How smartphone companies are screwing with your Android phone

Phone makers like Samsung, HTC, and LG technically make Android phones, but what you see on their screens barely resembles the "clean" version of Android that Google develops.

That's because phone makers add their own software features, or "skins," on top of the pure version of Android so that they can differentiate themselves from other phone brands.

Unfortunately, while some skins add great features that you wouldn't find on any other phone brand's phone, it also means that you get a lot of extra apps from the phone maker and carrier.

And more often than not, apps made by phone makers and carriers tend to be poorly designed both aesthetically and functionally. It's the reason why a lot of Android fans prefer Google's version of Android over the bloated versions phone makers create.

Here's a look at all the ways phone makers are changing Android compared to the clean version from Google's own Nexus phones.

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This is the pure version of Android with no skin layer on top, and this phone (the Nexus 5) was bought unlocked directly from Google. That means all the apps you see here are Google's own, and it results in a clean, simple interface that's not confusing. It also means no carrier apps. Even though LG made this particular phone, there are no LG apps, either.

The Galaxy S6 has Samsung's TouchWiz layer on top of Android. As you can see, it looks much different than pure Android, and there are many extra apps from Samsung and the carrier (AT&T in this case). There are several duplicate apps for messaging and emailing, for example, which can be confusing. There are also a bunch of apps, like Yellow Pages, Uber, and Facebook that come preinstalled, which is somewhat intrusive, as the user should chose which apps to install on their devices. Notice the sharing menu on the bottom right with so many apps that it's hard to find the one you want to share to.

HTC has a skin layer called Sense. It looks quite classy, but it still carries a lot of HTC's and carrier bloatware. (T-Mobile, in this case).

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