What is NXTVISION? I detected it through an app which monitors battery consumption. It’s apparently a system app, I never saw it before so it’s either new or it only runs once in a blue moon, it doesn’t show anywhere, and yet it uses Internet bandwidth. It’s that last part which made me suspicious.
An internet search came up empty: The apk and service names are too common, and the logo doesn’t fit with the top hits for “NXTVISION” (like the image enhancing system for smartphones, which normally would had been the prime suspect (although I really don’t know why it would need to connect to the Internet!)).
Here is what little information I have:
Information:
Permissions:
Services:
Can some Android wizard please give me some more insight?
That would be my first guess too, but why would it need to connect to the Internet all of a sudden? Also, the logo doesn’t match. The logo matching most closely is one for a “marketing/SEO” company of that specific name.
Marketing/SEO company = as trustworthy and safe as a south American drug dealer cartel, which is why I asked if somebody knows more. I’d really like to rule out spy/adware…
Indeed not new, if you check the screenshots I posted, it pretends being part of the software build since January of 2009, which would mean Android 1.0, not even 1.1!..
Which is another strange thing. “Last updated January 1st 2009”? Which part of Android hasn’t at some point changed or at least been adapted since Android 1.0? Unlikely. I think both those “01/01/2009 at 01 o’clock” dates are fake.
At least it’s not the Android epoch, which is the same as Unix - January 1, 1970.
But of course they could set other random placeholder dates at will, I didn’t find anything specific quickly about January 1, 2009.
No, there isn’t, I did a quick search myself. I know some developers use dates as version numbers, I don’t know if it’s customary in Android code, unless it’s just some cursory, sloppy obfuscation. -shrug-
If you pull down from the top twice and then click the edit button (to change which of those quick setting things like WiFi, bluetooth, torch, battery saver, do not disturb, etc.) youu want, you’ll find “Visual enhancement” and “reading mode” toggles that are both branded with NXTVISION.
But it is indeed strange that it would connect to the internet.
If it had updated something then maybe, but as your screenshots imply there have been no updates, that can’t explain it.
@peci1 The night light seems to use NXTVISION’s “Eye comfort mode”, but the actual nightlight settings are located elsewhere, so it’s unclear to me whether NXTVISION itself controls the scheduling, or whether that’s done by an different thing that toggles NXTVISION’s “Eye comfort mode” at the appropriate times.
Even if it is NXTVISION itself is in control of the schedule, that would only explain it if a sunset to sunrise schedule is chosen for nightlight.
@KurtF Could you let us know whether you were using sunset to sunrise scheduled nightlight?
They are both not in my usual tiles, so I hadn’t noticed… Thanks a lot, that put my mind at ease…
Doesn’t explain though why I only see it now (I’ve been checking my battery usage logs daily for months now, also I didn’t change anything on my phone in the last month(s)), and indeed why it has been connecting to the Internet:
11.68 MB in 3 months, that’s more than some daylight table corrections!..
What do your FP4s say? I must assume you must have a similar data consumption.
No, I didn’t. Never did. Only thing I use in the “Wellbeing” category is a simple nightly “Do not disturb” period.
My data consumption says only “189 B since 21 April”, which is an extremely low amount (like even most basic text files are at least a few kB), but I only got my fairphone a little over 2 weeks ago (17 May to be exact) and never use mobile data, only WiFi when it’s available (why it’s displaying it since about a month before I even got my phone, I’m not sure).
I also noticed that if I tap on the “Mobile data & Wi-Fi” value, that it takes me to a detailed “Mobile data & Wi-fi” usage page of AnroidOS in general (although that displays “0 B” usage in “Total”, "Foreground ", and "Background ".
It also lists several “Other apps included in usage” which doesn’t actually include “NXTVISION” but does include “Settings” (and normally the visual enhancement settings are displayed as part of the settings app if you check via the recent apps you get when clicking the square icon in the bottom right of your screen; although that same settings tab can be displayed as coming from NXTVISION when long pressing the visual enhancement or reading mode icon from the quick settings (you may need to edit the quick settings to include it first)).
If I check the data usage for settings, it has the exact same value: “189 B”, and if from there I click on it, the same “Mobile data & Wi-fi” usage page of AnroidOS now displays the “Total” and “Background” as "189 B (and the “Foreground” still at 0 B).
So my guess is that value may actually belong to the settings (or even the entire Android OS) in general.
I myself tend to keep location services off and also anythibg like usage & diagnostics data being sent to Google or any other entity. So those sort of things may also explain my low value for it if it’s settings more generally.
Ok, if that’s the consumption for half a month, my almost 12 MB in 3 Months are indeed as excessive as they sound. Besides, today mine says “11.96 MB”, so since yesterday it used an additional 33 KB…
And it still remains to be seen why a visual enhancement app needs to connect to the Internet (daily!). The only explanation is “telemetry”, aka spying on the user.
Not sure what you mean there. Tapping on the NXTVISION data consumption?
That brings me to the generic data consumption page for Android OS…
Unfortunately you can’t prevent this without making your phone very annoying to use: I did this on a previous phone, and eventually had to abandon the idea: Unfortunately I need my phone for work, so, as much as I’d like, I can’t indulge in any “sorry, that feature is blocked on my phone” eccentricities.
TL;DR for anyone finding this thread:
Apparently NXTVISION is tied to “visual enhancement” and “reading mode”, and, even if you never ever used it (not even just to try it), it does send daily heaps of data somewhere…
Your guess is as good as mine.
Yes, indeed, that brings me to a generic data consumption page for AndroidOS as well, however it doesn’t actually show any usage if I get there via tapping the NXTVISION dáta consumption.
But if I check the data consumption of the “Settings” app, it has exactly the same data usage as NXTVISION, but if I tap the “Settings” app data consumption and it takes me to the generic AndroidOS consumption page, now it does show the data consumption on that genetic page as being equal to the value of the “Settings” app.
So my suspicion is that the data consumption is from the settings in general, but because NXTVISION is integrated in the settings, it also displays that full data consumption if the settings in the NXTVISION overview.
I don’t experience it as annoying, but we all have different needs and wants from a phone. I don’t mind limiting some features (most of which I wouldn’t be using anyway) in return for more privacy, but yeah, not everyone can do that in their situation. For me, whilst I try to limit these things, I ultimately do still use AndroidOS rather than an alternative OS that would be even better for privacy, because there is still some stuff I need from Android.
Of course, I too disable things I don’t really need, but that’s just cosmetic given the whole Android ecosystem is built on the idea that the user is to be milked for all marketable personal information…
But indeed, I too prefer Android to other, more privacy-conscious OSes, because it has some useful things and, having gotten older, I’m past the search for absolutes… I accept some spying, but I try to keep it to a sane minimum.
Speaking of which, today NXTVISION claims 12.24 MB of data used… So 28 KB since yesterday, less than the 33 KB it had used yesterday, but still more than a visual enhancement driver should actually need…
