Get Rid of Crapware

Carriers and manufacturers install a lot of junk on their phones. It's an unfortunate fact of life in the Android world. Thankfully, there are a couple ways to get rid of them for good: Disable them in your system's settings: System apps can't be uninstalled by default because, well, they're part of the system. If a company abuses this privilege, though, and makes their redundant navigation app a permanent resident, you can disable it in Settings. Navigate to the list of installed apps and open up the entry for the app you want to disable. Most of them can be turned off here (as shown above). Of course, while they won't run or do anything, they'll still occupy some storage space. If you have plenty of room, that's fine. If not, there's option #2... Uninstall them entirely with root apps: You've got 8GB of space and you can't afford to give some away to seven different apps you never use. This is where Titanium Backup comes in. Once you've rooted your phone, you can completely remove pre-installed apps with Titanium Backup. In the unlikely event you find an app that can't be uninstalled with Titanium Backup, you may still be able to get it out with some terminal magic. Hide or Eliminate Manufacturer Skins Manufacturer skins are often a blight on an otherwise fantastic phone. Thankfully, the number of stock Android devices have increased dramatically this year. If you're looking for a new device, you can get a Nexus, a Google Play Edition phone, or the Moto X (and similar future phones, presumably) and get very-near stock Android without doing a thing. However, if you've already bought a skinned phone, here are your options. Download apps to get as close to stock Android as possible: Strictly speaking,you can't get rid of manufacturer skins without completely changing ROMs. With all the downloads Google's put in the Play Store, though, you can get pretty dang close. In addition to things like the keyboard, stock apps like the calendar, or Play Services, you can even sideload the newest Google Experience Launcher (or our favorite alternative launcher, Nova). With this method, you'll still technically be using a skinned ROM, but you'll rarely notice. Flash an AOSP-based custom ROM: If the previous solution isn't enough for you, the next step is custom ROMs. Most of the major ROMs—including CyanogenMod, AOKP, and Paranoid Android—are as close to stock Android as you can get. Of course, they also offer their own advantages, but if you're sick of Sense and tire of TouchWiz, custom ROMs are your safest harbor. Getting started with a custom ROM can be a little intimidating and the process varies from device to device, but our guide here should get you up to speed on how to root your phone. From there, it's just a matter of picking the right ROM for you (of which there are plenty). If you have trouble finding information on your specific device, the XDA and RootzWiki forums have plenty of helpful guides and information for most phones and tablets.