Android Is the Internet Explorer of Phones, iPhone Users Say in Ad Debate

Full-screen ads are the reason why so many people choose iPhone instead of Android, according to a recent discussion where Apple customers debated the quality of apps on Google’s operating system.

“I’m glad Apple doesn’t allow full screen ads from outside of apps,” the title of a thread on Reddit reads, with the original poster explaining that they inspected a claimed “phone booster” app on their aunt’s Android phone, only to discover this was the culprit of several full-screen ads.

The app was installed from the Google Play Store because APK installs were blocked, the post reads.

Lots of iPhone users chimed in to confirm that Android is crippled with fake booster apps that make it to the Google Play store just to spam users with full-screen ads.

This is a method that ill-intended developers use to generate revenue, forcing users to see and click ads displayed on their devices.

“[It’s] almost like Android is the Internet Explorer of phones,” one user says.

The Android malware struggle

Internet Explorer, which was Microsoft’s default Windows browser before being replaced by Microsoft Edge in Windows 10, was often targeted by adware, pop-up ads, and malware by malicious downloads and browser hijackers.

On devices were security software was missing, Internet Explorer ended up serving ads on load and occasionally during the browsing session, while also hijacking the settings, such as the user-defined homepage.

According to data put together by Statista, 92.33% of the malware that infected Android apps in 2018 were Trojans, while password trojans were far behind with 4.18%.

Google’s own figures, on the other hand, indicate that downloads from the Google Play Store are increasingly more secure, with apps installed from outside the store remaining a major threat.

Google says that after including click-fraud apps in the potentially harmful apps (PHA) groups, the number of dangerous apps increased by 100 percent in 2018. Without these apps, however, the overall count declined by 31 percent. However, 28 percent of the malware-infected apps installed from outside the Google Play Store spread some sort of malware, Google said.