What do you guys think of this Android security app?

[LinusTech]

I see a lot of "in theory" in this thread, but I was really hoping to get some feedback from folks who have really used it. 

 

I ran its clean up once so far and it emptied out 1.5GB of RAM (3GB device) and a couple gigs of what it says is unnecessary crapfiles. It also (correctly) identified background verizon apps as "low priority" and killed their processes. 

 

I didn't have any malware on my phone, but it did point out a potential vulnerability. Looks pretty legit so far, but always good to get more opinions.

[cesrai]

Don't know how it compares to AVAST, but it has a lot of gimmicks like battery boost and data monitoring, I can do the previous two with Android 5.0 with no apps, junk file cleaner I will pass CCleaner is the best, memory boost just don't do it, it's better to leave it to OS to mange the ram and if you wan't to free some ram close apps, app manager don't see how it would be better than the one in Android itself.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

 

OMG

Linus is viewing Linus's post 

 

Ofoucrse he is looking his post... how are you thinking...?

[Elflawd]

Don't know if it's true but I think this kind of program just slows down your device so I won't use it. Also I am not doing stupid stuff on "teh internets" so I am not afraid of malicious software or files or...

[timeslapsey]

The app seems to be all right. But tbh I wonder why a app developer comes at you who seems to make no profit out of the app?

[cesrai]

I see a lot of "in theory" in this thread, but I was really hoping to get some feedback from folks who have really used it. 

 

I ran its clean up once so far and it emptied out 1.5GB of RAM (3GB device) and a couple gigs of what it says is unnecessary crapfiles. It also (correctly) identified background verizon apps as "low priority" and killed their processes. 

 

I didn't have any malware on my phone, but it did point out a potential vulnerability. Looks pretty legit so far, but always good to get more opinions.

1.5 GB now try to open some apps it will be slow, it probably closed cached apps which I don't see a reason to kill them at all, use CCleaner and see if it's better.

[Sharif]

Ofoucrse he is looking his post... how are you thinking...?

I am sleepy...and i find that amusing for some reason...

[jmclarke]

I got a old phone that still has WiFi I'll try it out with some torrents and see how bad I can make the phone with this installed

[Archangel1994]

I see a lot of "in theory" in this thread, but I was really hoping to get some feedback from folks who have really used it. 

 

I ran its clean up once so far and it emptied out 1.5GB of RAM (3GB device) and a couple gigs of what it says is unnecessary crapfiles. It also (correctly) identified background verizon apps as "low priority" and killed their processes. 

 

I didn't have any malware on my phone, but it did point out a potential vulnerability. Looks pretty legit so far, but always good to get more opinions.

I have used it and it cleared a significant amount of ram (About 25% less RAM) and it did increase my battery life by about an hour also by removing useless things like those verizon apps that you mentioned.

 

Overall I'm satisfied but I removed it after I sold my Moto

[cesrai]

I have used it and it cleared a significant amount of ram (About 25% less RAM) and it did increase my battery life by about an hour also by removing useless things like those verizon apps that you mentioned.

 

Overall I'm satisfied but I removed it after I sold my Moto

 

Why do you clean your RAM ?? boosted an hour wont believe till evidence is provided.   

[Slamel]

I would be skeptical of any antivirus app for android.

 

Google's chief security engineer for Android, Adrian Ludwig, said this "I don't think 99% plus users even get a benefit from [anti-virus]. There’s certainly no reason that they need to install something in addition to [the security we provide]. If I were to be in a line of work where I need that type of protection it would make sense for me to do that. [but] do I think the average user on Android needs to install [anti-virus]? Absolutely not."

 

If you want to make sure that the apps installed on your phone aren't taking data or exploiting your phone, root it and set up a permission limitation app.  Otherwise these so called "AntiVirus" apps might just be stealing your data too

[lutzee]

I see a lot of "in theory" in this thread, but I was really hoping to get some feedback from folks who have really used it. 

 

I ran its clean up once so far and it emptied out 1.5GB of RAM (3GB device) and a couple gigs of what it says is unnecessary crapfiles. It also (correctly) identified background verizon apps as "low priority" and killed their processes. 

 

I didn't have any malware on my phone, but it did point out a potential vulnerability. Looks pretty legit so far, but always good to get more opinions.

I think the issue here though is understanding how these things work.

