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I've been using Handcent Next SMS app for many years. A few moments ago, the Playstore's Play Protect just disabled the app on my phone saying the following:
This app is fake. It tries to take over your device or steal your data.
The webpage for the app comes up blank now:
To my knowledge, 10,000s of people have been using this app for many years.
Did something just change?
Anybody have more information about this sudden change/situation??
According to user223149 while attempting to reply to this question,
Got this answer from support:
Our app Handcent Next SMS has been misidentified as malware by Google, we are in talks with Google to get our app back to play store. In the meantime, please keep our app and do not uninstall. You should still have all your data when it returns to normal. You can use the stock app for now. Don't worry, we are trying our best to restore our service.
This was later confirmed on the official Handcent website, Twitter account, and Facebook Page,
Our app Handcent Next SMS has been misidentified as malware by Google, we are in talks with Google to get our app back to play store. In the meantime, please keep our app and do not uninstall. You should still have all your data when it returns to normal. You can use the stock app for now. Don't worry, we are trying our best to restore our service. You should be able to see our back in a few days. We apologize for the inconvenience, and will continue to provide a good user experience in the future.
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For those who want a temporary solution, please contact us at help@handcent.com
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User WildBSinTX on Reddit sent an email to Handcent support and got a reply,
I got a reply this morning with an explanation and an attachment with v9.9.9.
*Security patch to fix a potential threat
*Other fixes to make sure it's in a good safe stateI installed it, and so far, so good.
On their main page, they say, "For those who want a temporary solution, please contact us at help@handcent.com". I'm sure they will email the attachment to you, too. Keep an eye on www.handcent.com.
Since I did not uninstall the app after the high-risk warning, I was able to go to Play Protect and enable the app. Then I went into settings for the app and changed the permissions to allow for usage of apps that aren't on the Play Store. I also changed the setting where Play Protect wouldn't scan Handcent. Once I restarted, everything was back.
