I’ve avoided uninstalling it before out of concern that it’ll impact my phone’s performance, but I finally took the plunge and discovered that it was a decision I should have made a long time ago.<\/p>\n
![\"Android](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/android-phone-screen-showing-the-disky-app-interface.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Related<\/p>\n
\t\t How I reclaimed storage without deleting photos<\/p>\n A quick refresh on what AICore does<\/p>\n Crucial for AI, but irrelevant elsewhere<\/p>\n AICore is only found on devices that host AI models, the most common of which is Gemini Nano<\/a>. <\/p>\n Gemini Nano lets Summarize in Recorder, Magic Compose, Pixel Studio, Call Notes, Pixel Screenshots, and other AI features work.<\/p>\n AICore keeps the AI model updated and allows it to communicate with other apps.<\/p>\n The problem with AICore is that it takes up a significant amount of storage space and has been linked to increased memory and battery usage.<\/p>\n While it is necessary to power some AI apps, it isn’t an essential service like other system apps.<\/p>\n But as a system app, you can’t completely uninstall it. Instead, you can disable the app and uninstall all updates to reduce its storage use to an insignificant level.<\/p>\n Here’s how:<\/p>\n Open the Settings app.<\/p>\n Tap Apps.<\/p>\n Tap See all apps.<\/p>\n Tap AICore.<\/p>\n Tap Disable.<\/p>\n Tap the three-button menu in the upper-right corner of your screen.<\/p>\n Tap Uninstall updates from the drop-down menu.<\/p>\n After disabling AICore and uninstalling its updates, I took notes on how it impacted my phone over a week.<\/p>\n Spoiler: I won’t be reinstalling it.<\/p>\n The impact of uninstalling AICore is better than I could have expected<\/p>\n No more annoying AI notifications<\/p>\n To address the elephant in the room, I want to point out that uninstalling AI Core will not necessarily improve your phone’s performance and battery life<\/a>. <\/p>\n I noticed no significant change in either over the course of a week, so if you’re trying to make your phone’s battery last longer, I recommend using other proven methods instead.<\/p>\n However, this doesn’t mean it wasn’t a pointless procedure.<\/p>\n Uninstalling AICore cleared 7GB of data from my phone’s storage. That’s a roughly 5.5% increase in storage space; a significant amount on a phone with just 128GB of storage.<\/p>\n Other people who have also uninstalled AICore have reported increases in battery life, but this isn’t a guaranteed bonus.<\/p>\n What you can be certain of is that you can reclaim a significant amount of storage space.<\/p>\n Uninstalling AICore also reduced the number of AI pop-ups on my phone.<\/p>\n Magic Cue didn’t annoy me with its irrelevant suggestions, Pixel Screenshots stopped alerting me, and Magic Compose stopped suggesting rewrites.<\/p>\n My Pixel 10 Pro wasn’t overly intrusive when it came to suggesting I use its AI features in the first place, but since I’ve removed AICore, I can almost believe I’m in a blessed alternate reality where LLMs were never invented.<\/p>\n If, like me, you avoid using AI features, you should uninstall AICore, as you will not lose anything you care about.<\/p>\n However, if you enjoy using tools like Pixel Screenshots, things are a little more complicated.<\/p>\n Uninstalling AICore doesn’t block you from accessing AI services, but you do have to make sacrifices<\/p>\n You’ll lose access to some apps entirely<\/p>\n After uninstalling AICore, I checked in with all the AI tools on my phone to see how they were faring.<\/p>\n Some, like Gemini, weren’t impacted at all, while others were crippled. Perhaps the most notable loss was Pixel Screenshots<\/a>, which stopped working entirely after I uninstalled AICore. <\/p>\n Other apps, like Pixel Journal and Recorder, lost their AI features but still functioned otherwise.<\/p>\n Pixel Journal no longer analyzed my prompts and suggested future posts, and Recorder lost the ability to summarize my recordings.<\/p>\n However, the core Gemini app worked normally as it’s powered by Gemini 3 in the cloud, rather than Gemini Nano on the device.<\/p>\n What surprised me about this experiment is that I thought I would still be able to use AI tools as long as I was connected to the internet.<\/p>\n However, it appears that Google built these apps to exclusively use Gemini Nano. You cannot use Gemini in the cloud to power Pixel Screenshots or Recorder’s summaries.<\/p>\n AICore is crucial to powering AI apps, but you don’t need it to enjoy using your phone<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tThe little-known Android app that freed up 10GB on my smartphone
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n![\"pop-up](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/aicore-disable.jpg\")
![\"app](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ai-core-uninstall-updates.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Apps](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pixel-9-aicore-storage.jpg\"){kind=tracking}
<\/p>\n![\"AICore](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/aicore-recorder.jpg\")
![\"AICore](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ai-core-pixel-screenshots.jpg\"){kind=tracking}
<\/p>\n