Samsung Might Be Throttling The Performance of Thousands of Apps

As reported by Twitter user GaryeonHan and several other Samsung users, Samsung has put “performance limits” on thousands of apps.

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

— 한가련 (@GaryeonHan) March 2, 2022

The Apps That Are Being Affected

The list includes apps  like Netflix, Instagram, Google Keep, Microsoft’s Office suite, and more . What’s even more surprising is the fact that some of Samsung’s native apps have also made it to this list. These include Samsung Cloud, Samsung Pass, Secure Folder, Samsung Pay, and dialer apps. This means even these apps are subjected to performance hits.

What Could Be The Reason Behind This Throttling?

The Game Optimizing Service! Yes, Samsung’s own Game Optimizing Service, GOS in short, seems to be the culprit. But, isn’t this something that is meant to optimize game performance? Yes, it is. Not just that, it even helps reduce heat and improve the phone’s battery life. However, in this case, it is doing more harm than good. The apps that we just listed above and many others are facing performance issues because of this. 

But, The Same GOS Seems To Be Liking Benchmarking Apps

What came as another surprise and as illustrated by a Korean YouTuber is that benchmarking apps like 3DMark and Geekbench have been exempted from throttling. 

Wait! This surprise spree is not yet over. The YouTuber we just mentioned, further, tricked GOS into seeing 3DMark as a popular game Genshin Impact by changing the package name of 3DMark to Genshin Impact. This reduced the benchmark score by more than half on Galaxy S22 Ultra. 

Sadly, the GOS feature comes preloaded on Samsung Galaxy devices and can’t be uninstalled. There are also reports that the new Samsung Galaxy S22 might have it too. 

What Has Samsung Got To Say On The Issue?

And, is it just Samsung that’s doing this? Let’s first answer this question. Big Smartphone brands are known to deliberately throttle the performance of their old smartphones, in the wake, that the customer will upgrade to a newer variant. The likes of OnePlus, Apple, and many others have already been caught doing this. 

As to why apps are being throttled, here is what Samsung has to say – 

“We would like to inform you about the Galaxy S22 GOS. We are continuously working to expand user options and provide optimal performance by collecting opinions from customers. The Samsung Galaxy S22 series’ GOS (Game Optimizing Service) is preloaded with our app ‘ that optimizes CPU and GPU performance to prevent excessive heat during long game play. In order to meet the needs of various customers recently, we plan to implement a SW update that provides a performance priority option in the game booster lab within the game launcher app as soon as possible. We will continue to listen to consumers’ opinions and do our best for customer satisfaction and consumer protection.

thank you.”

Wrapping Up

If you are a Samsung Galaxy user and have observed some major performance issues, do mention your Galaxy model and the issue you have faced in the comments section. Having said that, Samsung smartphones are one of the most popular smartphones. They are one of the market leaders when it comes to that. They might as well fix these issues in the next update or remove the GOS feature altogether. Whatever it is, we’ll keep you posted. Till then stay tuned and get your regular bite of tech-related content on WeTheGeek.