Chinese smartphones consider Google apps 'malicious code'

In recent days, users of Chinese smartphone brands such as Huawei, Honor, and Vivo have reported receiving "security threat " warnings on their phones because they installed Google apps. In a post on Google's support page, a person using a Huawei P10 said that the device "detected the Google app as a malicious code called TrojanSMS-PA".

This person then uninstalled the program and reinstalled it, but it did not fix the problem. The P10 is still Huawei's smartphone generation that fully uses Google services on the Android platform before the US trade ban from late 2019, causing the Mate 30 series and later to have the Google service package removed.

Thousands of others have reported similar problems, with the majority using Huawei and Honor phones, and a smaller number using Vivo devices.

The editor of the security news site Bleeping Computer confirmed that the devices they are using are also warning about malware, a security threat in Google software. TrojanSMS-PA is warned to be able to silently send SMS messages, steal personal information, and make unauthorized payments. However, security experts say these are "false alarms".

A Google representative confirmed that the above notification did not originate from the company's Play Protect system because "genuine" applications from the unit when uploaded to the Play Store software store must also go through the same review and security scanning steps as programs from other developers, with the same requirements to ensure security standards. The company believes that users may have used devices that are not Play Protect certified, so they had to download and install applications from unsecured sources.

However, the Huawei devices currently displaying malware warnings reported by users are all devices released before the US ban, and there are also smartphones from other brands such as Honor and Vivo, so experts say Google's guess is not accurate.