Samsung shared a post earlier this month saying “Protect your Galaxy device with the Auto Blocker feature”. Samsung’s OneUI 6 based on Android 14 comes with a security feature called Auto Blocker, which is located in the Security and Privacy settings. It reportedly protects your Galaxy device by preventing the installation of applications from unauthorized sources The Auto Blocker feature is enabled by default, however, you can disable it during the setup process.
I feature to strengthen the security of the phone
Installing apps from third-party sources can be risky for the security of the device sometimes. While the pre-installed app stores are far from being perfect, implement various safety checks to prevent the distribution of malicious apps.
Notably, Android already blocks sideloading by default at an operating system level. The permission that most third-party app stores end up using, REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES, has to be granted explicitly by the user.
Samsung’s Auto Blocker feature entirely blocks the installation of apps from unauthorized sources even if the source was granted the REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES permission.
How to disable Auto Blocker?
Users of devices that get the feature through the OneUI 6.1.1 update can easily disable it by going to Settings > Security and Privacy> Auto Blocker. After this step, users will have to allow an app to sideload another, which is Android’s default sideloading behavior. Samsung devices running on One UI 6.1.1 reportedly include the past few generations of Galaxy S series and Z series devices so far.
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