Remove Amazon Search from Right Click Menu

Klystron@sh.itjust.works to Android@lemmy.world – 67 points –

All of a sudden, Amazon search has popped up on the right click contextual menu for me. Haven't seen it before today. I can't find a way to remove it either; I'd prefer not to be reminded every time I try to copy something that I can buy Travis County district court on Amazon. I use the app a lot because of Amazon lockers as well as shopping at an Amazon fresh store. So deleting it (which would presumably remove it) really isn't a great choice for me.

Anyone else encountering this? Any solutions? Thanks for any help.

EDIT: After some great comments, I decided to reininstall/reboot and that seemed to have gotten rid of it. TBD if it comes back though. Would still like to know if it's possible to adjust that menu. Some apps I use are hidden behind the overflow menu, which would be cool if I could reorganize. Thanks!

SUPA EDIT: Did some more sleuthing and may have found an answer. As I commented here, try putting your app in deep sleep. While it kills all background activity, I think it also stops apps from displaying the problem app's menu button.

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You where able to create a Lemmy account and a post.

So please add

  • what OS (OEM Android version)
  • what app
  • why is anything Amazon on your device
  • where is it showing up

Always love an adversarial tone when I ask for help. Android 13 on fold 5, every app, answered the other questions already.

The information he asked for is pretty important to helping you solve your problem. It’s a little annoying to see someone asking for support but not really putting effort into helping others help you.

Thanks, yes I know that tone sucks but really how should anyone help with that lack of any infos?

I mean the question posed I figured you could glean enough that more info would be redundant. I don't see how Amazon being on a right click menu would be reliant on an OS update. As for what apps it was in, again, I figured since I asked for the right click menu, it would be apparent that every right click menu was showing that, since all apps have that same menu. And the other two questions I had answered already.

As someone who works in tech support I understand the pain of dealing with uninformed users. I figured though if someone asked a technical question on a site as obscure as Lemmy, on an android forum, that would give some credit to the fact that I'm not just some schmuck with a Galaxy a54. Instead I was getting comments on why I use Amazon. I mean come on lol, not everyone is living a foss/privacy guaranteed life.

I don't see how Amazon being on a right click menu would be reliant on an OS update

No, but an OS update could introduce the framework to allow apps like Amazon to insert a search option

the fact that I'm not just some schmuck with a Galaxy a54

Then why are you acting like one?

Thanks for the response. I would just like to say even if an update did do that, that still doesn't have anything to do with how to remove it... When I posted this, I was hoping there was just some setting I was missing.

You know how to use Lemmy but not how to trouble shoot your phone.

I mean I figured it out in the end, but I didn't know if there was a setting somewhere that controlled what went in that menu. Still can't find an answer to that.

Since nobody in the comments is being helpful I figured I'd do a little research for you. The TL;DR is apps can just put ads on your text selection any time they want + there's nothing you can do about it. At least on my phone, the ads are hidden in the overflow menu so I hadn't noticed them until I saw your post + checked in there. Perhaps on your device they show up because you have a wider screen?

Here's another person with a similar complaint: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/228224/how-to-edit-the-android-context-menu

Since this is built into the OS, your only options are modifying the app or modding the OS, neither of which are things I'm well versed in but here's some stuff that can get you started if you're feeling adventurous:

Modding the app: The way these actions work is android apps add a line in their manifest that registers them as handlers for "ACTION_PROCESS_TEXT". Article on this.

I'd imagine you'd want to try and find a way to remove that registration from the app's manifest. Couldn't tell you exactly how but I know ReVanced lets you mod apps other than YouTube, so it could help with that?

Modding the OS: Since it's built into the OS. If you can find the code that handles text selection actions, you could start with a custom ROM and add your own code that disables that action. Maybe even build a UI around it to help others with a similar complaint?!

Thanks for the serious reply, I appreciate it! Now that you mention it, me having a fold must definitely be it. For some apps when I highlight text, the menu sometimes spans almost the whole screen. And again, thank you for the tips you provided for the software side. Unfortunately, I'm a hardware guy so diving into any of that seems impossible to me haha.

What I did find however, is a possible solution though. To originally remove the Amazon search button, I had to reinstall the app. This worked for a few hours, but at some point it came back on its own. Doing some more sleuthing, I realized that Samsung (maybe it's an android thing too though?) has a deep sleep function. Basically, you can deep sleep an app so it's essentially disabled until you open the app again. So even going into the system's app list in settings, it now lists Amazon as "disabled." So no running in the background and I suppose telling other apps it's installed so they can display that search button. I only just discovered this while posting, so while the button is removed now, it remains to be seen if it'll stay working.

This set up works for me since the app stays easily accessible in my app drawer, and as far as I can tell, still works perfectly fine upon launching. So I can still use it for my required use cases. Now if you need your apps to function in the background this may not be a solution. I wish there was just a simple setting is settings somewhere that addressed what and in what order appears in this menu. That would simplify a lot of things. Just another reminder of how we own nothing anymore.... In any case, thanks for the response. Hope this can help you too.

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I use the app a lot

Well, welcome to the BezosWorld. Please enjoy your ride. Keep all extremities inside the carriage at all times.

I sometimes get "Bing Search" where the usual search should be. Drives me nuts - this is the kind of shit Google should be fixing. But instead they're cutting off actually useful shit like logcat

At this point I'm starting to believe that they're maliciously complying with European antitrust laws. I remember reading recently that they got a friendly reminder that defaulting to their own search engine is a monopolistic practice and I started noticing this kind of stuff after that

Doesn't mean they couldn't include an option for a user to pick a default, though.

Which is why I think this is them doing malicious compliance. "Oh, you didn't pick a default search engine ? Guess we'll just use whatever instead of not displaying the search option or prompting you to pick a search engine"

Removing any Amazon apps would probably do it, unless you have one of those phones that amazon sells with their own version of Android.

This is a tragedy for all Texans! Next, they will ban all medical examinations during pregnancies, so something like this will never happen again!

Ofc it was Travis county (county which Austin is in) that made this ruling. Time to lower the number of voting locations in the county some more. /s