Samsung Messages Glitch Causes Phones To Randomly Send Photos To Contacts

A glitch in Samsung’s default Messages app is causing some handsets to randomly send photos to contacts without telling the users first. Samsung is now aware of the issue, but it has yet to address the problem.

Users recently started to complain about the glitch over Reddit and the official Samsung forums. According to them, their texting app is now sending out their random pictures without their knowledge. They’d only learn about it once the deed is done, but this part is also a bit tricky. Some users say they didn’t find any record of the sent images on the Messages app. Instead, they would know about it when checking their service provider’s logs.

The complaints are mostly from owners of handsets Samsung released last year and earlier this 2018, such as the Galaxy Note 8 and the Galaxy S9 series. The Samsung Messages app on these Galaxy devices erroneously send stored pictures to random contacts via SMS, Gizmodo has learned.

One user who shared his experience on Reddit claims that the texting app sent out his entire photo gallery to a contact in the middle of the night. Fortunately, the recipient was his partner. Others disclosed that the glitch sent their photos to their business partners and bosses.

Samsung has acknowledged the problem in a statement, saying, “We are aware of the reports regarding this matter and our technical teams are looking into it. Concerned customers are encouraged to contact us directly at 1-800-SAMSUNG.”

There are speculations that the issue may be caused by the RCS messaging updates being pushed out by carriers. T-Mobile rolled out an RCS update earlier this week, so some surmised that it could be the root cause of the problem. T-Mobile was reached for comment, and a spokesperson insisted to The Verge that this is “not a T-Mobile issue.”

For those anxious about the Samsung Messages glitch, AppleInsider recommends disabling the app’s storage access permissions. This way Samsung’s default Messages app won’t have access to any of the stored data, especially users’ photos.