10 ms·

A bug in Samsung’s default texting app is sending random pics to other people

186 points by ilarum 8y ago

mindslight 8y ago
It seems like this is better described as "phones running Samsung's software", lest we further normalize this locked black box culture. edit: this post now links to a different site with a better title.
- ravenstine 8y ago
  Samsung's software makes their otherwise good phones markedly terrible. My Galaxy S5 got so slow at one point that I was planning on getting a new phone and thought "what the hell, I'll try to root this one and if I brick it then nothing of value was lost." It's a good thing I did successfully root it because I removed all the Samsung garbage and it continues to run exceptionally well! Sure, disk space probably played a role, but I noticed that their keyboard had a large part to do with the slowness. After replacing it with AnySoftKeyboard, it's run as smooth as butter. EDIT: Another pro-tip I have for anyone with an Android phone is to ditch Google for DuckDuckGo, not only for privacy but because it simply outperforms Google's UI responsiveness by lightyears.
  - dvtv75 8y ago
    Did you put on one of the alternative Android OS? Can't afford a new phone just now, and I was wondering if rooting mine would help, think I will after what you've just said. It's an S3 that is becoming slower and more frustrating to use every time there's an update. It can take anything from 20 seconds up to a minute to respond to a button press, and of course I'm never sure if I touched the button properly so I hit it again. It'll respond to the entire queue in a second or two, and then I need to start over.
    - ravenstine 8y ago
      No, I left the Samsung-provided Android on it, although I've installed updates here and there. I never owned an S3, but judging by my experience, getting root and removing all of Samsung's crapware should bring new life to an S3. As I mentioned, their keyboard software is ridiculously slow and bloated, and can make it seem like the apps being used are slow when it's really just the keyboard blocking the UI. It's been a couple years, but I remember their apps took up quite a bit of space. By the way, another thing that could be slowing down your S3 is the battery. If it's not holding a charge well, the operating system is going to use up less power to try and stay running, hence a significant performance decrease. If your phone has a removable battery, a replacement can be had on Amazon for ~$10. Having replaced my own battery, I can say it's definitely worth doing.
      - dvtv75 8y ago
        Thanks - very much appreciated! The battery is starting to age and is beginning to lose its charge quickly, so I'll look into that.
    - abawany 8y ago
      I love LineageOS and pretty much most of my devices that can run it, run it. This includes various older Note phablets and Note tablets. It is pretty fast, remains up to date, has great privacy controls, and the Google Apps (one of the biggest power hogs, IME) can be slimmed down or omitted if necessary.
  - sithadmin 8y ago
    Galaxy S8 and S9 generations of Samsung phones can't really be compared to previous versions. Touchwiz lag is nonexistent, and the apps are quite a bit less intrusive.
    - paulie_a 8y ago
      Except for that bixby bullshit. And that you can't uninstall all their crappy apps even if they are slightly less intrusive.
    - pedalpete 8y ago
      As a first time Samsung owner with an S9, I can't comment on 'less intrusive', but it is definitely frustrating. Multiple apps called "messages" and "contacts", not super easy to tell which is stock android and which is samsungs? Bixby always gets in the way, where did this "SmartThings" app come from which is ALWAY in the system tray and difficult to disable and can't be removed. I won't be buying another Samsung device, I'm not sure how they got the reputation they have.
      - paulie_a 8y ago
