Nokia-owned smartphone brand Alcatel, which is currently licenced by Chinese manufacturer TCL, has recently been accused of forcing users to install unwanted ad-supported variants of system apps. The company is allegedly replacing pre-installed system apps like Gallery, Launcher, Sound Recorder, Weather and File Manager, with ad-supported applications without the user’s consent.
Since all the replaced apps come bundled with the device and can’t be removed, users aren’t able to uninstall the replacement apps. The post further elaborates that the manner in which Alcatel is replacing the applications, along with the bad quality of the new applications, has prompted a series of 1-star reviews for the apps on the Play Store. In order to prevent the company from replacing system apps, some users have disabled auto-updates.
