Mysterious ‘1’ notification spooks Samsung Galaxy owners

A strange message with a “1” stacked on top of another “1” mysteriously popped up on Samsung Galaxy devices this week. It was all cleared up, but not before causing some confusion.

Smartphone owners reported on a Samsung help board Wednesday that they’d gotten the “1” notification from their Find My Mobile app, which helps users track their phone’s location. Customers reported that the message disappeared when tapped.

The South Korean tech company said later that the message went out by mistake and that it wasn’t harmful.

However, at a time when even the world’s most powerful people can’t escape breaches, some Samsung owners braced for the worst.

“I’ve never used that app before. Didn’t even know it was on this phone,” a user wrote on the community board Wednesday. “I’m starting to get worried thinking someone hacked into my phone or something.”

The post elicited concerned responses from several other users.

“Same just happened to me. I am clueless as well. Going to force stop it until more is known,” someone else wrote.

Samsung cleared the air a couple of hours later, tweeting from its UK customer help account that the notification was a test gone wrong.

Among the Galaxy models that received the notifications were the Note10, Note10+, S9, S10 and Galaxy Z Flip, according to the help boards and tweets.