        It's crapware plain and simple. Samsung insists on installing, then not supporting any of their stuff with updates. Google needs to step up and prevent it by allowing every app to be uninstalled and deliver Android updates themselves. But in the mean time if you buy a phone, basically expect it never to get upgraded in any meaningful way.
  - mindslight 8y ago
    I'm in the camp of installing an OS as the first thing you do with a device [0], and I really can't abide by the idea that a computer is just expected to get slower over time. My S4 (i9500) was still running great on LineageOS (some games even) right up until a few months ago [1]. Good job taking your leap. Going through the process can definitely be unnerving when you're doing it to a device you rely on (which is a large part of why I recommend doing it immediately after getting the device). Or by all means everyone, keep dumping "old" hardware to stay on the manufacturer's software treadmill. I just replaced that S4 with an almost mint S7 for $80! [0] I will say, it actually does end up feeling like a little bit of a let-down to get a shiny new device, do the job of flashing it, and then be greeted with the same stock LOS setup. But then I remind myself that I got said device for a deliberate purpose, and it's actually nice not having to relearn an arbitrarily different UI. [1] FWIW, the symptoms lead me to believe it came down with something similar to "the emmc bug" that's been described for the i9300.
  - navjack27 8y ago
    Replace Google for duckduckgo? UI responsiveness? Using anysoftkeyboard? It's an S5... And old... That's the problem.
    - larkeith 8y ago
      Components do not degrade significantly in the lifespan of a phone. Websites are generally no more intensive than when the S5 came out, and there's no reason for apps to be either. "It's old" is a worthless excuse for poor software design - as evidenced by the fact that using FOSS restores full performance.
    - ravenstine 8y ago
      Uh, yeah... if I don't have to spend money on a new phone when I can just install better software, that's my preference.
    - Izkata 8y ago
      My guess is that they were getting updates from their carrier. Back when the original Galaxy S was new, one of AT&T's minor updates bricked some peoples' phones and caused many more to run slowly. I'd already rooted mine and afterwards disabled some of the offending apps that they installed, so in terms of performance it still runs today as well as it did in 2010. I just never did a carrier update again.
universenz 8y ago
I bet you it's Bixby getting revenge.
- paulie_a 8y ago
  I swear the last software update on my s8 made that button more sensitive just to annoy me into using that garbage.
examancer 8y ago
This story is very thin on details, but with the abysmal quality level of most Samsung software it is 100% believable.
- paulie_a 8y ago
  Absolutely agreed. Great hardware that Samsung took a huge dump on with inferior replacement apps. Why do they even bother to develop worse versions of things built into Android? After my s8 issues and my randomly rebooting refrigerator, Samsung has lost me as a customer.
  - pkulak 8y ago
    Just saw a "Hey, Bixbi" ad yesterday and it was as cringy as Scott's Tots. The company just has such an air of desperation and jealousy.
  - flyinghamster 8y ago
    > randomly rebooting refrigerator Call me old-fashioned, but a refrigerator should never have to reboot. ;-) A microcontroller running drop-dead-simple firmware is OK, but if it ever has to reboot for any reason save power outages, they've failed. I'll certainly agree on Samsung's software (at least the sort of things users directly interact with) being a vortex of suck, though. Back when I used a Galaxy S Relay "4G" (the "4G" in quotes because they were calling DC-HSPA+ "4G"), I found the phone to be much better after I installed CyanogenMod. Too bad CyanogenMod imploded, and worse, there's no LineageOS for that old handset, which was one of the last good slider phones. To be fair to Samsung, I have no complaints about their SSD firmware, but I'll stay away from their cell phones.
    - paulie_a 8y ago
