Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/05/your-samsung-smartphone-is-sha.html
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Checked and nope. “Samsung Messages” isn’t installed on my Galaxy S8+ which i guess is some comfort. Unfortunately the phone likes to randomly install other Samsung/Bixby apps at random without my permission and i can’t delete them (yay bloatware). Would love to get rid of them but would involve me rooting the phone which i don’t like doing.
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Value added feature.
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Are you sure? Because as a fellow Galaxy S8+ owner, I definitely have Samsung Messages installed, as it is the default texting app that came with the phone. Look for an app named “Messages” with an orange icon. Looks like this:
That being said, you can always switch to a third-party texting app, revoke all permissions for Messages, and even freeze background processes for the Messages app without root. Search for “freezing Android apps without root,” and you will find what you need.
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Ah see that’s actually helpful, i checked in the linked article and they also didn’t make that distinction. I don’t have a “Samsung Messages” but definitely do have the “Messages”. I think for now i’m just going to revoke the permission to access pictures/files and the camera
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Good thing all of my photos are boring memory aids (serial number labels, error messages, etc.) and the backs or bottoms of hard to access things.
Also good thing I’m still rocking the Note 4.
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Or find your supported device on LineageOS, install appropriate build and do away with all the crapware.
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Except that’s 90% of what you want to do with the app.
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Samsung Non-consensual Chat Roulette™
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Is there one likely to be less promiscuous with your data? Obviously, the stock android one is better (in a million ways), but in pretty sure you can’t get that.
Google’s official Android texting app? I dunno about how it handles data though but can’t be worse than Samsung (i hope).
AKA: Android Messages
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Yup! Lineage builds are available for the Google Nexus 7 model II, the best tablet on the market for e-reading despite being over four years old now.
(If you have a new in box GN7 2013 model, you can sell it today for more than you paid for it, no problem. Because although it’s not perfect, there has literally never been a better machine built… but device makers don’t pay attention to the actual market for devices, they are philosophically dedicated to the tail wagging the dog.)
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My wife has a carrier Samsung, and I have an unlocked Motorola with stock android, and while Samsung’s crapware is generally shitty, the messaging app is far and away the worst part.
It’s the perfect excuse for people in trouble for sending unsolicited dickpix: “I have a Samsung.”
“My phone was hacked” always sounded lame.
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I’ve never had issues or complaints with the Samsung texting app, it does what i need it to do. I don’t text much either, your mileage may vary.
She often has messages float in limbo for days.
Hmm. A messaging app that simulates sending a message in a bottle. If “Die With Me” is a workable concept, this might work.
/brb
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Hm weird, the only time i had issues like that was when i lived in Vegas. The neighborhood i lived at for a time had terrible reception, sometimes messages would be delivered like a week or two later. One time led me to run out the door thinking i was going to miss some plans i had made with a friend, when i called her when i got in my car she was like “wtf are you talking about? I sent that message 2 weeks ago”
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God I don’t even bother reading these any more. If it’s about insecure technology, it’s bullshit clickbait. it’s like when the Enquirer says “QUEEN IS DEAD” and you open up to find out she sneezed once a few years ago and “palace sources are concerned.”
I hope there’s never a real wolf.
The other day I took a picture of an especially bothersome irritation on a region of my body that was difficult for me to directly view. I have mixed feelings about the consequences of this.
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