Realme 6i, Future Phones Won’t Include Banned Chinese Apps, Promises Realme

Realme 6i and other future Realme smartphones will not come preloaded with an app that has been banned by the government, the Chinese smartphone maker announced on Thursday. For the existing phones, Realme said that it was releasing over-the-air (OTA) updates in the coming days that would remove the concerning ‘Clean up Storage' feature, which is powered by China's Cheetah Mobile. The feature is based on its Clean Master app that is amongst the 59 apps banned by the government late last month.

Realme took to Twitter to share the new announcement. “Your data privacy is extremely important for Realme and we have never shared user data with any entity,” the company said in the letter addressed to its fans and media. “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.”

The letter highlighted that the Realme 6i that is launching in India on Friday will not have any pre-installed apps from the banned app list released by the government. The company also said that its other future phones would not have any of those apps.

Further, Realme mentioned that it has provided users with the option to uninstall any of the preloaded apps from its smartphones. The company notably offered pre-installed apps including Helo and UC Browser that are amongst the ones banned by the government.

Apart from the preloaded apps, one of the key concerns on Realme phones is around the Clean up Storage feature that is based on Cheetah Mobile's Clean Master app, which is also in the list of banned apps. The company said that it would be removed through an OTA updates on all its existing models by early August. The updates will also remove the banned apps, Realme confirmed to Gadgets 360.

Realme isn't the first smartphone brand in India to address security issues raised through the government's move to ban Chinese apps. Poco, which is a sub-brand of Xiaomi, also recently provided clarification on the banned apps being pre-installed on the newly launched Poco M2 Pro. That brand also promised to provide a software update to fix user concerns. It is yet to roll out the update, though.

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