      I requested the source code on that refrigerator just to see how terrible it was. It's garbage clearly but I was pleasantly surprised they didn't hard code any passwords like Cisco's standard operating procedure. I still would never put it on wifi though.
    - 8y ago
reustle 8y ago
I'm not surprised. Semi related, my S8 often never saves photos that I take. It's a very common problem they have yet to acknowledge. https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS8/comments/7kc8wj/photos_not_saving/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS8/comments/7kc8wj/photos_not...
ChuckMcM 8y ago
Maybe its Google's answer to SnapChat, call it SnapRoulette :-) But more seriously the messaging story on Android is abysmally broken. There are SMS messages, vendor wrapped SMS/MMS messaging, Google flavored chat apps that sometimes map to SMS/MMS and sometimes to some Google protocol. Combine that with an insane permission model that basically wants you to hand over access to all your SMS/MMS rights for applications that deal with photos and I wouldn't put it past being a bit of malware in some photo client.
- mikelward 8y ago
  Samsung has its own SMS client, Samsung Messages. The fact Android allows custom SMS apps doesn't seem like a bad thing. Apps can send photos via Android Intent without requiring SMS permissions. If an app requests that permission, the user can say no. I'm not sure how that qualifies as insane.
  - kerng 8y ago
    I have a Galaxy phone and have no idea if it's the basic Android or Samsung app. It just says Messages in the app settings, there is no Samsung Messages app.
    - poglet 8y ago
      Samsung Messages is also called 'Messages' and uses and orange and white icon. I went to Menu > Settings > About Messages and no where does it state that it is a Samsung app (but it is).
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
      - gh02t 8y ago
        Yep, Android (Google) Messages' logo is a white text bubble on blue background. If you have a Samsung phone and didn't explicitly install another SMS app you're probably using the Samsung one. Ditto for the email client (Email), the photo gallery (Gallery), calendar (Calendar) etc. Samsung likes to do their own thing. Edit: occurs to me that they don't have their own Maps app though. I'm honestly a bit surprised they didn't try to make at least their own UI for Google Maps, seems like a Samsung thing to do. I should also add that I don't mind the Samsung apps at all nowadays, but I do kinda wish they would just stick to the Google stuff (and quietly take Bixby out back and shoot it).
lxe 8y ago
The article was deleted. What happened? Here's a "mirror": https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/07/a-bug-in-samsungs-default-texting-app-is-sending-random-pics-to-other-people/ https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/07/a-bug-in-samsungs-default...
- lxe 8y ago
  I guess it's undeleted now
foobaw 8y ago
I've been in the OEM industry for years and can't believe this happened in production. For something like texting/RCS, there are thousands of phones being tested thousands of time by thousands of people with multiple additional checkpoints (ODM, Google, Carriers). It's a core functionality so it's extremely tightly verified. RCS was first implemented about three years ago for phones so it's shocking that this kind of bug happened now. I also worked on the initial infrastructure for this so I can't imagine how this bug was even introduced. My bet goes to it being a server-side issue, especially since it's carrier-specific, and not a software bug.
- ikeboy 8y ago
  If it's possible to be a server side issue, then no phones are ever secure.
  - AFNobody 8y ago
    SMS and phone calls were never secure.
    - ikeboy 8y ago
      SMS and phone calls should never let the server see every file on your device, or every image
      - DINKDINK 8y ago
        >SMS and phone calls should never let the server see every file on your device, That may be the case but the bug could still be on the server side: Carol the Client: Hi Steve, will you send this photo to 111-1111? Steve the Server: Hi Carol, I've sent your photo to 555-5555 Unless you encrypt the data to your recipient's client-side held key, the opportunity for the server to err and data leak, persists.
