Google’s latest Play System update is causing some Galaxy phones to slow down

Google rolled out the May 2024 Play System update for Android phones in the last week of April. Besides the usual stability improvements, the build introduced Cross-device services, allowing you to hand over Google Meet video calls between devices seamlessly. It also introduced password sharing for family members in Google Password Manager. However, the May 2024 Play System update appears to have had an unintended effect on some Galaxy devices, causing them to slow down and increasing the app launch times.

The issue appears to affect the Galaxy S23 and several other Galaxy phones. Samsung acknowledged the problem in its South Korean community forum and has provided a simple workaround (via SamMobile) while it works on a fix.

A company moderator notes that you might notice your Galaxy phone slowing down when using it for a long time after installing the latest Google Play System update. You can reboot your phone to resolve the problem temporarily until a fix is rolled out.

Installing a Google Play System update requires you to restart your Android phone. But in this case, Samsung recommends another restart after a few hours when you feel your Galaxy phone has slowed down and is taking a long time to open apps.

If you have not already, you can avoid installing the May 2024 Play System update on your Galaxy phone to prevent experiencing slowdown issues. Since June has already started, this month’s Play System build from Google should go live sooner rather than later, possibly containing the necessary fix for the slowdown.

Samsung Galaxy device owners are regularly facing issues due to Google

This is the second usability issue that Galaxy owners are experiencing for no fault of their own in less than a week. Reports of Samsung Messages crashing on Galaxy devices emerged earlier this week, caused by a Google Meet update.

Before this, in late March, the One UI 6.1 update caused touchscreen issues on the Galaxy S23 series. Many assumed that Samsung’s new firmware was the culprit. As it turned out, though, the Google Discover feed was at fault, and Google eventually rolled out a fix for the problem.