 

Any app running in the background does a few things, I can register 'wake locks', which will keep the phone awake while it processes whatever its doing.

Apps that are using lots of wakelocks and aren't actually giving you any benefit should be removed.

Killing processes that are using lots of wakelocks is good, but what if the process doing the killing is keeping the phone awake while looking for these apps? Not good..

There are apps available that will track wakelock usage. Some big offenders are any messaging apps (looking at you facebook), they like to constantly check for new messages and hence like to keep the phone awake

 

As for RAM, like I said, unused RAM is WASTED RAM, when the phone needs more RAM for an active app, it will dispose of memory for background app in favour of the active app.

 

Now of course we get into more depth, a lot of apps and app developers never really think of their memory footprint, some apps will use and keep in memory lots of information in poor formats that it needent too.

 

If you feel your phone isn't performing at its optimal speed, find out whats causing the problem and sort it, don't just mask it by anther process that claims to help but could be causing more issues.

 

Viruses? Never seen a phone infected with a virus, where as its possible, its no where near as common as the windows ecosystem.

 

As for crapfiles, that does seem pretty useful though.

 

Finally if you really want to keep your phone fresh and don't mind some hassle, then rooting and using greenify, ApOps, custom ROMs/Kernels because you will get a lot better performance and the ability to have much finer control over your phone.

I would be skeptical of any antivirus app for android.

 

Google's chief security engineer for Android, Adrian Ludwig, said this "I don't think 99% plus users even get a benefit from [anti-virus]. There’s certainly no reason that they need to install something in addition to [the security we provide]. If I were to be in a line of work where I need that type of protection it would make sense for me to do that. [but] do I think the average user on Android needs to install [anti-virus]? Absolutely not."

 

If you want to make sure that the apps installed on your phone aren't taking data or exploiting your phone, root it and set up a permission limitation app.  Otherwise these so called "AntiVirus" apps might just be stealing your data too

This too, android security is very strong, and with lollipop bringing even more with SELinux things couldn't get much more secure.

[Robi_g]

Looks good, I personally use AVG on my phone but hey.

[Slamel]

I think the issue here though is understanding how these things work.

 

Any app running in the background does a few things, I can register 'wake locks', which will keep the phone awake while it processes whatever its doing.

Apps that are using lots of wakelocks and aren't actually giving you any benefit should be removed.

Killing processes that are using lots of wakelocks is good, but what if the process doing the killing is keeping the phone awake while looking for these apps? Not good..

There are apps available that will track wakelock usage. Some big offenders are any messaging apps (looking at you facebook), they like to constantly check for new messages and hence like to keep the phone awake

 

As for RAM, like I said, unused RAM is WASTED RAM, when the phone needs more RAM for an active app, it will dispose of memory for background app in favour of the active app.

 

Now of course we get into more depth, a lot of apps and app developers never really think of their memory footprint, some apps will use and keep in memory lots of information in poor formats that it needent too.

 

If you feel your phone isn't performing at its optimal speed, find out whats causing the problem and sort it, don't just mask it by anther process that claims to help but could be causing more issues.

 

Viruses? Never seen a phone infected with a virus, where as its possible, its no where near as common as the windows ecosystem.

 

As for crapfiles, that does seem pretty useful though.

 

Finally if you really want to keep your phone fresh and don't mind some hassle, then rooting and using greenify, ApOps, custom ROMs/Kernels because you will get a lot better performance and the ability to have much finer control over your phone.

 

@LinusTech ^^this guy knows what he is talking about.  Just get some file cleaner app, as well as the last few things he recommended

[Mysticode]

As a once a month virus scan, it could be useful to me, but Android systems don't (usually) get viruses. 

 

For autokill/boot manager/RAM clearing, I use Clean Master, and it has treated me well so far. So the only time you see ads, is after you do a cleanup job of the phone, but they are unintrusive.

[BluntestTech]

Phone security apps are all bad in my book, mainly because they usually want access to messages, contacts, accounts, location etc... i dont like that. Apps work without having access to those things and they should give user more control over what apps can access. ( i know many apps have this but security apps usually want access to EVERYTHING) 

 

Yes its legit company , i have used their antivirus for awhile on computer and testing on phone. Seems legit and app works and does pretty much what they say it does.

 

App is good, nothing ground breaking and kind of ironic because it has ram "boost" which is kind of legit but it gives result on how much your battery life is extended by closing those apps, i did find that results werent accurate mainly, my guess would be that ram "boost" doesnt really work that great and that it fails to take account how much it uses resources.

