Smartphones have become more and more powerful every year that we actually can’t find the use to maximize their capabilities. Still, it appears that brands are deliberately throttling apps to game performance.
A couple of the latest Samsung phones, including the new Galaxy S22 series, come with an app called Game Optimizing Service, which cannot be uninstalled or disabled. What’s weird is, its exact purpose was not detailed, although the name does give us a clue.
However, a Twitter user and tons of frustrated owners in South Korea found out that the said mysterious app is meant to “optimize” the performance of around 10,000 non-gaming apps.
An apps’ performance is being throttled when put on the Game Optimizing Service List. The list includes a couple of popular apps like Netflix, TikTok, Instagram, and even a couple of Google’s.
See also: 5G smartphones in the Philippines
But what apps did Samsung exclude? 3DMark, GeekBench, and other similar apps — you know, benchmarking apps that test the device’s performance.
Since the news broke out, the company posted a response on the Samsung Members app in Korea. You can check the rough translation below.
Hello. It’s Samsung. We are constantly trying to expand the option for users and provide the most optimized performance converging customers’ opinions. GOS(Game Optimizing Service) of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Series is pre-installed for optimizing the performance of CPU and GPU to prevent excessive heating when playing a game for a long time.
To meet the recent needs of various customers, it is planned to update the Game Booster lab to provide an option to prioritize the performance, as soon as possible.
Afterward, we will try our best for customers’ satisfaction and safety by listening to their opinions. Thank You
It looks like Samsung had good intentions, but it still didn’t answer why other Android apps are being affected. Still, it appears that enabling performance mode can disable most of the said throttling.
Via: 9to5Google
Thats a very bad move by Samsung, no matter what their marketing goals are and good intentions of
doing it it wont help them generate a lot of revenues for sure. With this issue full blown chance are many
samsung fones now will be displayed much much longer on shelves in many celfone shops globally as
compared to its competitors. Those hi end samsung fones dont deserve its high price tag for this matter.
The reason why you buy hi end samsung fone is for its performance in the first place only to find out you’re
not getting it based on what you’ve paid for. Thats kinda’ major hassle.
OnePlus got caught doing this like 6 months ago–that was when an honest Samsung would have talked about this. They hid it until they got caught. So, this is a thing because Qualcomm chips run super hot and not throttling them reduces the battery life with no user perceived gain for tiktok. They will offer an option, it will be noted that battery life goes way down, and this will fade. Apple also throttles, btw, but their chips are just far better sadly. Qualcomm is doing Android a huge disservice.