Google falsely flags Samsung apps as “harmful,” tells users to remove them

Most Android users have probably never seen Google Play Protect in action. The malware-scanning service is built into every Android device and is supposed to flag malware that users have installed. Recently it flagged some popular apps that are very much not malware: Samsung Wallet and Samsung Messages.

As spotted by 9to5Google, Samsung users have been getting hit with Play Protect warnings since earlier this month. Users on the Google Support forum have posted screenshots of Play Protect flagging the Samsung system apps, and even Samsung responded to the issue, explaining (in Korean) how to fix any damage caused by the bug. Samsung says (through translation) the issue was caused by "a temporary failure of the Google server" and should now be fixed.

Samsung Wallet and Samsung Messages both come bundled with most Samsung phones as system apps, so they have a wide install base. When Play Protect flags an app as harmful, it pops up a message suggesting users remove the app, but since these are both system apps, users can only disable them.

With the issue resolved, Samsung say you can get the app back up and running by going into the app settings and re-enabling them, though your settings have probably been deleted. Some users were working around this bug by disabling Play Protect scanning, and it's probably best to turn that back on.

Listing image by Google