Upcoming Realme smartphones, including the Realme 6i, won’t come pre-loaded with apps that were banned by the Indian government, the brand has confirmed on Twitter. This comes after users started reporting about the ‘Clean up Storage’ feature, which is backed by Cheetah Mobile and can’t be manually removed, on existing smartphones. For that, Realme said that it would release OTA updates by early August to remove the ‘Clean up Storage’ feature. The functionality is based on the Clean Master app that is one of the 59 apps that were banned last month.
“Your data privacy is extremely important for Realme and we have never shared user data with any entity. Realme always complies with the rules and regulations of the jurisdictions where it operates in and will be following the directives given by the government going forward as well,” Realme said in a statement.
Realme re-assured that its upcoming Realme 6i smartphones and other future models will not have any of the 59 banned apps pre-installed. The company says that it already provides users with the option to uninstall any of the pre-loaded apps from its phones. Notably, Realme phones come with Helo and UC Browser apps that were among the apps banned by the government. The upcoming OTA update will also remove the banned apps that are pre-installed, in case the users haven’t done it manually from their end.
However, Realme isn’t the only brand to respond to the security issue that came into light after the government’s order. POCO too clarified that it would provide a software update to the recently launched POCO M2 Pro (review) to remove the banned apps that are pre-loaded. Despite being unveiled after the ban, the phone came with concerning functionality. The update is yet to roll out to users and the company is currently evaluating the cleaner app issue.