        breakingcups 8y ago
        That doesn't explain the case where all photos on the phone were silently sent to a contact.
hbcondo714 8y ago
> go into your phone’s app settings and revoke Samsung Messages’ ability to access storage. Until a real solution is released, this will prevent Messages from sending photos or anything else stored on your device, whether you want it to or not. I tried this but now when I launch the Samsung messages app, it asks me permission to access the phone's storage. When I click 'deny', the app closes so I can't access my messages with this "solution"
- tuxracer 8y ago
  They seem to have the advice slightly mixed up. It's not "revoke Samsung Messages storage permissions OR switch to another SMS app" it should be "revoke Samsumg Messages storage permissions AND switch to another SMS app" Highly recommend https://www.signal.org/ https://www.signal.org/ which on Android can act as your normal SMS client (as an added bonus if your contact also uses Signal there are some security enhancements)
  - hbcondo714 8y ago
    Thank you; just made the permission change & made Signal my default SMS app. If it's good enough for Edward Snowden, it's good enough for me.
kbumsik 8y ago
Is this really a bug? Look at this: > Samsung Messages sent out their entire photo gallery to a contact in the middle of the night. Is it really possible to make this by mistake? Sounds like Samsung deliberately made a backdoor that sends the whole gallery to "someone". Their "bug" might be sending to unintended person.
- rubatuga 8y ago
  Something something don’t attribute malice for stupidity
- gdulli 8y ago
  Are you legit suggesting that Samsung intentionally created a feature to send themselves (or "the government") the entire camera rolls of their customers' phones, and simply got the destination wrong?
  - kodablah 8y ago
    Or maybe more plausibly, they do have export code in there for any number of reasons including debugging, and they left it in there and are triggering it by accident. GP is likely just suggesting that it's quite amazing that a single little bug can do all of these steps as opposed to intentional code executed unintentionally.
hbcondo714 8y ago
> switch to a different texting app like Android Messages or Textra Great, I just got a Galaxy S9 after being a longtime iPhone user. What are HN's experiences with these messaging apps?
- tootie 8y ago
  They're all exactly the same and haven't changed appreciably in 10 years.
  - Izkata 8y ago
    I just upgraded from an 8-year-old Samsung Galaxy S (jumping from Android 2.1 to 7), there's been a lot. Off the top of my head: * The difference between SMS and MMS is much more hidden from users * Group messages (where everyone is communicating with everyone in the same conversation, not a mass-text) * Not only did stickers not exist, graphical emoji didn't exist except in third-party messaging apps * More web integration, like being able to search for an image and send that * Google Pay integration, apparently I can send and request money
- matchbok 8y ago
  All crap. Move back asap.
- mdellavo 8y ago
  avoid samsung and stick to the google phones like pixel 2
- hbcondo714 8y ago
  @tuxracer posted a comment here to use Signal.org which looks great for privacy so I made the switch
throw7 8y ago
Good job samsung. This is probably related to their rollout of rcs on T-mobile, especially as this only affects samsung's texting app and not android messages... which is absolutely maddening as the point of rcs UP is to use whater rcs UP client you want. -.- freakin' telecoms.
duxup 8y ago
I kinda like the idea of getting random pics from people....
kulu2002 8y ago
Ridiculous!! Hey but I am still using Nokia Lumia ... already a dead product. Windows 8.1's default SMS app for mobile doesn't access gallery or any other thing.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
ben_utzer 8y ago
The article is wrong. You can't disable its permission. The App won't work.

