In what is being described as a Google Play “malfunction” some Google Android users on Monday discovered a Russian e-mail app installed on their Samsung based smartphones.
The app is titled “??? ????????? ?????” which translates to “MTS Mobile Mail.” When originally pushed to users smartphones Samsung named its native email app ” com.seven.27? while the new Russian app name was also ” com.seven.27? which forced an automatic update that caused the users native email app to be replaced with its Russian counterpart.
After the app was unknowingly installed many user began to contact Google with claims that malware had been installed on their smartphones.
For users worried about the glitch it should be noted that the developer who created the MTS Mobile Mail app was also responsible for creating Samsung’s own e-mail app and in fact the programs share the same signing certificate. It’s believed the app was pushed onto devices by accident during an update to the Samsung client.
Google, Samsung and app developer OJSC did not immediately respond to the accident while some users have reported issues when attempting to remove the Russian based application from their smartphones.
In the meantime Google Play has removed the Russian e-mail app in order to help prevent and further confusion from occurring.
Google Android users in the meantime should not be afraid to use their Smartphones although this latest mix up shows how Google desperately needs better management of its app platform. This most recent mistake also highlighted a big problem with the Google Android OS, the inability to easily disable native apps once installed on a users phone.
