the ability to undo it.
If you happen to’re decided, no less than spend loads of time looking out to search out out what an app is, what it does, and what might occur should you disable or uninstall it. Bear in mind, 99% of the time spent modding the software program in your cellphone ought to be spent studying and studying.