186 points by ilarum 8y ago

It seems like this is better described as "phones running Samsung's software", lest we further normalize this locked black box culture. edit: this post now links to a different site with a better title.

ravenstine 8y ago
Samsung's software makes their otherwise good phones markedly terrible. My Galaxy S5 got so slow at one point that I was planning on getting a new phone and thought "what the hell, I'll try to root this one and if I brick it then nothing of value was lost." It's a good thing I did successfully root it because I removed all the Samsung garbage and it continues to run exceptionally well! Sure, disk space probably played a role, but I noticed that their keyboard had a large part to do with the slowness. After replacing it with AnySoftKeyboard, it's run as smooth as butter. EDIT: Another pro-tip I have for anyone with an Android phone is to ditch Google for DuckDuckGo, not only for privacy but because it simply outperforms Google's UI responsiveness by lightyears.
- dvtv75 8y ago
  Did you put on one of the alternative Android OS? Can't afford a new phone just now, and I was wondering if rooting mine would help, think I will after what you've just said. It's an S3 that is becoming slower and more frustrating to use every time there's an update. It can take anything from 20 seconds up to a minute to respond to a button press, and of course I'm never sure if I touched the button properly so I hit it again. It'll respond to the entire queue in a second or two, and then I need to start over.
  - ravenstine 8y ago
    No, I left the Samsung-provided Android on it, although I've installed updates here and there. I never owned an S3, but judging by my experience, getting root and removing all of Samsung's crapware should bring new life to an S3. As I mentioned, their keyboard software is ridiculously slow and bloated, and can make it seem like the apps being used are slow when it's really just the keyboard blocking the UI. It's been a couple years, but I remember their apps took up quite a bit of space. By the way, another thing that could be slowing down your S3 is the battery. If it's not holding a charge well, the operating system is going to use up less power to try and stay running, hence a significant performance decrease. If your phone has a removable battery, a replacement can be had on Amazon for ~$10. Having replaced my own battery, I can say it's definitely worth doing.
    - dvtv75 8y ago
      Thanks - very much appreciated! The battery is starting to age and is beginning to lose its charge quickly, so I'll look into that.
  - abawany 8y ago
    I love LineageOS and pretty much most of my devices that can run it, run it. This includes various older Note phablets and Note tablets. It is pretty fast, remains up to date, has great privacy controls, and the Google Apps (one of the biggest power hogs, IME) can be slimmed down or omitted if necessary.
- sithadmin 8y ago
  Galaxy S8 and S9 generations of Samsung phones can't really be compared to previous versions. Touchwiz lag is nonexistent, and the apps are quite a bit less intrusive.
  - paulie_a 8y ago
    Except for that bixby bullshit. And that you can't uninstall all their crappy apps even if they are slightly less intrusive.
  - pedalpete 8y ago
    As a first time Samsung owner with an S9, I can't comment on 'less intrusive', but it is definitely frustrating. Multiple apps called "messages" and "contacts", not super easy to tell which is stock android and which is samsungs? Bixby always gets in the way, where did this "SmartThings" app come from which is ALWAY in the system tray and difficult to disable and can't be removed. I won't be buying another Samsung device, I'm not sure how they got the reputation they have.
    - paulie_a 8y ago
      It's crapware plain and simple. Samsung insists on installing, then not supporting any of their stuff with updates. Google needs to step up and prevent it by allowing every app to be uninstalled and deliver Android updates themselves. But in the mean time if you buy a phone, basically expect it never to get upgraded in any meaningful way.
- mindslight 8y ago
  I'm in the camp of installing an OS as the first thing you do with a device [0], and I really can't abide by the idea that a computer is just expected to get slower over time. My S4 (i9500) was still running great on LineageOS (some games even) right up until a few months ago [1]. Good job taking your leap. Going through the process can definitely be unnerving when you're doing it to a device you rely on (which is a large part of why I recommend doing it immediately after getting the device). Or by all means everyone, keep dumping "old" hardware to stay on the manufacturer's software treadmill. I just replaced that S4 with an almost mint S7 for $80! [0] I will say, it actually does end up feeling like a little bit of a let-down to get a shiny new device, do the job of flashing it, and then be greeted with the same stock LOS setup. But then I remind myself that I got said device for a deliberate purpose, and it's actually nice not having to relearn an arbitrarily different UI. [1] FWIW, the symptoms lead me to believe it came down with something similar to "the emmc bug" that's been described for the i9300.
- navjack27 8y ago
  Replace Google for duckduckgo? UI responsiveness? Using anysoftkeyboard? It's an S5... And old... That's the problem.
  - larkeith 8y ago
    Components do not degrade significantly in the lifespan of a phone. Websites are generally no more intensive than when the S5 came out, and there's no reason for apps to be either. "It's old" is a worthless excuse for poor software design - as evidenced by the fact that using FOSS restores full performance.
  - ravenstine 8y ago
    Uh, yeah... if I don't have to spend money on a new phone when I can just install better software, that's my preference.
  - Izkata 8y ago
    My guess is that they were getting updates from their carrier. Back when the original Galaxy S was new, one of AT&T's minor updates bricked some peoples' phones and caused many more to run slowly. I'd already rooted mine and afterwards disabled some of the offending apps that they installed, so in terms of performance it still runs today as well as it did in 2010. I just never did a carrier update again.

universenz 8y ago

I bet you it's Bixby getting revenge.

paulie_a 8y ago
I swear the last software update on my s8 made that button more sensitive just to annoy me into using that garbage.

examancer 8y ago

This story is very thin on details, but with the abysmal quality level of most Samsung software it is 100% believable.

