Your deepest darkest fears about an unclean experience on the Google Nexus 6 with some carriers appears to be coming true, as reports are stating that the AT&T model of the Nexus 6 is confirmed to be laden with carrier bloatware that no one really wants or needs. I say this because it’s true for the most part. No one wants bloatware, and if they do, they don’t need it. If they say they need it, it’s a half truth. All jokes aside, the fact that any model of the Nexus devices would be different, even if slightly, from the way Google intended them to be is somewhat of a letdown. The good news is that you are also able to uninstall said bloatware whenever you wish.
This would normally be the kind of thing that we’d expect from a Verizon variant of the device, as it happened with the Galaxy Nexus back when it released onto the Verizon Wireless a few years back. There hasn’t been much word on that though as talk of the Verizon model Nexus 6 is a little more scarce. AT&T beat them to the bunch on this one. To be more clear about the whole situation, the phone will come clean and stock just like any other Nexus 6, but upon powering up the device and proceeding to go through the setup process, AT&T’s apps will auto download onto the device memory. That’s where the good news comes in. They aren’t on the phone out of the box, which means they aren’t system apps, hence they can be uninstalled immediately after they’ve been downloaded. AT&T subscribers rejoice.
Interestingly enough, the T-Mobile and Sprint versions will not follow the same path and no additional apps will be downloaded upon setup. It might only take a few extra minutes out of your day to get rid of the AT&T suite but those may be a few precious minutes that you need and won’t get back. Maybe minutes is a bit of a stretch in terms of how long it would take, but you get the idea. Having those apps there at all isn’t something that needed to be done and even though it isn’t a huge deal, it could very well stop people from buying the device straight through AT&T.