Samsung Messages glitch could be sending your photos to random contacts
And you wouldn't even know about it
By Rob Thubron on June 29, 2018, 6:07 AM 10 comments
Yikes! If you own one of Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and use the company’s messaging app, you may want to alter its permissions. According to several reports, a bug is causing Samsung Messages to send random pictures to users’ contacts.
According to Reddit users, the glitch is found on several phones; there are reports of the Galaxy S9, S9 Plus, and Note 8 being affected, with one person claiming his entire gallery was sent to his girlfriend in the middle of the night. It appears that the issue isn’t limited to a certain carrier, either, as people on T-Moblie and AT&T have discovered the problem.
What’s especially concerning is that the devices hold no record of anything being sent. The only way to know is by checking carrier logs—or when a contact asks why they received an ‘artistic nude’ of yourself at 2 am.
It seems as if the phantom photo-sender bug appeared in the latest update of Samsung Messages, so anyone who hasn’t already done so may want to hold off from installing it until the company addresses the issue.
Those who have already installed the update should probably disable Samsung Messages’ storage permissions, which will prevent it from accessing the photo gallery. Just go to Settings > Apps -> Samsung Messages > Permissions > Storage to do so.
Once permissions are revoked, you won’t be able to send photos from Messenger, but you can rest easy knowing your pictures aren’t going to appear on a random contact’s handset. In the meantime, you might want to try Android Messages, which comes with a helpful web version that allows users to send and receive texts from a desktop.
And you wouldn't even know about it
By Rob Thubron on June 29, 2018, 6:07 AM 10 comments
Yikes! If you own one of Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and use the company’s messaging app, you may want to alter its permissions. According to several reports, a bug is causing Samsung Messages to send random pictures to users’ contacts.
According to Reddit users, the glitch is found on several phones; there are reports of the Galaxy S9, S9 Plus, and Note 8 being affected, with one person claiming his entire gallery was sent to his girlfriend in the middle of the night. It appears that the issue isn’t limited to a certain carrier, either, as people on T-Moblie and AT&T have discovered the problem.
What’s especially concerning is that the devices hold no record of anything being sent. The only way to know is by checking carrier logs—or when a contact asks why they received an ‘artistic nude’ of yourself at 2 am.
It seems as if the phantom photo-sender bug appeared in the latest update of Samsung Messages, so anyone who hasn’t already done so may want to hold off from installing it until the company addresses the issue.
Those who have already installed the update should probably disable Samsung Messages’ storage permissions, which will prevent it from accessing the photo gallery. Just go to Settings > Apps -> Samsung Messages > Permissions > Storage to do so.
Once permissions are revoked, you won’t be able to send photos from Messenger, but you can rest easy knowing your pictures aren’t going to appear on a random contact’s handset. In the meantime, you might want to try Android Messages, which comes with a helpful web version that allows users to send and receive texts from a desktop.
