What you need to know
- Motorola was accused of slipping an affiliate link to users’ Amazon purchases while using the app, which was discovered on its recent 2026 foldables.
- Another report said the company would briefly throw users into a fake website link (and use a false affiliate code) from a real fashion influencer that doesn’t use it.
- Motorola provided a statement to Android Central, saying that the issue was “unexpected” and that it worked “quickly” to resolve it.
There has been some suspicious activity from Motorola recently regarding interactions with your Amazon purchases.
This issue was first reported android subreddit From a user with a Razer Ultra 2026. According to their report, a pre-installed “Smart Feed” app allegedly moves into shopping apps to “steal affiliate revenue” (via techradar). In practice, the user says that opening the Amazon app on their phone “will open a browser and send me to some sketchy-looking URL, which will then redirect to amazon.com with an affiliate code.”
It gets even weirder when the user explains that they checked their device’s network traffic and found that Motorola was constantly pinging “devicenative.com”. The assumption is that Motorola was relying on device native for this process. Entering an affiliate link will give Moto a cut of your Amazon purchases, even if you have never interacted with any official or proper affiliate link from the company. It’s worth noting that this affiliate link is not verified Was Offering a cut to Motorola (which only makes it weirder).
A post by 9to5Google Explained in more detail the redirect link that will briefly appear in Chrome before your Amazon app sends users to a fake website a fashion influencer. The publication says that not only does the influencer not list this website on any of his pages, but his affiliate code also doesn’t line up.
Android Central contacted Motorola about this issue. The company gave the following statement:
Motorola and Device Native have jointly developed an app search and suggestion experience for Moto App Launcher, designed to help users quickly find and launch pre-installed apps on their devices. Recently, Motorola took quick action to resolve an issue it identified that caused some users launching the Amazon Shopping app in the US to be routed through a web tracking link before opening the app. This behavior was unexpected and resulted in an inconsistent user experience. Once the problem was identified, we immediately fixed the routing configuration. Users can now expect all installed apps to launch directly as desired. Motorola takes user experience, privacy and platform integrity seriously and will continue to closely monitor the system to ensure expected behavior across all devices. We are committed to responsible disclosure and transparent, collaborative engagement with researchers to rapidly identify and resolve potential issues.
motorola
This is a curious issue
Interesting to say the least, this was initially a function of the Smart Feed app – and had never been caught before. However, like our friends over at TechRadar, we’re having intense flashbacks to what Honey’s Chrome extension did. You must have seen mention of honey everywhere before. Nowadays? Not so much. The platform was caught up in some shady affiliate link deals. During purchases, it will quietly swap out affiliate links from reputable creators and influencers for its own code.
This would divert a portion of the purchases toward honey instead of where it should have gone. Since then, Google has strictly restricted the number of shopping extensions available for Chrome. The company tightened its rules and banned the possibility for shopping extensions to add their own affiliate links or mess with your shopping cookies.
Android Central’s Tech
I think we’re all thinking the same thing right now. Motorola’s response to this is… timely. The issue that users experienced with its app and the Amazon app was immediately “fixed.” However, the whole situation is strange. Given how big of a mess this has become, I’m not sure there will be an end to it. This hits hard with online users, and this kind of information only irritates more people.
