The South Korean government is to adopt rules allowing smartphones users to delete apps pre-installed on smartphones by mobile operators.

According to Korea Joonang Daily, the country’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning said the option for users to delete apps already installed on phones will be available from April.

The guidelines differentiate between essential apps — which are necessary for the operation of the smartphone — and selected apps, which users may want to remove in favour of preferred alternatives.

The ministry said the ability to remove some pre-installed apps should improve battery usage and memory capacity.

According to the publication, the version of Samsung’s Galaxy S4 smartphone offered by SK Telecom has 80 pre-installed apps, including 25 added by the operators, 39 from Samsung and 16 added by Google as the OS provider.

At least 40 of these could be deleted by users under the new guidelines.

Just four of the apps preloaded by SK Telecom are deemed essential, along with 14 to 18 from Samsung.

The apps from Google can’t currently be removed but the company reportedly plans to separate these into essential and selective apps when signing deals with smartphone makers in the future.

Samsung is believed to be reducing the number of apps pre-installed on its devices to 26, while LG is planning to cut from 38 to 28.

The implementation of the rules will be monitored with a consultative council looking at ways to improve the effectiveness of the system.