8 Apps On Your Phone You Don't Need (And Can Delete Today)

Open your phone and look at the screens of little icons. How many of those apps have you actually used in the last three months? If the honest answer is "not many," you are not alone.

Most phones arrive stuffed with apps you did not ask for. Some are harmless. Some quietly drain your battery. A few are selling your location to advertisers while you sleep. The good news: nearly all of them can be deleted in about ten seconds each, and deleting them will not break your phone.

Here are the 8 apps most worth removing today, and a short explanation of why.

1. The "Flashlight" app you downloaded years ago

Your iPhone and every modern Android phone have a built-in flashlight. You turn it on from the control panel (swipe down from the top-right on iPhone, or down from the top on Android). You do not need a separate flashlight app, and many of the free ones from the early app-store years were caught asking for your contacts, microphone, and location. A torch has no business reading your address book.

Delete it. Use the built-in one.

2. Third-party QR code scanners

A QR code is that little square of black and white dots on menus and posters. Since iOS 11 and Android 9, the camera app scans them automatically — just point the camera and tap the little yellow box that appears. You do not need QR Code Reader, Free QR Scanner, or any of the twenty similar apps. Many of them inject ads and track which codes you scan.

Delete it. Use your camera.

3. Duplicate web browsers

Your phone came with a browser — Safari on iPhone, Chrome on most Androids. If you also have Firefox, Edge, Opera, Brave, DuckDuckGo, and "UC Browser" installed because each one seemed interesting at the time, pick one and delete the rest. Browsers use a lot of memory and storage. One is plenty.

Tip: If privacy matters to you, keep Safari (iPhone) or Firefox (Android) and delete the others.

4. The manufacturer's "assistant" apps

Samsung phones ship with Bixby. Some older phones ship with their own voice assistant. Nearly nobody uses these — they compete with Google Assistant and Siri, which are better. The Bixby button has been the source of endless accidental activations for Samsung owners.

On Samsung: Settings → Apps → Bixby → Disable. (You cannot always fully delete it, but disabling stops it in its tracks.)

5. Weather apps that sell your location

This one is painful but important. In 2020, a popular weather app was caught selling users' precise location to advertisers — not just "what city" but "which street corner." Several others have been caught doing the same since. If your weather app has more than one ad, flashes promotions, or asks for background location permission, delete it.

Safer choices: The built-in Weather app on iPhone (made by Apple) or Google Weather (built into the Google app on Android). Both free, both do not sell your location.

6. Carrier apps (Verizon, AT&T, Vodafone, EE, Telstra, Optus)

Your mobile carrier usually installs 2-4 of its own apps — "My Verizon," "AT&T Protect Advantage," "Vodafone TV," and so on. You only need one: the billing and account app. You can manage your bill from the carrier's website just as easily. Delete the rest.

7. "Free games" you installed once

Candy Crush. Solitaire with fifty-eight ads. That word puzzle your grandson showed you last Christmas. If it has been more than two months since you opened a game, remove it. Games are the single biggest storage drain on most senior phones, and they often run background processes that eat battery.

Tip: If you miss it, you can always reinstall it later. Deleting does not erase your progress if you are logged in with your Apple or Google account.

8. Shopping apps you used once

You needed the Best Buy app to pick up a TV in 2023. You have not opened it since. Same with Home Depot, Walmart, Currys, Argos, or Target. Shopping apps push you notifications, track your location near their stores, and most duplicate what the website does. Keep Amazon if you use it weekly. Delete the rest — the websites work fine.

How to actually delete an app

On iPhone (iOS 18)

1. Press and hold the app icon on your Home Screen
2. Tap Remove App
3. Tap Delete App (red text) to fully remove it

If "Delete App" is missing, the app may be a built-in Apple app (these cannot always be removed, but you can usually hide them).

On Android (most phones)

1. Press and hold the app icon
2. Drag it to Uninstall at the top of the screen (or tap "App info" and then "Uninstall")
3. Confirm

Some pre-installed Samsung, Oppo, or carrier apps cannot be fully uninstalled — but you can Disable them from Settings → Apps, which does almost the same thing.

What you'll gain

• Storage space — usually 2-4 GB freed, sometimes more if you had games
• Better battery — fewer apps means fewer background processes
• Fewer notifications — and fewer ads nudging you to buy things
• More privacy — every app you remove is one less company tracking you

If your phone still feels slow after this, read our guide to why your phone feels slow and the 4 free fixes. And if you want to know which apps you actually do need, we wrote a short list: the only 5 apps a 60+ user really needs.

For anything scam-flavoured — a text asking you to "update your delivery app" is a classic trick — run the message through our free scam message checker before tapping any link.

A quick note on data and permissions

After deleting an app, you can also go to Settings → Privacy (iPhone) or Settings → Privacy → Permission Manager (Android) and review which apps still have access to your microphone, camera, and location. If the calculator wants your microphone, something is wrong. Turn it off.

The FTC's guide to mobile apps and your privacy is a good reference if you want to dig deeper.

Bottom line

Your phone will feel lighter, faster, and quieter after ten minutes of housekeeping. You cannot accidentally break it by deleting apps — the worst that can happen is you decide to reinstall one later, which takes thirty seconds.

Pour yourself a cup of tea, sit down with the phone, and say goodbye to eight apps today.

✅ Reviewed by Eleanor Shaw — techfor60s editorial desk, last verified 2026-04-18.