Is Samsung Going After Third-Party Accessories?

Many Galaxy Note 3 owners were no doubt pleased when Samsung began pushing an Android 4.4.2 update for the device, but word has begun to trickle in through the digital grapevine that all is not well in KitKat land. According to Android Police, Samsung’s anticipated plan to limit compatibility between non-official accessories and its devices went into effect with the OTA update that delivered 4.4.2 KitKat and the first victims appear to be third-party S-View cases.     

A Samsung-branded S-View case includes an ID chip that allows the Note 3 to identify it. Following Samsung’s KitKat OTA update, the S-View window on third-party cases has reportedly stopped functioning properly.

Samsung has already issued a statement denying it intentionally broke compatibility between third-party accessories and the Galaxy Note 3, but the company offered no explanation to anecdotal accounts of S-View cases suddenly not working anymore:

“To ensure a pleasant and smooth user experience with Samsung products for our customers, we recommend that only original accessories from Samsung to use. Of course, customers can continue to rely on third-party accessories. The full functionality of our devices and accessories, however, can only be ensured with genuine Samsung components, since only in this way it is ensured that equipment and accessories are perfectly matched,” the company said in a statement translated by SamMobile. “A correlation between the Android version 4.4 and the supposed incompatibility of third-party accessories does not exist.”

As Android Police reports, there is a workaround to the problem, but it requires taking an official S-View case and ripping out the ID chip, as well as a magnet from a set of earbuds. There’s also a mod that’ll bypass the Note 3’s verification system, but you need to root your device before you can install it.

Whatever the case may be (see what we did there?), Samsung will hopefully correct the issue soon. Whether intentional or not, customers tend to get annoyed when accessories they’ve already paid for stop working due to software issues.