Between apps that hide viruses and those that take up too much space, here are which apps you need to delete from your Android smartphone right away
Year 2019 will be remembered for being the year when Android smartphone malware reached its peak. In the second half of the year, there were a lot of apps deleted from the Google Play Store because they were infected with dangerous malware. In most cases it was adware, a particular type of virus that infects the smartphone, but does not seek out personal data. The only goal of adware is to show advertisements on the smartphone's screen, so hackers earn money with every user click.
In addition to apps that hide viruses, 2019 has taught us that other apps should also be deleted from the Android smartphone. And the reason is very simple: they take up too much space or consume too much battery. Although manufacturers have increased the battery capacity of smartphones, it is increasingly complicated to get through the day. And the fault, unfortunately, is some apps that stay active in the background and do nothing but consume battery. Here are which apps to delete from your Android smartphone before the end of the year.
Apps that hide adware
In 2019, we learned about apps that hide adware. What is adware? A particular type of virus that is very popular in the mobile world and shows advertisements on the smartphone screen. They are usually hidden inside apps for editing images, videos or in video games. Are they dangerous to the health of the device? Quite. Usually, adware stresses the hardware components and increases the temperature of the smartphone, leading it to extreme conditions.
What to do to defend against adware? Over the past few months we have repeatedly reported the presence of malicious apps in the Google Play Store, all of which were promptly removed by the Mountain View company. If you notice the presence of strange ads on your smartphone screen, immediately delete the last one you installed: in 99% of cases it is the cause of the problems.
Apps that steal personal data
In addition to adware, some apps hide very dangerous malware that steal users' personal information, such as social network login credentials or online bank account. In September 2019, researchers discovered 24 apps that installed the Joker virus on the smartphone, developed by hackers who aimed to steal valuable user data. The apps were promptly removed.
The apps that activate unsolicited subscriptions
Have you noticed a 5-6 euro charge on your SIM credit and don't know what it's due to? The last app you installed on your Android smartphone may be to blame. There are some apps that not only hide viruses, but also take advantage of user inattention to activate unsolicited paid subscriptions. A tap on the screen is enough to find a couple of euros deducted from your SIM credit. What to do in such cases? First, delete the offending app and then activate SMS barring so that you no longer have any subscriptions activated on your smartphone.
Apps that consume too much battery
It's hard to get more than a day's battery life out of your smartphone. Despite the fact that manufacturers have increased the capacities of accumulators, at the same time hardware components have become increasingly energy intensive. What can you do to improve the autonomy of your Android device? Very simple: eliminate the apps that consume battery and that you do not use very often.
The apps that take up space
Most of the mid-range and top-of-the-line smartphones released in 2019 have at least 64GB of available memory. So much space that allows us to install apps and take pictures and record videos. But we must not in any way occupy all the available space on the memory, otherwise the performance of the smartphone can suffer. Among the most memory-intensive apps are video games and social apps. While there's not much you can do about the former, there's a simple memory-saving trick: install the Lite version. There is, for example, the Lite version of Facebook, much lighter than the normal one. The features are a bit less, but the main ones are all there
.