For Smarttag tracking

Popular app for has serious security risks - Samsung comments

A new app has gained much attention because it unlocks Samsung tracking tags Smarttag so they can be used with other phones, not just Samsung's. Mobil has asked Samsung about the matter.

Erik Mörner

Published 16 February 2025 - 20:50 Modified 16 February 2025 - 20:51

Samsung's tracking tags Smarttag and Smarttag 2 have received a lot of attention recently. In several tests, including comparisons we've done at Mobil, they have proven to be more reliable than Google's own tracking network Find My. This has motivated an independent developer to create an app that makes Samsung Smarttag useful not only for those who have a Samsung phone, which is the official support, but also for other Android users.

Feature-rich but with risks

The app developed by the independent developer is called Utag and is a very ambitious project where all the important features from Samsung's own app Smartthings Find are included. You can track your Samsung devices, manage settings, make your Smarttag ring, share your devices with friends, and receive alerts when an unknown tracker follows you. You can even find devices via Ultra Wideband and contribute to Samsung's find network to help other users locate their items.

To achieve this, the Utag app downloads a modified version of Samsung's Smartthings app where the function that checks if you are really using a Samsung phone has been removed and instead tricks the Smartthings app into communicating with the Utag app. This clearly poses a security risk, and it also requires you to provide your Samsung account login details in the app. Additionally, it is very possible that Samsung will close this opportunity for the app. The independent app developer has a trustworthy background with other similar apps and has released the app with open source so that users can verify what it does.