A glitch in the pre-installed Samsung Messages texting app appears to be sending photos from Samsung Galaxy phones to random user contacts without their knowledge or consent. Further, there appear to be no records of these transmissions in sent folders. Affected users have become aware of the issue after recipients respond to the messages received.
It is recommended that Samsung Galaxy users disable the Messages apps access to the device’s storage and use an alternate messaging app, such as Android Messages. Please note that it is likely that users who disable the Messages app will lose access to prior messages and render the app unusable. The following are steps to disable the access of Samsung Messages to device storage:
- Go to Settings
- Select Apps, and choose the Messages app
- Select Permissions, and move the Storage toggle to disable or off.
Resources:
- https://www.zdnet.com/article/weird-samsung-galaxy-bug-phones-are-quietly-texting-photos-to-random-contacts/
- https://gizmodo.com/a-bug-in-samsungs-default-texting-app-is-sending-random-1827291759