Samsung Apps Flagged as ‘Harmful’ by Google, Asks Users to Delete it—What Happened?

A wave of alarming alerts from Google has overtaken Android smartphones earlier, particularly those with Samsung apps, as the Mountain View giant incorrectly flagged these to be "harmful." The notice was made via the malware-scanning service from Google known as Play Protect, and this feature scans the app for malicious apps and warns users to delete them.

However, Samsung's apps are not harmful, claims report, and this misidentification was due to an issue that now saw a fix.

Samsung Apps Flagged as 'Harmful' Says Google

A new thread on Google Support's community forum had users raising concerns about the Play Protect flagging Samsung apps as "harmful," with the service asking users to uninstall the app. Initially, users asked if this was a false positive, and some said that they only needed to turn it on or off to stop the alerts raised by Google.

Affected users claim that their Samsung Galaxy S22 and S23 are affected by this issue, sharing a screenshot of what appears from the Play Protect.

While some users remain oblivious to what is happening, others claim that this was a bug, and advise those affected by it to report it to Google.

Some of the affected Samsung apps include the Samsung Messages and Samsung Wallet. The South Korean tech company defended its apps, saying that there are no harm or vulnerabilities brought by these despite the alerts from Google.

Samsung Users Are Blaming Google

In Samsung's release, the company said that users are safe and that this was due to a "server issue" which led to alerting users about the apps. In the Google Support forum, users claimed that Google "failed" on this one as these false alerts were their fault and not Samsung's, expressing their fury over the Play Protect service which was said to be the culprit behind this.

Google's Play Protect

The renowned Play Store from Google has added several features for users to keep them safe in the quest to use apps and various experiences available. This is through the renowned Google Play Protect service which is active to scan the apps for any malicious threats or vulnerabilities from those installed on your device, with many apps already flagged by the service.

While many apps get screened and blocked by Google in the Play Store, it is still infamous for featuring several Android apps that have malware or spyware embedded which it fails to catch. There were previous reports about Android Banking malware present on Google Play, and at one time, there were as many as 17 apps found by cybersecurity experts which they shared with the company.

Play Protect has proven to be an effective feature in being the first line of defense for Android smartphones, but there have been false triggers in the past according to user testimonies. Some say that their Play Protect is already turned off, while some say that toggling it on and off would fix the issue, Samsung has now assured users that it fixed the problem on its end and that its apps bring no harm for all.