A. Lamrani
You open your system-app list and notice a name you never installed: com.facebook.appmanager. No icon. No shortcut. No launch button — just a background service signed by Meta Platforms, Inc. It feels suspicious, but it isn’t spyware. It’s a legitimate …
On many Android phones, Facebook doesn’t behave like an ordinary app. It runs when you haven’t launched it, stays active after resets, and appears in logs under a name you didn’t search for: com.facebook.katana. That package isn’t suspicious. It’s the …
You didn’t install it. You can’t open it. But it’s in your phone — right there in /system/priv-app/, with a name that looks more like malware than anything that should be part of a trusted Android build: com.android.cts.priv.ctsshim. It doesn’t …
You open Find My expecting to see a location — but all you get is a blank. Just a contact name floating over “No Location Found.” No timestamp. No address. No mini map. Just silence. You switch tabs, try again. …
Your phone buzzes. You hear the notification. But your app icon stays clean — no red number, no dot, no signal that anything’s waiting. On Samsung phones, that usually points to one thing — BadgeProvider being broken, missing, or turned …
You’re stuck at 12%. You’ve got ten minutes and a slow charger. Someone says: “Just flip on Airplane Mode — it charges faster.” You try it. The battery ticks up, maybe a bit quicker. Maybe not. You wonder if it …
You tap “Call.” The screen blinks. Then nothing. No ringing, no error tone — just silence and a message: “Cellular network not available for voice calls.” If you’re on Verizon, it’s rarely a tower outage — and it’s not random. …
You’re not sideloading anything. You’re not in Developer Mode. You didn’t flash ROMs, tweak APNs, or mess with IMS settings. And then — without warning — your Samsung throws this: “com.sec.epdg has stopped.” You swipe it away. It reappears. Then …
You swap SIMs and instead of service, you get a wall of text: “SIM card is not from Verizon Wireless.” For some phones, that’s the end of calls, texts, and data. For others, it’s a nag that won’t disappear even …
You’re in a call. The screen goes dark. No dial tone, no UI, no disconnect message. You check signal — full bars. Data works. But the call just never starts. And when you dig into the system app list, the …
