"Souper Android Development" app suddenly shown installed on the Play Store, but I can't find the app on my Motorola Droid 3

3 min read Original article ↗

While traversing the 'installed' list of Google Play, I noticed a very odd app named "Souper Android Development".

What's so suspicious about it is:

  • It does absolutely nothing to explain what it is, what it does, or what permissions are required
  • There is no option to open/uninstall
  • I cannot find it by searching for it
  • It is dimmed in the list with the other apps
  • It is not listed when I browse play.google.com/apps
  • Nobody (in the comments) seems to know where they got it.

Notice the app is dimmed (grayed out)

App is dimmed in the list of apps

I scrolled to the top of the page during screen capture. Notice how many standard features are missing

App's market page doesn't conform to standard

I have no idea where it came from. I imagine it was either part of the humongous set of bloatware provided by Verizon or, what I'm thinking is more likely, the method used to root my phone: Pete's Motorola Root Tools. I have scanned my phone with Lookout but it hasn't found anything.

  1. Can anyone provide any insight as to what this app is?
  2. How should I remove this app? I am having difficulty locating it in "System App Remover".
  3. Should I be suspicious of the rooting tool I used and take any action? I have been told this is legit. Whether it is or not, it doesn't seem to be in any way part of the problem.
  4. How can you trace a market app to its package name?

Update

While searching for other complaints on this app, I dug up:

  • A link to it on Google Play(removed). I'm still curious as to how someone obtained this link, I couldn't find it in a search or any references to it.
  • It says it's not compatible with any of my devices but it's installed.
  • No one has found any traces of it on their phone (probably because it's 'linking' to com.motorola.contacts.preloaded)
  • It seems to only be affecting Droid 3 users.

Update 3/28/2012

Final update/Brief summary:

  • 3/26: App showed up without user-approved install under the name "Brett Henderson" with no option to open or uninstall. Later renamed "Souper Android Development".
  • 3/27: Clicked the app's "share" button to view its link to the app on phone (com.motorola.contacts.preloaded). This confirms Richard's suspicion that it was merely sharing its name with a legit system app as opposed to installing junk on the phone. Further reading revealed that each app has a unique ID to prevent one app from providing "updates" to another with the same name.
  • 3/28: The app was removed from the app market place. As pointed out by Matthew Read, a similar bug happened not too long ago. As of now, I haven't read anything official on this instance.