Google apologizes for accidentally changing settings on some Android smartphones

Jeff
Chiu/AP

• On Friday, some Android smartphone users reported that their
  battery-saving settings were enabled without their knowledge or
  consent. 
• Google eventually admitted that it was an experimental
  feature that was accidentally rolled out to more users than
  intended.
• On Saturday, the company apologized for the confusion.
• The event raises questions about how much control Google has
  over users’ smartphones without their knowledge or consent. 

Google has issued an apology to the smartphone users on
Reddit who reported on Friday that their battery-saving
settings were turned on without their knowledge or consent.

Here’s what happened. According to numerous Android owners who
posted in the Reddit thread flagging the issue, last week the
battery-saving option on Google’s Pixel smartphones, as well as
two Essential Phones, was inexplicably turned on, even if the
owners had previously turned it off. The affected phones were
running the latest version of the Android operating system,
Android Pie 9.0. 

The battery-saving feature slows down the phone’s performance and
prevents the phone from actively searching for notifications for
things like emails and updates within apps. 

The Pixel 2 from
Google.
Hollis Johnson/Business
Insider

Google commented on the Reddit thread admitting that “This
was an internal experiment to test battery saving features that
was mistakenly rolled out to more users than intended.” Google
apologized in its response to Redditors, saying “Sorry for the
confusion.”

Google also rolled back the battery-saving settings to
their original settings on the affected phones.

While the rollout of Google’s experimental feature on
Android is a seemingly harmless accident, it did raise questions
among smartphone owners in the Reddit thread about the kind of
control that Google has on phones running Android. The notion
that Google could remotely change settings on their smartphones
was not well received, especially in instances when the phone’s
owner wasn’t notified of the change first.

One Redditor said “the whole ‘we’ll fix it guys’ is not
gonna fly on this one. What other changes are being made behind
the scenes that may or may not be interfering with users’ lives
and or / feeding data to Google?” Another Redditor said “They
shouldn’t have had the ability to change a setting like that in
my phone without warning.”

Others were seemingly understanding, or they had at least
come to peace with the fact that Google could change a
smartphone’s settings without notification.

It should be noted that the experimental feature was,
indeed, experimental. As such, the feature may not have contained
any kind of notification for users. It’s entirely possible that a
final version of the feature could contain some kind of option
allowing users to opt-in option for the feature.

Business Insider contacted Google regarding what kind of
steps it would take to notify users if such a feature was to be
rolled out, but has yet to hear back.