 

But there is nothing major to complain, app is just another app that claims to be security app but does it actually make your phone more secure is questionable (same question goes to every security app) but app does seem to do what it promises, havent tested in depth but so far seems legit, ram "boost" kills background processes, power save mode while screen is locked seems to work on app ( dont remember what they called it) and app does scan and detects viruses and security threats, tronjans etcs... seem to be detected fine. It seems to be android version of their desktop program. 

 

Personally i would recommend trying it.

 

Also Linus if you are in contact with them ask why does the app wants to read messages and such information ?

 

resources

 

[N.tony]

So, the company that don't make any money on the app itself is willing to pay money to advertise it. Isn't that a red flag for what the users are paying with? I.e. their private data? And I bet this app would get their hands on a lot of data.

 

Besides, for such a big and "legit" company something like this is just laughable:

 

 

All-in-one solution to maximize the chance of retrieving your device should it lost and secure your data.

 

[jmclarke]

Installed it on shit phone and had a few .apk files I know are viruses and adware on the phone before installing that lookout didn't detect...as soon as I ran a scan with this app it picked right up on it. I also tried to download the same files with mobile utorrent and not only did it pick up the torrents but the adware coming from the utorrent app. I also tried the find my phone with the phone turned off and it still showed the correct last known location. I then turned my phone back on and set the alarm off on the webpage and within 3 seconds it was extremely loud. Only problem is I may have just been trying to rush it but it seemed the only way to silence the phone was to turn it completely off and the alarm did not stop until the phone was completely off. And the boost seems the work great and I like the control widget panel. So it seems pretty solid. But when going to the webpage the first thing is make sure you type findmyphone.360safe.com findmyphone360safe.com is a entirely different site. But it's not like they can control that. Also when first going to the find my phone page it looks like a button you click that says find my phone and it does nothing but it is clickable. So make sure you scroll down on the webpage to the sign in portion. But the alarm, find phone, lock and even wipe fiction all worked just fine for me. I was using a old kyocera hydro and it completely set it back to factory settings.

[Paul567]

My impression of many Android security/power saver/optimiser apps is that they are bloated and useless wastes of space that will not give me any kind of significant improvement in my phone using experience. To be fair I have not tried this app in particular but I am so burnt out on these kinds of apps that I am completely dismissing it outright.

 

I'd hope that you guys take sponsorship from companies that you think are great, it gives me a lot of faith in your brand when you take sponsorship from good quality companies and not just whoever is willing to drop the most cash.

 

So if you do take up these guys as a sponsor I'd be interested in seeing you do a video on it (kind of like what you did with Phantom Glass).

[BluntestTech]

So, the company that don't make any money on the app itself is willing to pay money to advertise it. Isn't that a red flag for what the users are paying with? I.e. their private data? And I bet this app would get their hands on a lot of data.

 

Besides, for such a big and "legit" company something like this is just laughable:

 

most mobile apps collected personal data, thats kind of a fact. Also most security apps demand access to almost everything, location, contact, messages etc... if you ask why their answers are usually something like " for security, to protect your data...".

[Solarfervor]

No, Do Not sponsor. you don't need an anti virus for android, "ram booster" just eats up battery because the processes with start up again, the phone takes care of freeing memory up automatically, phone already has app manager built in., android already has a built in scanner for 3rd party apps. As for anti theft and power saver, there are loads of apps that are less bulky than this one that can take care of this for you. There is literally no good use for this app.

[xDayan]

Well I'm checking it out right now, I'll post back in a few hours to share my experiences, better ram management would be nice on my moto g

[Thrussst]

I don't really think an antivirus for Android is necessary unless youre installing every shady apk you see. I'd also be concerned about the scanning having an impact on performance.

Some of the other features appear to be useful but many of them are built right into android.. Not to say that the consolidation and ease of managing these settings with this app might not be a benefit but I generally stay away from things that don't ADD functionality.

[5nowLeopard]

I use it and I have no problems with it. Works fine and does a good job. I also use their "360 Internet Security on my pc, also never had a problem with it.

Both, the android app and pc antivirus, are good security apps.

[Andrewgerlach87]

Yes but if you review other antivirus as well

Example Avast

OMG

Linus is viewing Linus's post

Avast is the best!