paulie_a 8y ago
Absolutely agreed. Great hardware that Samsung took a huge dump on with inferior replacement apps. Why do they even bother to develop worse versions of things built into Android? After my s8 issues and my randomly rebooting refrigerator, Samsung has lost me as a customer.
- pkulak 8y ago
  Just saw a "Hey, Bixbi" ad yesterday and it was as cringy as Scott's Tots. The company just has such an air of desperation and jealousy.
- flyinghamster 8y ago
  > randomly rebooting refrigerator Call me old-fashioned, but a refrigerator should never have to reboot. ;-) A microcontroller running drop-dead-simple firmware is OK, but if it ever has to reboot for any reason save power outages, they've failed. I'll certainly agree on Samsung's software (at least the sort of things users directly interact with) being a vortex of suck, though. Back when I used a Galaxy S Relay "4G" (the "4G" in quotes because they were calling DC-HSPA+ "4G"), I found the phone to be much better after I installed CyanogenMod. Too bad CyanogenMod imploded, and worse, there's no LineageOS for that old handset, which was one of the last good slider phones. To be fair to Samsung, I have no complaints about their SSD firmware, but I'll stay away from their cell phones.
  - paulie_a 8y ago
    I requested the source code on that refrigerator just to see how terrible it was. It's garbage clearly but I was pleasantly surprised they didn't hard code any passwords like Cisco's standard operating procedure. I still would never put it on wifi though.
  - 8y ago

reustle 8y ago

I'm not surprised. Semi related, my S8 often never saves photos that I take. It's a very common problem they have yet to acknowledge. https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS8/comments/7kc8wj/photos_not_saving/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS8/comments/7kc8wj/photos_not...

ChuckMcM 8y ago

Maybe its Google's answer to SnapChat, call it SnapRoulette :-) But more seriously the messaging story on Android is abysmally broken. There are SMS messages, vendor wrapped SMS/MMS messaging, Google flavored chat apps that sometimes map to SMS/MMS and sometimes to some Google protocol. Combine that with an insane permission model that basically wants you to hand over access to all your SMS/MMS rights for applications that deal with photos and I wouldn't put it past being a bit of malware in some photo client.

mikelward 8y ago
Samsung has its own SMS client, Samsung Messages. The fact Android allows custom SMS apps doesn't seem like a bad thing. Apps can send photos via Android Intent without requiring SMS permissions. If an app requests that permission, the user can say no. I'm not sure how that qualifies as insane.
- kerng 8y ago
  I have a Galaxy phone and have no idea if it's the basic Android or Samsung app. It just says Messages in the app settings, there is no Samsung Messages app.
  - poglet 8y ago
    Samsung Messages is also called 'Messages' and uses and orange and white icon. I went to Menu > Settings > About Messages and no where does it state that it is a Samsung app (but it is).
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - gh02t 8y ago
      Yep, Android (Google) Messages' logo is a white text bubble on blue background. If you have a Samsung phone and didn't explicitly install another SMS app you're probably using the Samsung one. Ditto for the email client (Email), the photo gallery (Gallery), calendar (Calendar) etc. Samsung likes to do their own thing. Edit: occurs to me that they don't have their own Maps app though. I'm honestly a bit surprised they didn't try to make at least their own UI for Google Maps, seems like a Samsung thing to do. I should also add that I don't mind the Samsung apps at all nowadays, but I do kinda wish they would just stick to the Google stuff (and quietly take Bixby out back and shoot it).

lxe 8y ago

The article was deleted. What happened? Here's a "mirror": https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/07/a-bug-in-samsungs-default-texting-app-is-sending-random-pics-to-other-people/ https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/07/a-bug-in-samsungs-default...

lxe 8y ago
I guess it's undeleted now

foobaw 8y ago

I've been in the OEM industry for years and can't believe this happened in production. For something like texting/RCS, there are thousands of phones being tested thousands of time by thousands of people with multiple additional checkpoints (ODM, Google, Carriers). It's a core functionality so it's extremely tightly verified. RCS was first implemented about three years ago for phones so it's shocking that this kind of bug happened now. I also worked on the initial infrastructure for this so I can't imagine how this bug was even introduced. My bet goes to it being a server-side issue, especially since it's carrier-specific, and not a software bug.

