How to stop and remove Android Text Message Virus (Stagefright) on Galaxy S6

Stagefright was discovered in 2015 and it refers to a group of software bugs effecting Android. The flaw gave attackers the chance to carry out a variety of arbitrary operations on the targeted device, including privilege escalation and remote code execution. It is believed that over 900 million Android devices are vulnerable to this bug and the Samsung Galaxy S6 is not an exception. When a device is open to this flaw, it is possible that you receive a malicious MMS message that could put your device at risk. The malicious message would be specially designed to attack your device based on the number and everything happens in the background.

While Google has taken steps to tackle the problem, it is up to the phone’s manufacturer to apply the fix. Things get even more complex after that, because carriers also have to make sure that their networks are updated to prevent the bug from affecting users. The entire process can take some time and not all devices are fully protected against the issue. Only some of them have applied the patch successfully. Taking this into consideration, it is important that users take the necessary steps to prevent that the issue affects their devices. Thankfully, there are some things that you can do to help to protect your phone from the Stagefright Text Message Virus and in this case, we will refer specifically to the Samsung Galaxy S6.

The first thing to keep in mind is that you can simply prevent this issue by avoiding opening any suspicious texts. If you receive such a text, the bets thing is to delete it immediately. However, that won’t work in all cases because some Android users have Hangouts as their default messaging app and in that case, the incoming media messages are automatically processed, even if you don’t do anything to open them. Here, what you can do is to make sure that you use a different default messaging app or simply disable Hangout;s ability to automatically retrieve multimedia messages. Below we will take a look at the methods you can consider to avoid the Samsung Galaxy S6 virus.

How to stop Android Text Message Virus on Galaxy S6 – Method 1: Use a different messaging app

1. Go to the Settings menu
2. Under Connections, select More connection settings
3. Then, select Default messaging app. If you have other messaging apps installed (besides Hangouts), you can choose it at this point. If you don’t have alternative apps installed yet, download one from Google Play and replace hangouts with it.

How to stop Android Text Message Virus on Galaxy S6 by disabling Hangout’s ability to retrieve multimedia messages

1. Open Hangouts, then go to Settings and SMS
2. Look for the Advanced section
3. Uncheck the box that says Auto retrieve MMS

How to Stop Android Text Message Virus on Galaxy S6 with the help of Twitter customer support

Another option that not many people take advantage of is the possibility of contacting Samsung or their carrier via Twitter. Most companies use Twitter these days to offer support for their customers and it is worth taking advantage of this since they usually reply faster than through other channels. Due to the visibility on Twitter, most companies try to reply as fast as possible when they are contacted via Twitter so you can reach out to your mobile carrier to ask for more information about the implementation of a patch.