Samsung Messages and Wallet apps were marked as harmful by Google

Google has integrated several security measures into Android, and one of those is the Play Protect service. It warns users of harmful apps and games if it senses that they can snoop on personal data, such as call logs, messages, or pictures. Recently, Google falsely flagged two Samsung apps as potentially harmful and notified some Galaxy smartphone users.

It is being reported that some people were notified about Samsung Messages and Samsung Wallet apps on their phone could be harmful as they try to “spy on personal data, such as SMS messages, photos, audio recordings, or call history.” However, the issue has now been fixed, and users don't need to worry about those apps. Apparently, this issue surfaced due to a temporary failure on Google's servers, and that issue has now been fixed.

A message on the Samsung Community forum said, “It has been confirmed that the phenomenon of a device being marked as a harmful app with a pop-up saying there is a device security problem when using the Samsung Messages app was caused by a temporary failure of the Google server. It has now been restored and can be used normally.”

Author's Note: Google Play Protect is meant to protect users from harmful apps that are downloaded either through the Play Store or through APK sideloading. However, the issue of it flagging safe apps like Samsung Messages and Samsung Wallet was caused due to an issue on Google's servers, and users shouldn't be worried about those Samsung apps accessing their personal data.

Asif Iqbal Shaik - Senior Editor

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First Samsung device: T100

Asif is a computer engineer turned technology journalist. He has been using Samsung phones since 2004, and his current smartphone is the Galaxy S21 Ultra. He loves headphones, mechanical keyboards, and PC hardware. When not writing about technology, he likes watching crime and science fiction movies and TV shows.

APK Google Samsung Messages Samsung Wallet