Strange Numbered Grid Overlay on Android S20 Lock Screen?

[mstahl302]

I've recently purchased a Samsung S20.

Recently, whenever I turn on the phone, the lock screen shows a weird Grid overlay (attached). I'm guessing this is either some developer mode overlay or accessibility. The word "Google" at the top suggests this is built into Android (not S20 specific). It may have been introduced in a recent update, but I'm not 100% sure.

When I touch the screen, the grid disappears and the phone behaves normally.

Does anyone have any idea what this is? What can I do to make it go away?

Mark

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Just to be sure -- this isn't part of the lockscreen, right? It remains if you change the lockscreen wallpaper?

Are Developer Options turned on? If so, check to see if anything there is toggled on.

 

[mustang7757]

Hi , welcome!
this only on your lock screen?

 

[mstahl302]

Yes, this is only on the lockscreen. No, it's not part of the lockscreen. It's an overlay that disappears when you touch it to show the real lockscreen. It wasn't there until recently (may be related to an update.)

 

[mstahl302]

Developer options were NOT enabled on this phone. I enabled them (touch build number 7 times) and poked through them. Nothing is enabled that I can see.

 

[mstahl302]

(speculation) These vaguely suggest to me the snap-to locations for home screen icons ....

 

[B. Diddy]

Does this persist in Safe Mode? https://www.t-mobile.com/support/de...ltra-5g/safe-mode-samsung-galaxy-s20-ultra-5g

 

[mstahl302]

It did NOT appear in safe mode.

We started suspecting it had something to do with Assistant. Because sometimes when you turn on the phone (to the lock screen) it shows the GRID and shows the 4-dots assistant microphone bubbles across the top, as well as a live transcription of what you are looking at. Very strange.

But it still showed up even with Assistant draw-on-top disabled and even when the app was disabled. We also disabled the Google app, to be sure. Did not fix it.

However, we did notice that when we disabled Assistant, the Voice Recorder app asked for the microphone access. We disabled THAT app and it went away. Really, really weird.

But at least it's fixed.

 

[mustang7757]

It did NOT appear in safe mode.

We started suspecting it had something to do with Assistant. Because sometimes when you turn on the phone (to the lock screen) it shows the GRID and shows the 4-dots assistant microphone bubbles across the top, as well as a live transcription of what you are looking at. Very strange.

But it still showed up even with Assistant draw-on-top disabled and even when the app was disabled. We also disabled the Google app, to be sure. Did not fix it.

However, we did notice that when we disabled Assistant, the Voice Recorder app asked for the microphone access. We disabled THAT app and it went away. Really, really weird.

But at least it's fixed.

Yeah somtimes some 3rd party apps can ask for access to lock screen

 

[B. Diddy]

However, we did notice that when we disabled Assistant, the Voice Recorder app asked for the microphone access. We disabled THAT app and it went away. Really, really weird.

Is that a preinstalled Voice Recorder app from Samsung, or some 3rd party one?