Google Play Protect, a security feature built into Android, recently falsely flagged two Samsung apps, Messages and Wallet, as potentially harmful and notified some Galaxy smartphone users.
Play Protect is a security system that warns users about harmful apps and games if it detects that they can snoop on personal data, such as call logs, messages, or pictures. However, in a recent failure, Play Protect incorrectly identified Messages and Wallet as harmful, even though they are both legitimate apps.
According to a report by 9to5Google, a few days ago, some users of Samsung Galaxy smartphones began receiving warnings from Google Play Protect, Google’s security service, that the Samsung Messages and Wallet apps were potentially harmful. The warnings claimed that the apps were trying to “spy on personal data, such as SMS messages, photos, audio recordings, or call history.”
Following the warning, the issues with the Samsung Messages and Wallet apps were attributed to a temporary server failure. However, Google has now fixed the issue. Samsung has also confirmed that the issue is resolved and users can use the apps normally without any concerns.
A message on the Samsung Community forum affirmed, “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.”
Meanwhile, Samsung Messages and Wallet users can safely continue using these apps by dismissing the Google Play Protect warning.
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If the issue persists users can ignore the warning or try restarting their phone. Users can also try clearing the cache and data for the Google Play Store app, forcing them to stop the app, or uninstalling and reinstalling it.
Users can also reset the apps:
Navigate to Settings
Select Apps
Click on the More options icon
Choose Reset app settings
Confirm the reset, and then restart the device
Resetting app preferences will restore the default settings for all apps, including disabled apps, notifications, background data usage, and permissions. However, users will not lose any existing app data. Samsung assures that resetting the app will allow users to use the Messages app again.
Meanwhile, users should not disable Google Play Protect. Google Play Protect scans apps and devices for harmful behaviour. It checks apps from the Google Play Store for safety before a user downloads them. It also scans devices for potentially harmful apps from other sources, also known as malware. It warns users about any potentially harmful apps it finds.
To turn on Google Play Protect
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Open the Google Play Store app.
Tap the profile icon in the top right corner.
Tap Play Protect Settings.
Turn Scan apps with Play Protect on or off.
