Samsung Silently Installing Bloatware Apps Via Software Updates Without User’s Consent

Samsung is going all Xiaomi on its Galaxy smartphone users with their AD ridden stock apps and push notifications for upcoming products. The OEM’s is now sneakily installing bloatware onto your smartphone via system updates without your consent.

Samsung Galaxy users are reportedly being served with spam and bloatware apps such as Cred, Moj, Share chat, MAX Taka Tak, and the biggest one – Byjus. The issue came to light just recently when a user in Samsung community was surprised to see the app called CRED installed on his/her’s Galaxy M31. According to the user, CRED was installed on the phone after a recent software update. 

The Galaxy M series smartphones such as M10, M20, M30, and M31 are placed at a very competitive price range in the Asian market. Looks like Samsung is being sponsored by these companies for installing apps apps without users knowledge.

Another Reddit user u/akoli35 in this thread just claimed that Samsung is specifically releasing system updates to install bloatware onto smartphones like Byju’s, Cred, Josh and more.

Mind you that these are not you typical social media apps like Facebook. These are outright trash companies meant to spam people in whichever way possible. I mean look at “CRED credit card bills, rewards, free credit score”. Moj is just TikTok clone, and not even good. The biggest of them all is Byjus app. Byjus is arguably the worst company in India and proven to be unethical in some areas.

This isn’t new. Samsung’s so called flagship Galaxy S-series phones are full of advertisements; which costs thousands of dollars by the way. While some argue that you can easily turn of ads by disabling marketing choices. It’s not that easy.

Every time you open the Galaxy Store, it will prompt you to sign up for their marketing choices so they can server you push notifications. If you want to simply apply a new theme or a new wallpaper from the Galaxy Store/Themes app, it will first trick you into accepting Samsung’s marketing choice. If you click agree, good luck finding the opt out option.

Additionally, when you open the Galaxy Store after its updated, you will be greeted with a screen with pre-selected apps in order to install them on your phone. The user interface is especially designed to trick you into hitting yes.

While the bloatware thing may have been restricted to the mid-range A-series and budget M-series smartphones, you may soon be served with this on your $1000 flagship, if nothing is done.