Samsung phones bug: sending photos to random contacts

It has been reported that Samsung smartphones are sending photos to random contacts without the permission. Several complaints have been received on official Samsung forums and on Reddit about the issue which has affected many Samsung users, it seems a software issue rather than hardware.

The users said that Samsung’s default messaging app, Samsung messages is sending pictures to random contacts on the phone via MMS. One user raged out and said his entire gallery was sent to a contact in the middle of the night, but fortunately the contact was his partner, otherwise, it would be a big privacy breach if the photos were sent to a person little known.

The worst thing is, after sending all the pictures to the contact Samsung messages has no history of sending any messages to any of the contacts unless the person who receives the pictures tells you about it. That is something really serious for many Samsung users.

The issue appeared apparently due to a communication error between Samsung messages and RCS (Rich Communication Services) profile updates rolled out for carriers including T-Mobile. RSC updates the media sharing, typing indicators, and other protocols.

When Samsung was contacted for an input the company said, “We are aware of the issue and our technical teams are working to resolve it. Affected users can contact us directly at 1-800-SAMSUNG.”

T-Mobile referred the customers back to Samsung, acknowledging the issue is not related to carrier.

What you should do

If you are Samsung user you might become a victim of this bug, to prevent any unpleasant incident you should revoke Samsung Messages ability to access storage on your phone via settings. You can also change the default messaging app and do not let Samsung messages to be your default messaging app.

Let’s hope Samsung would resolve the issue as soon as possible.