14 DAY TRIAL // A number of Samsung smartphone models are sending out photos in the gallery to random contacts saved on the device, according to several customer complaints. The company, however, says it found no evidence of such a bug, though it continues to investigate the issue.
The problem was first reported earlier this month when it was discovered that phones like Samsung Galaxy S9 and Note 8 quietly sent out text messages to contacts. Some of these messages included photos stored in the camera roll, users said.
The bug not only that caused messages not to show up in the sent folder, but also blocked any notification from being displayed on the impacted phones. The only way users could figure out the glitch was to look in carrier logs to see messages being sent from their devices.
While a recent Messages app update was blamed for the issue, Samsung said it was investigating the bug based on user reports.
“We are aware of the reports regarding this matter and our technical teams are looking into it. Concerned customers are encouraged to contact us directly at 1-800-SAMSUNG,” the firm said.
No problem found
But in a new statement, the South Korean firm says it found no evidence of a software or hardware bug, though it added that the investigation continues.
“Samsung has reviewed this matter thoroughly these past few days; however, there were no hardware or software issues found to be relevant to this particular case. While there have been no known similar customer reports globally, we will continue to investigate this issue further,” the firm noted.
Samsung not finding the cause of the issue is odd, especially as T-Mobile, the carrier where the bug was first detected, says there’s absolutely no problem with its network.
In the meantime, users who want to make sure that their Samsung smartphones aren’t sending out photos in the camera roll to random people could block storage permissions for the Messages app. As an alternative, they can disable the app and switch to Google’s Android Messages app.