ikeboy 8y ago
If it's possible to be a server side issue, then no phones are ever secure.
- AFNobody 8y ago
  SMS and phone calls were never secure.
  - ikeboy 8y ago
    SMS and phone calls should never let the server see every file on your device, or every image
    - DINKDINK 8y ago
      >SMS and phone calls should never let the server see every file on your device, That may be the case but the bug could still be on the server side: Carol the Client: Hi Steve, will you send this photo to 111-1111? Steve the Server: Hi Carol, I've sent your photo to 555-5555 Unless you encrypt the data to your recipient's client-side held key, the opportunity for the server to err and data leak, persists.
      - breakingcups 8y ago
        That doesn't explain the case where all photos on the phone were silently sent to a contact.

hbcondo714 8y ago

> go into your phone’s app settings and revoke Samsung Messages’ ability to access storage. Until a real solution is released, this will prevent Messages from sending photos or anything else stored on your device, whether you want it to or not. I tried this but now when I launch the Samsung messages app, it asks me permission to access the phone's storage. When I click 'deny', the app closes so I can't access my messages with this "solution"

tuxracer 8y ago
They seem to have the advice slightly mixed up. It's not "revoke Samsung Messages storage permissions OR switch to another SMS app" it should be "revoke Samsumg Messages storage permissions AND switch to another SMS app" Highly recommend https://www.signal.org/ https://www.signal.org/ which on Android can act as your normal SMS client (as an added bonus if your contact also uses Signal there are some security enhancements)
- hbcondo714 8y ago
  Thank you; just made the permission change & made Signal my default SMS app. If it's good enough for Edward Snowden, it's good enough for me.

kbumsik 8y ago

Is this really a bug? Look at this: > Samsung Messages sent out their entire photo gallery to a contact in the middle of the night. Is it really possible to make this by mistake? Sounds like Samsung deliberately made a backdoor that sends the whole gallery to "someone". Their "bug" might be sending to unintended person.

rubatuga 8y ago
Something something don’t attribute malice for stupidity
gdulli 8y ago
Are you legit suggesting that Samsung intentionally created a feature to send themselves (or "the government") the entire camera rolls of their customers' phones, and simply got the destination wrong?
- kodablah 8y ago
  Or maybe more plausibly, they do have export code in there for any number of reasons including debugging, and they left it in there and are triggering it by accident. GP is likely just suggesting that it's quite amazing that a single little bug can do all of these steps as opposed to intentional code executed unintentionally.

hbcondo714 8y ago

> switch to a different texting app like Android Messages or Textra Great, I just got a Galaxy S9 after being a longtime iPhone user. What are HN's experiences with these messaging apps?

tootie 8y ago
They're all exactly the same and haven't changed appreciably in 10 years.
- Izkata 8y ago
  I just upgraded from an 8-year-old Samsung Galaxy S (jumping from Android 2.1 to 7), there's been a lot. Off the top of my head: * The difference between SMS and MMS is much more hidden from users * Group messages (where everyone is communicating with everyone in the same conversation, not a mass-text) * Not only did stickers not exist, graphical emoji didn't exist except in third-party messaging apps * More web integration, like being able to search for an image and send that * Google Pay integration, apparently I can send and request money
matchbok 8y ago
All crap. Move back asap.
mdellavo 8y ago
avoid samsung and stick to the google phones like pixel 2
hbcondo714 8y ago
@tuxracer posted a comment here to use Signal.org which looks great for privacy so I made the switch

throw7 8y ago

Good job samsung. This is probably related to their rollout of rcs on T-mobile, especially as this only affects samsung's texting app and not android messages... which is absolutely maddening as the point of rcs UP is to use whater rcs UP client you want. -.- freakin' telecoms.

duxup 8y ago

I kinda like the idea of getting random pics from people....

kulu2002 8y ago

Ridiculous!! Hey but I am still using Nokia Lumia ... already a dead product. Windows 8.1's default SMS app for mobile doesn't access gallery or any other thing.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

ben_utzer 8y ago

The article is wrong. You can't disable its permission. The App won't work.