Samsung vows to fix app throttling with software updates

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Samsung Galaxy app throttling
But Samsung denies throttling regular apps.
Photo: Đức Trịnh/Unsplash

Samsung on Friday promised smartphone owners that it will release software updates that gives them more control over app throttling.

It comes after the South Korean firm was this week caught reducing performance for more than 10,000 apps and games on most of its smartphones. However, the company denies that it messed with “non-gaming” apps.

Samsung will change throttling tactics

Samsung has faced overwhelming criticism since its app throttling tactics came to light. It all started when a Korean user uncovered a pre-installed process that prevents many apps from pushing a phone’s CPU for maximum performance.

That process, “Game Optimizing Service,” explains why many Samsung users have experienced poor performance in demanding games — despite having some of the best mobile chipsets on the market. And it cannot be disabled.

Samsung promised an internal investigation to get to the bottom of the situation, and now the company has confirmed it will roll out software updates to give smartphone owners more control over app performance.

“We value the feedback we receive about our products and after careful consideration, we plan to roll out a software update soon so users can control the performance while running game apps,” Samsung’s Kelly Yeo told The Verge.

“Our priority is to deliver the best mobile experience for consumers,” the spokesperson added.

Samsung denies throttling apps

Why does this apply only to “game apps?” Well, Samsung seems to be denying that it throttles anything other than games.

“The Game Optimizing Service (GOS) has been designed to help game apps achieve a great performance while managing device temperature effectively. GOS does not manage the performance of non-gaming apps,” Yeo said.

That’s not what Samsung users are saying. Those who have carried out their own tests have discovered that, in addition to throttling games like Call of Duty and Genshin Impact, there are caps on apps like Microsoft Office.

About the only thing Samsung really avoids is benchmarking apps, such as 3DMark and Geekbench. And that’s likely to ensure that users still see impressive benchmarking test scores, even if they mean nothing.

Updates on the way

Samsung didn’t mention any of this, unsurprisingly, and it hasn’t provided a timeline for its software updates yet. They will likely hit newer flagship devices first, then trickle down to older and more affordable models later.

It’s worth noting, however, that Samsung won’t be disabling Game Optimizing Service by default. It will just give users greater control over what’s throttled.

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