There used to be a very easy way to deal with smartphone bloatware: you’d set up the device, find the folder of pre-installed games or apps you never asked for, and spend about 10 minutes deleting them. It was a bit of a tax on your time, but it was achievable.
However, in the age of the AI-powered phone, bloatware now has a much smarter face. It’s being sold as the headline feature, and while a lot of it is technically impressive, we’re fast reaching a point where the sheer volume of ‘help’ is starting to feel like the very clutter we used to try so hard to avoid.
That thought really hit home this week after using the slimline Motorola Signature. The hardware is better than ever, with an impressive thin design, a top-notch screen, great camera performance and solid battery life, but the software is starting to feel like it’s suffering from an identity crisis.
Motorola used to be the king of the near-stock Android experience, surpassed only by Google itself, but now it feels like they’re trying to do everything at once in this new AI arms race – and there’s no way to get rid of it.
Motorola’s throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks
The most obvious sign of the more-is-more approach Motorola is taking is that it’s baked into not just the software but also the Signature’s hardware.
On the right, you’ve got the same dual power/Gemini button found on most Android smartphones – but there’s also a button on the left for Motorola’s competing Moto AI. It’s a bold move, but it also highlights the central problem: the company isn’t sure which AI you should actually be using.
It’s not just buttons though; the interface is now home to a lot of competing ideas. You go to check your notifications and find ‘Catch me up’ summaries and daily briefings competing for space with your actual messages.
You’ve also got a standalone Moto AI interface where you can ask Motorola’s assistant questions and tasks – but it’s not just Moto AI. There are also built-in hooks for Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity.
Individually, these are great AI tools, but when they’re stacked on top of each other and bundled within the Moto AI interface, the experience just starts to feel busy and overwhelming, especially if you’re new to the world of AI.
All the while, Gemini is still sitting there as the default Android assistant, ready to answer questions or get you somewhere using Google Maps – and in a very similar UI.
Instead of the stock approach to Android that made Motorola such a fan favourite, we’re now getting a phone that feels like it’s constantly trying to show off new tricks – and, for the most part, they’re not that helpful.
If this were 10 years ago, each of those features would likely be a dedicated app – an app that we could uninstall if we wanted to. These AI features, though, are hard-baked into the system, and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
Far from an isolated case
Of course, Motorola isn’t the only brand to try and insert AI-powered smarts into every crevice of the smartphone experience.
Brands like Apple, Samsung, Google, Oppo and Xiaomi are all actively doing the same thing, essentially trying to one-up each other to offer the widest range of tools available. But, in true Jurassic Park style, they were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of genuine innovation happening in the smartphone AI space – features like real-time transcription, effective object removal, notification summaries and multi-agent AI chats are fantastic tools for the right person – but by making them mandatory, permanent fixtures of the interface, they stop feeling like tools and more like obstacles.
We’re reaching a tipping point where AI smarts are becoming the new bloatware, the stuff that gets in the way of us using our phones how we want. If manufacturers want the next generation of flagship phones to truly feel like a step forward, they need to learn that the most intelligent thing a phone can do is know when to stay out of the way.
