Smartphone makers are known to slow down their handsets on purpose. Last year, OnePlus was caught red-handed and there has been news of Apple doing the same thing with its iPhones.
Now Samsung has been caught in the act as well as shown by a report from Twitter user GaryeonHan. Relating evidence was also posted on a Korean tech blog which revealed that Samsung is limiting the performance of up to 10,000 different apps using Samsung’s Game Optimizing Service (GOS).
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
— í•œê°€ë ¨ (@GaryeonHan) March 2, 2022
Samsung itself has also confirmed that it has been putting performance limits on more than 10,000 apps. Despite its name, GOS is not just affecting games, but all kinds of other apps including social media, productivity, media consumption, music apps, and more. The list of affected apps includes TikTok, Microsoft Office, Google Keep, Netflix, etc.
The issue is even seeping into Samsung’s own suite of apps such as Samsung Pass, Samsung Cloud, and others. Unsurprisingly, benchmarking apps were not included in the list such as Geekbench 5, AnTuTu, 3DMark, and others. It’s ironic how the Exynos 2200 fails to impress even on these benchmarking apps.
However, the Samsung Galaxy S22 lineup is thankfully free from the GOS plague.
Samsung has not released a public statement regarding GOS yet, but the company’s representatives are likely going to claim that the “feature” exists to prolong battery life, as that is usually the case when a company is caught limiting performance.
