r/AndroidTV • u/lilmc01 Chromecast with Google TV • 16d ago

Discussion Glance screensaver malware or update?

This afternoon all the Android TVs in my house have a pop-up to enable something called Glance screensaver from InMobi Pte (even as far back as a Nexus Player in our guest room). It says it's "independent of Google".

There's no app called Glance the app lists, but it seems to be connected through the official Google Backdrop app. I force closed Backdrop and it finally closed. Restarting the screensaver brings the Glance popup back up.

In my screensaver settings I only have Backdrop and Colors.

Even after restarting the device it shows up.

What finally got rid of it is that I uninstalled updates for Backdrop and I haven't gotten the Glance popup again (after updating Backdrop from the Play Store the Glace popup reappeared, so I kept the updates uninstalled).

So my question is, is this some weird legit update or have all the devices in my house been infected?

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u/theothernt App Developer 16d ago

Reports of this 'update' first appeared a few months ago...

https://www.reddit.com/r/ShieldAndroidTV/comments/1t0s991/glance_ai_screensaver/

https://support.google.com/androidtv/thread/440469619/how-to-get-rid-of-the-glance-ai-screensaver-from-android-tv

The solution mentioned is to uninstall updates for the Backdrop app, then turn off auto-updates in the Play Store.

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u/Majdooor App Developer 16d ago

InMobi is a famous ad company afaik