Samsung planning software update to address ‘app throttling’ issue

Samsung said on Friday it will commence a software update “as soon as possible” to address consumer complaints about a preinstalled app limiting the performance of Galaxy S22 smartphones.

The issue stems from the Game Optimising Service (GOS) app on the phones, which automatically limits the performance of devices when it detects a gaming app is in operation.

The South Korean tech giant said it plans to add an option in its game launcher app to allow users to prioritise performance through the software update.

More details on how this option will work are expected to be announced later.

Samsung previously explained that the GOS app was put on devices to prevent them from overheating and losing battery too quickly during gaming for consumer safety.

Beyond limiting gaming performance, there have also been unverified posts on social media and South Korean community forums that the app has affected the performance of non-gaming apps. Samsung has denied these claims, saying that the GOS app only affects gaming apps.

The GOS app itself is not a new feature to the Galaxy S22 series and has been on previous generations of Galaxy smartphones.

For those older devices, however, gamers had workarounds for the feature but these have been purportedly blocked with Samsung’s recent One UI 4.1 update.

Since sales began for the Galaxy S22 series, numerous complaints have been posted across Samsung’s community forums for South Korean consumers and user community pages.

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