back to article Avast! Mobile Security

The security or lack thereof of the Android platform - real or imagined - is a common topic of conversation at the moment so it seems like a good time to take a look for a comprehensive security app. My preferred choice is Avast!. Avast! for Android is free and carries no advertising, making it perfect for anyone who is just a …

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  1. Ian Yates
    Thumb Up

    Interesting...

    I'm a long-time WaveSecure user and use DroidWall, but maybe Avast! is a good way of getting all this in one...

    One question: free with no ads - what's their longterm business model for this? I don't want to switch to an app that's going to disappear without notice.

    1. Alfie

      They have been producing free PC anti-virus programs for years. There are pay versions of the PC software for additional features. I assume they will be taking the same approach for Android and the likes.

      1. Ilgaz

        In addition

        They use the model which avg made popular. More users: less bugs and better detection rate.

        If a new virus appears it will likely hit one of millions of users instead of one of thousands of paid users.

        I think they will release a centrally administered corporate version and branded/ operator supplied versions. They can also sell it as a tie in to device makers who desperately need to differentiate.

    2. Fuzz

      business model

      business model is simple enough, give away AV software for free to home users, sell AV for business use or sell for home use with added features. The Android app helps create awareness of the brand hopefully converting those mobile users into paying desktop users.

      The big problem I see for Avast is that Microsoft now have a very decent AV program that's free for home users and small businesses and doesn't aim to induce coronary arrest every time the definitions are updated.

      Larger businesses are going to use something like Sophos that has decent management capabilities.

      1. KjetilS

        "induce coronary arrest every time the definitions are updated"

        You can turn off all sounds in Avast :)

        Iirc, it's under Settings -> Sounds -> Disable all sounds

        This is usually the very first thing I do after installing it.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    antivirus test?!

    me thinks you forgot something, i.e. how good / bad it is in detecting viral infections. It's no use waffling about what it claims to be able to do, without showing any results on how well it does it. Say, how effective it is in threat detection, in comparison with x number of similar products.

    1. Ilgaz

      Spotted something

      It has potentially unwanted program detection and it spotted something from android market which can be used both by white and black hats.

      Deny usb debugging and deny root from internet access does a lot more in current scene. That is the part the google idiot mentioned every time when they talk about security misses.

      Note that the app it does detect is on android market, it can be used for good (watch your kid) but it can also be used horribly wrong. That is way beyond google market design to cope with.

      anyway,I gave up my paid antivirus which still have subscription for this since it is way more better written by people who actually cares. Mr Kaspersky should get rid of entire android app developers, not the detectors.

  3. Silverburn

    Wonder what this guy (google employee) would think about this product.

    https://plus.google.com/u/0/114765095157367281222/posts/ZqPvFwdDLPv

    1. Miffo

      Other stuff.

      Interesting post about anti virus! I've got AVG on my android phone for the other stuff - the stuff you use if the phone is lost or stolen.

      1. Ilgaz

        Everyone uses for other stuff

        Funny that everyone uses these apps for other functions like the anti theft you mentioned. Also the very serious threat of fake apps and cracked developer accounts.

        I never enabled the actual virus checking of my antivirus until that genius who misunderstood the whole deal spoke like Microsoft before Bill Gates security memo.

  4. Absent

    I've been using this since the beta and it's improved greatly. Very little resources hit, very stable, the firewall and anti-theft for rooted phones are nice features. Downsides are that the callblocker doesn't catch calls before the phones vibration kick in (on my handset at least). I was really surprised when it came out of beta and was still free.

  5. Lutin

    Three thumbs up

    This is a fantastic app.

    If you lose your phone (or have it stolen) you can also locate it remotely by sending a text to it from someone else's phone. You send your Avast pin with the word "locate" and you get a text message back saying exactly where the phone is.

    The amount of functionality on this thing is amazing considering it's free.

    That said, I installed it, played with it for half an hour and haven't gone back to it since (which is probably the way it should be with a security app).

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fantastic App

    Had this on beta for a few months now and it's fantastic. The integration with Clockwork Mod in particular is quite remarkable for a freebie. Well done Avast.

  7. GregC

    Server overload...

    Don't know if it's your fault for reviewing it, but the servers for the anti theft component appear to be in meltdown mode at the moment...

  8. R.Moore

    What accounts for the missing 10%?

    I didn't read any caveats in the article so where did the missing 10% go?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Surely the question is how did it get the extra 10% over the 80% that (virtually) every item reviewed gets!

  9. This post has been deleted by its author

  10. Gary Riches

    What's with the blurry screen shots?

    1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

      Blurry screenshots?

      They're jpeg files.

      1. Gary Riches

        That's not JPEG compression that's causing the blur. The text seems fuzzy like the text boxes are sitting on half pixels or something. Is that because of Androids many screen sizes?

        1. ChrisC Silver badge

          Looking at the resolution of the screengrabs in this article and comparing them with screengrabs in other reviews - including iPhone apps where the resolution of the original screengrabs definitely shouldn't be anything other than a couple of combinations - and then considering the way the Register articles are laid out with their rather narrow central column for all the article content, leads me to conclude that the screengrabs in this and other app reviews have been rescaled so that two can fit side by side in the central column, and aren't therefore entirely representative of the actual information displayed in the app itself...

          Shame really, I'd prefer to see the articles illustrated with 1:1 scale screengrabs even if it means having to scroll a bit more down each page - or if the Reg design gurus absolutely insist on having side by side screengrabs like this and won't consider widening the central column just enough to fit two 1:1 grabs side by side, then at least make them clickable to open up the 1:1 scale originals.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well...

    I'll bet they get less viruses than Windoze users!

  12. Irongut

    Excellent as always

    As a very long time Avast user on Windows I installed the Android version as soon as it became available. So far I have't been disapointed, it does everything I expect from Avast without making any performance impact.

    My only issue is the permanent Avast icon in the notification area. I don't see it in the article's screenshots, is there a way to remove it?

    1. Ilgaz

      They put on purpose

      First, it may stop script kiddies from trying something and second, if you have a device which runs into low memory events, it prevents android operating system from killing it.

      It sounds weird but android picks the most invisible background apps and services to kill when there is low memory.

  13. Al Taylor
    Alert

    Notification bar

    You can disable the notification bar icon in Settings - just scroll down to Show Notification Icon and uncheck the box.

    1. Boothy

      Avast --> Settings --> Show notification icon -- untick

    2. Irongut
      Happy

      Thanks. My phone is much happier now.

  14. Gonebirdin

    Lookout?

    How does it compare against Lookout AV Security for Android?

  15. Dapprman

    Remember last November's Android AV Test

    How does this compare ? As a result of that one I switched to Zoner, the best of the free ones. Does Avast have better detection rates ?

  16. Rob Beard
    Thumb Up

    Anti-Theft

    Well looks good but I can't get the Anti-Theft stuff installed on my rooted Galaxy S. Googling it seems to suggest I need to remove some stuff from the system partition. Guess I'll be trying that tonight, after making a backup of course :-)

    Seems to be a great app anyway and the firewall is handy to stop my kids 'borrowing' my phone to watch videos on the 3G connection rather than Wifi :-)

    Rob

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Uninstall?

    This may sound like a strange question but can it be uninstalled? I installed it on my HTC Desire when the app was in beta and you couldn't remove it - the Avast forums were full of people asking the same question too. The only way I could remove it was to reinstall Android from scratch using a RUU, and this kind of put me off it as a result.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The big question is

    does it detect Trojan-gen ???

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