In a weird turn of events, Motorola phones have reportedly started hijacking (monetizing) the Amazon app by inserting affiliate links without users’ knowledge. It’s apparently even happening on the most expensive models, like the $1,900 Motorola Razr Fold. This becomes yet another shady use of affiliate codes in recent years. This goes so deep that it might just top the charts.
Motorola phones could be monetizing Amazon links in the background
As first spotted by a Reddit user, Trypocopris, on their Razr 60 Ultra. The issue at hand is that whenever the user tries to open the Amazon app, it would instead open the browser and sends to a sketchy-looking URL, which then immediately redirects to the Amazon app with strange affiliate codes. It’s apparently like a “blink, and you missed it” moment. This reportedly only happens when the user opens the Amazon app from the app drawer, and not from the home screen pages.
Folks at 9to5Google were able to replicate the behavior and captured the entire flow in a video. Looking closely, we can notice the Chrome browser flashes briefly when opening the Amazon app from the app drawer.
The Reddit user, Trypocopris, used an ADB log to trace the culprit and found that the preinstalled Smart Feed app on many Motorola phones caused it. The Smart Feed app version v2.03.0070 is behind this sketchy hijacking behavior. It seems the v2.03.0056 doesn’t do anything of the sort.
The real culprit here seems to be the Smart Feed app
9to5Google reports that they couldn’t reproduce the issue on a Moto G Stylus (2026) running the same version. What’s even more bizarre is that sideloading the app didn’t trigger the problem. Manually installing the updated version (v2.03.0070) on the aforementioned Razr (2026) didn’t show the same behavior.
The specific affiliate links in the Moto phones in question point to a fashion influencer named “Kira Abboud” and open the website “kira-abboud.com.” Interestingly, the exact URL isn’t listed anywhere on Abboud’s social media, and the affiliate codes don’t match. Also, the redirect from Motorola phones uses the Amazon affiliate code “sramz-kff-008-20,” which is completely different from any of the codes in the links shared by Abboud’s accounts and linked websites.
Digging further suggests that the Motorola phones that display this strange behavior also reportedly make requests to a site called “devicenative.com,” a site that offers personalized on-device ads and apparently has a partnership with Motorola. However, the document related to Motorola integration has since been deleted, and the URL https://docs.devicenative.com/moto-integration/ returns a 404 error.
It’s a good idea to disable the app
It’s not quite clear why Motorola would try to hijack Amazon affiliate links and pipe them through an influencer. There’s a chance that the company isn’t aware of this entirely. A malicious third-party may have somehow managed to hack the Smart Feed app and inject those fake affiliate codes of an influencer. But then, it’s just a speculation at the moment.
Motorola hasn’t given out a statement in this regard yet. Meanwhile, you can avoid this entire situation by disabling the Smart Feed app completely. Head to Settings > Apps > search for Smart Feed > and tap Disable. Doing this will not have any impact on your device, and it reportedly immediately stops the redirects.
The post Motorola May Be Monetizing Your Amazon Clicks Without Consent appeared first on Android Headlines.
