Samsung’s (newer) Galaxy smartphones found to be artificially throttling apps

Samsung makes some really excellent phones. We’ve long been convinced on that score, but occasionally the company… is less impressive. Currently, the South Korean tech maker’s newer Galaxy smartphones are under scrutiny. How come? They’re apparently artificially limiting the performance of up to 10,000 apps.

Which, based on all available indications, seems to be happening. Korean Samsung users discovered that a bunch of apps are being scooped into another app called Game Optimising Service. This undeletable app limits the performance of more apps than it is supposed to. And, if it’s on your phone, you’re likely affected too.

Samsung got some ‘splaining to do

Based purely on the name, Samsung’s Game Optimizing Service (GOS) should… well, optimise games. And it might well do that, but it also has a second job. That is, limiting the performance of a whole host of other apps. Among those are Netflix, YouTube, a handful of Google’s apps, Instagram, TikTok… you get the idea. Excluded on the list (of about 10,000 apps) are benchmarking apps, like Geekbench and 3D Mark.

A South Korean renamed 3D Mark to Genshin Impact, to get the app to run under GOS. The video, above, shows just how much scores dip when Samsung’s software has hold of it. Performance is more or less halved, in some cases, with frame rates for the test being slashed in a similar manner.

There’s speculation as to why this might have permitted. OnePlus did something similar last year, in an attempt to lengthen battery life on its smartphones. This is the likeliest explanation for the behaviour exhibited by GOS. Those Galaxy S batteries are awfully thirsty, sometimes. Saving a few milliamps here and there could go a long way to lasting out the day. Shaving it from apps that don’t really need the processor cycles is an easy way to do it. Unless you get caught.

Officially, Samsung is treating this occurrence as though it was never supposed to happen at all. Android Authority reports that the company is currently investigating GOS’ behaviour internally. An official statement is expected soon.

Source: Android Authority