Comment from Samsung]Samsung is said to be throttling the performance of 10,000 popular apps

A new discovery indicates that Samsung is throttling the performance of thousands of devices Android apps on Galaxy smartphones. The issue affects many popular apps, including first-party apps from Google and Samsung.

Samsung has an app called Game Optimization Service which comes pre-installed on many Galaxy phones. Although the name suggests that the app helps improve gaming performance, it appears that it is used to limit the performance of non-gaming apps. Users in korean tech forum Miko They published a list of affected applications that are subject to performance reduction. The list includes 10,000 popular apps, including Instagram, TikTok, Netflix, Microsoft Office, Google Keep, Spotify, Snapchat, YouTube Music, and more. Samsung’s own apps like Samsung Pay, Secure Folder, Bixby, and others are also on the list. Notably, there are no standard apps in this blacklist.

Samsung created an app called GOS and used the app to limit game performance, making the gaming experience worse. However, as discovered by the Korean community today, Samsung confirmed that it has set performance limits on more than 10,000 apps… pic.twitter.com/U58AreZZoo

– 한 가련 (GaryeonHan) March 2, 2022

A video posted by a Korean YouTuber shows how blacklisted apps perform poorly while standard apps are given the freedom to act. In the test, the YouTuber changed the 3DMark benchmark app’s package name to Genshin Impact, one of the blacklisted apps. The unmodified version of the 3D Mark scored 2,618 points in the Wild Life Extreme test. When he took the same test with the scam version, there was a significant decrease in the result – 1141 points. In other words, the cheat version performed 56% worse than the unmodified version.

It’s not immediately clear if Game Optimization Service is installed on every Galaxy phone. Android salad Note that they could not find the application in Galaxy S22 Series units, Galaxy S20 FE and Galaxy S10s. at the same time, 9to5Google It is mentioned that it was installed on their Galaxy S22 Plus unit. It’s possible that Samsung pushed this app via a recent software update.

According to a post on navigatorSamsung appears to be aware of the issue and is conducting an internal investigation. Although Samsung hasn’t explained why it’s restricting Android apps, it’s likely in an effort to improve battery life. OnePlus was spotted doing something similar with the OnePlus 9 Pro last year. The company used an app called OnePlus Performance Service to throttle popular Android apps. The company later confirmed that it had added a performance limiting mechanism to improve the phone’s battery life and heat management.

Update: Samsung says it will give users an option to prioritize performance

Samsung has provided more details about the Game Optimization Service app. Samsung says the GOS app optimizes CPU and GPU performance to prevent heating issues during extended gaming sessions. Although Samsung’s announcement doesn’t say anything about the app throttling issue, it says the company is working on a software update that will add performance priority mode to the Game Launcher app. The option will be available from within the game booster lab.

Here is the full announcement from Samsung (machine-translated from Korean):

“We would like to tell you about Galaxy S22 GOS. We are constantly expanding user options and providing optimum performance by collecting feedback from customers. Samsung Galaxy S22 series GOS (Game Optimization Service) app has been downloaded which optimizes CPU and GPU performance to prevent heat Overload while playing for a long time. In order to meet the needs of many customers recently, we plan to implement the SW update that provides performance priority option in the Game Boost Lab within the game launcher app as soon as possible. We will continue to listen to consumer opinions and do our best to satisfy customers and protect consumer.
Thanks.”

source: Meeco . Forums (Korean), navigatorAnd the Tweet embed (via Twitter)

Across: Android salad