Do Not Install This 10 Bad Apps On Your Android Smartphone

These days, there literally is an app for everything. Whether you want to spend hours playing games, watch a person on the other side of the world stream a local sports game, or organize every aspect of your life down to the minutiae.

The downside to this incredible level of choice is that some apps out there disguise themselves as your friend, when in fact they just want to harm you. Google’s Play Store has frequently received criticism for its less-than-robust approach to filtering unsafe content, and if you’re not careful, you could find yourself being tracked, hacked, or conned.

With that in mind, we take a look at ten seemingly-innocent popular apps you shouldn’t install under any circumstances:

1. QuickPic

What it is: QuickPic used to be a friendly and easy-to-use photo gallery. It was never flashy, but clear communications and frequent updates saw it steadily grow a well-sized user base.

Why it’s bad: It was bought by Cheetah Mobile last year. The company immediately started uploading users’ data to their own servers, as evidenced by one Google Plus user who found a raft of new DNS requests that were attributable to the app.

What you should use instead: There are lots of gallery apps for Android . One alternative that’s been gathering pace recently is Piktures. It claims to be the first gesture-based gallery app and is completely ad-free.

2. ES File Explorer

What it is: Amazingly, it’s probably the most popular file explorer app out there. That’s because it used to be really, really good – five years ago.

Why it’s bad: The free version has been pumped full of bloatware and ad-ware, and it endlessly nags you to download additional apps via non-disable-able notification bar pop-ups.

What you should use instead: There are loads to choose from . If you want an open-source offering turn to OI File Manager; if you’re more concerned with design try out FX File Explorer; or if customization is your thing, you can look to Total Commander.

3. UC Browser

What it is: The most popular Android web browser in China and India. It claims to have a “fast mode” that’ll save you MBs of data usage thanks to compression.

Why it’s bad: Tracking. Users’ search queries are sent without encryption to Yahoo India and Google, a user’s IMSI number, IMEI number, Android ID, and Wi-Fi MAC address are sent without encryption to Umeng (an Alibaba analytics tool), and users’ geolocation data (including longitude/latitude and street name) is transmitted without encryption to AMAP (an Alibaba mapping tool).

What you should use instead: Where to start? Chrome and Firefox are the obvious choices, but some people have worries about privacy concerns there too. A solid all-around privacy protector is Lightning .

Also Read:- List Of Best And Clean Android Smartphones For Taking Selfies 

4. CLEAN it

What it is: A “junk file cleaner” that’s been installed 10 million times and has 85 percent four- or five-star reviews.

Why it’s bad: Most of what it advertises is detrimental to your phone. For example, clearing the cache will ultimately slow your phone down when it needs to be rebuilt, clearing your RAM only leads to more battery usage, and killing running apps does not save your battery as claimed.

What you should use instead: Greenify is a much better option for reducing apps’ battery drain, and SD Maid is a more useful junk filter for ad files and logs, etc. You can also try these clean-up apps that we’ve tested.

5. Music Player

What it is: As implied, it’s an app that lets you play audio files saved on your device.

Why it’s bad: It has lots of ads, but more worryingly from a user standpoint, it eats through data plans and destroys your battery. People who’ve commented on its Google Play listing report gigabytes of data being consumed, as well as massive battery drain.

What you should use instead: There are lots of ways to stream music on Android, while Google Play Music and Phonograph are both good ways to manage audio that’s already on y