So, in the past few days I have been getting numerous spam gobbledegook messages and faux phone calls on my Lem16.
See pics for a sample.
I have no idea what app is causing it, but this is what I have done so far.
I shut down bluetooth - still got the messages.
I shut down wifi - still got messages
I turned on airplane mode (i.e shutting down the sim card) and still got messages.
I did a factory reset - still got messages.
I did a factory reset AGAIN - still got messages (and I hadn’t even logged in to my wifi or even google services!).
SO, what is this? A virus in the actual phone that stays there even after a factory reset? Could it be in my SIM card?
Is there some kind of antivirus I can install?
Do I need a new SIM card? How do I know it isn’t embedded in the watch itself and not any app?
It seems to be the icon of the Gaofit app, which makes sense.
That is an app which can sync notifications between your phone and watch, so it’s very task is to make notifications.
How/what makes it mirror other users notifications on your watch is the very good question
… And even with no connectivity…
They could be buffered messages from when it was once connected. Is it repeating the same messages or every time a new one ?
I saw several strong recommendations from the admins NOT to use Gaofit because of privacy issues. Seeing this makes me even more aware of avoiding it.
Thanks for such a quick response! I do not know what the Gaofit app is but I will suss it out right now.
Also, the idea that they are buffered messages makes perfect sense and I had been thinking that they were something stored on the phone that activated each day (usually in the evening). But I can’t understand how they would be there after a factory reset.
I have just installed AVG antivirus on the watch as well.
I will post an update soon
Looking through my apps list there’s apps called ‘com.wiite.home.MyApp’
and ‘com.wiite.wiitestore.App’.
These seem very likely as GaoFit is Wiite Intelligent Technology Ltd.,Coz-Wiite
AND I may add when I was looking at recently used apps after getting these messages they did feature as being used recently!
My next question. Do I just disable them? Do they actually do anything important?
Unfortunately it is preinstalled on our watches and even a system app which cannot be removed, but we are advised against configuration and use of it. I guess it may be possible to go to the apps notification settings and disable its notifications, so that would make your watch quiet, but that doesn’t take away the concern how someone else’s messages arrived at your phone or even worse, does it also replicate our messages to other users …
Perhaps we can also reject it’s permission to read notifications !? But being a system app, I will never really feel assured what it can/cannot do…
So, I have disabled those apps, also, sorry, you did mention that Gaofit is a synching app between phone and watch…well I don’t actually own a handset phone… my only phone is my watch. I wonder if I was synched to somebody else’s phone somehow (in a malicious way)?
These messages only come during a certain period each night so I will now wait and see what happens tomorrow night! Thanks for giving me some very useful advice
com.wiite.home.MyApp is the default launcher and com.wiite.wiitestore.App is an alternative app store, the app you are looking for is called “Assistant”
Did you read the post @G1NT0N1C links to and the attached PDF guide ? There is an explanation to use an app which will give you the exact name of apps as a preparation to removing them.
@Dotsfar is right. It is described in detail in the instructions. You’ll need an app called Package Viewer to find out the app’s package name. This is also linked in the post.
To be honest, this only happens if you actually use the GaoFit app.
I have not changed anything on my LEM 16 and because I have not used the built in tethering app - I have never had this problem.
It is just the logo and it is built in to the notification system of GaoFit
The issue I experienced with my z40 and the unsolicited notifications also displayed the GaoFit icon. It was associated with the embedded iPhone friendly ‘watch’ low power bluetooth connection and has been addressed in the Android 11 posts.
As the resolution to remove GaoFit led to issues with ‘raise to wake’ and other apps, I found it beneficial to disable the scanning addition to the ‘nearby share’ setting hidden in bluetooth connections. This suppressed the tendancy for the watch to respond to the poorly setup ‘tethered’ devices of others in the vacinity, an unfortunate by product of the amount of ‘traffic’ in the environment where the watch is ( in my case, a high school during a break).
I don’t use GaoFit or tether to another phone either. It was just the icon the phone assigned to the notifications it ‘caught’ and displayed as a result of the interaction of so many other devices and supported potential connections.
Thankfully, it hasn’t continued. This ‘hunting’ connection appeared to be the conduit for the spamming notifications.
I have since explored my watch and there is a setting in the Bluetooth preferences titled ‘Nearby Share’. I have this turned off, but one of the lower settings mentions Bluetooth scanning will occur even if this is turned off. (Show notification can override the ‘off’ button.)
It helped to have the settings on the other nearby phones correctly setup too. If an iPhone, as an example, is setup with an Apple watch tethered but the Apple watch isn’t present the z40 would ‘catch’ the notifications via the embedded ‘watch’ connection. If the iPhone user disabled the tether then there is no potential issue.
