What it is

GMS = Google Mobile Services. It is a layer that sits on top of the OS and provides a lot of proprietary Google APIs, giving apps access to various Google Services, such as: "fused"-location (internet and GPS chip), QR Code scanner, 2FA, G-Drive storage, Firebase API, Cloud Messaging, etc.

If you remove it, all the apps relying on it will either:

- detect the lack of Play-Services and refuse to run

- detect the lack of Play-Services but allow you to run (improperly) by dismissing an annoying popup.

Disabling this package will improve battery life a lot.

Careful: Removing Google Play Services can cause bootloops. If you use “Find My Device”, you will need to remove it from the "Device admin apps" settings panel to be able to remove this package.

Commands

adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.google.android.gms

To put it back:

adb shell cmd package install-existing com.google.android.gms

Every removal listed here is per-user only: the system image is untouched, and the restore command puts the app back from the copy already on the device. Nothing is downloaded.

This is not the directory. Here we say what a package is in general; what happens on your particular television is on your model's entry, and that one wins. The same package can be dead weight on one set and hold the home screen up on another.

What it is

Commands

References