Google Warns Users to Remove Potentially Harmful Samsung Apps

Google still faces the challenge of removing malicious apps, but recently the company declared common apps malicious and accused them of spying on users through their phones. Google has a Play Protect feature that warns of potentially dangerous apps, and according to recent reports, the company flagged two Samsung apps as malicious when they weren’t.

The apps in question are Samsung Wallet and Samsung Messages, which were notified to users after the Play Protect scan, calling it a risk to your device. The apps were scanned and users saw an alert explaining that they may try to spy on your personal information, such as messages, photos, audio files or even call history.

These are serious violations of the Google Play Store rules, and understandably the Play Store called these two apps malicious, but was it really necessary? After all, the Samsung Wallet and Messages apps are used by millions and are also available on Samsung phones.

So unless Google detected a fake version of these apps, the alert was a clear mistake and the company needs to answer why it reported them as harmful to devices.

Reports claim that Google notified Samsung of the server glitches that caused the problem, and the two companies even talked about how to fix the problem caused by the glitch. Google has clear control over how it allows each app to run on Android phones. Its monopoly with the Play Store isn’t helping matters either, with competition authorities repeatedly questioning the company over how it handles third-party apps.

In fact, Google recently announced that it will start looking for apps downloaded from the site on Android phones, which means more control over apps that have the right to install, but Google will use its regulations to decide if the app is safe enough to run on the device.