Avast! Mobile Security - what happened?

[Erebus]

Regrettably I have updated my Avast! for a Galaxy Tab. Like so many others at Google Play I am also disappointed with such a great app now now ruined. The GUI is a backward step, the ads for premium are a surprise and not expected, but worse of all is the sudden battery drain after installing the latest version. Thankfully I have not updated my 2 family android phones. I will leave them with the previous version for now. I guess my question is, like the way Google have now ruined their Maps, why did Avast! also decide to fix something that wasn't broken? Is there a way to roll back the update?

[Filip Havlicek]

Hi,

what app from the three is causing the battery drain? Did you try to reinstall it by any chance?

Filip

PS: I don't think there is a way to rollback. You will have to sideload some old .apk from somewhere if you want to get back to an older version.

[Erebus]

I only have AMS, nothing else. Just so disappointed that Avast! chose to ruin what was such a great app with so many accolades and awards. Right now I am embarrassed to say I have it. Hopefully they will soon realise what they have done and revert back to what it once was. Aside from the ads and GUI issues, the battery and resource usage makes the app pretty much useless now.

I will nevertheless try an uninstall/reinstall and see if that makes any difference.

I never thought I would see the day when Avast!'s owner would put corporate greed over the functionality of their products. I am quite shocked actually as I have long been a supporter of all their AV solutions

[Ondra Cermak]

Hi,

we haven't added anything that would cause such battery drain. If you're sure it's AMS, try to disable the App shield and App Locking.

About the Premium features - what was free, stays free, only the new features are paid + there's a whole new product (avast! Backup). I think it's pretty understandable that a company must pay its employees and for that, needs some kind of revenue.

We'll be working on the UI though, because we're aware that it's not optimal, especially on tablets.

Ondra

[Erebus]

a company must pay its employees and for that, needs some kind of revenue.

... it's not optimal, especially on tablets.

Ondra

Have no problem with buying apps, but they should be a one-off purchase. Given it has been heavily promoted and awarded as the best FREE mobile AV, it just seems a great let down, greedy, and counter intuitive to what Avast! stands for. An ongoing fee for additional features cannot be described any other way than gouging IMO. As for the nags and ads... well, words fail me to be honest. Adware is so 1990s really. Why such a retrograde step? Why not have two separate apps - a FREE version and a PREMIUM version. I think if you had handled this better many folks like myself would have been more than happy to pay a reasonable one-off app fee, and given how many of us have Avast! MS, surely that would have been profitable enough?

As for the GUI, again, if it isn't broken, why change it? The previous version GUI was streets ahead and I am chastising myself for not believing the terrible reviews on Google Play and downloading the update on my tablet. I thought maybe it was just a few radicals, until I saw what a mess it has become for myself and then went back and read dozens of other reviews from similar disappointed users.

I feel that Avast! has broken the wonderful trust they have built up with their customers over this terrible change to AMS. Many will just accept it and carry on, but I am so upset by how it's been ruined that I feel I have to say something.

Please roll it back to how it was if you can.

[reinhardholzner]

erebus - all the features that were free, stay free so i do not understand the problem you specify when you talk about the premium situation.

[Erebus]

i do not understand the problem...

I thought I had made it clear. Okay, up until this new version the AMS app ALWAYS worked, never froze on scans, never chewed through battery. It had a GUI that was usable and easy to use. It did not contain adware and nags. It was optimised for tablet screens so that you don't just have a small block of text or menu items that can hardly be read in the middle of the screen instead of filling the screen as it ALWAYS did in the versions before it was ruined by the latest update. It's almost as if you let a team of work experience developers update the app who had no idea how good it was before they ruined it. Read through a few pages of Google Play reviews and you will see I am not a lone voice.

In short, AMS, the wonderful app that so many of us raved about and recommended and the app that won so many awards, is no more. Corporate greed and the need to change stuff for change's sake has RUINED it.  Now that I have had it for a while I can see that it freezes on scans. Just today the whole app stopped working during the SD scan. NEVER has it done this before. I cannot believe the owners of Avast have allowed what was probably their greatest ever app to be ruined in this way. I didn't update our phones thank God, but I am so upset that I will need to remove Avast! from my tablet now to get a professional AV solution that actually works on a tablet without constant nags to upgrade, doesn't freeze and doesn't drain my battery.

I will ask again in the hope that someone will answer: Why did you have to ruin this app? Can't you roll it back and have a separate premium app for those who are happy to pay for an app that no longer works. I just cannot fathom why Avast! would ruin all their good work and reputation with such a retrograde step. In the past, AV solutions would actually remove adware, not constantly push their own ads, and the apps always worked well with well developed functions and GUIs. That is all gone now. Perhaps it's a reflection on modern society and I am just too old fashioned. Either way, all I can say is AMS RIP.

If you cannot roll back the app, can I buy the old version from you instead please? I cannot allow myself to be conned into this monthly fee scam for a second-rate app. I know the basic app is still available without the extortion fee, but as I have said, it no longer works. I am not prepared to pay to see if the paid versions works any better.

[Ondra Cermak]

Well, if the scan freezes and battery is being drained, it's a bug, not a feature that crept there together with the premium features.

The UI is not ruined, we simply left the features that are being used the most on the dashboard and put those less used to the side navigation. We understand that not everyone use the product in the same way, but we're trying to satisfy as many users as we can. With the number of features growing, the list UI we used before would get too cluttered and confusing. I know it may sound surprising, but many people want the Virus scanner, not a Swiss army knife, so we cleaned it up a bit.

There's no separate premium app, because we don't want to shatter our user base. And it's much more convenient for the user to upgrade to premium, whenever he feels like it. You can always use the free features, and when you feel you'd need something more, you don't have to uninstall and install something else again.

There's no way of buying the old version, unless you find the APK lying somewhere on the internet.

But, it'd be much more helpful to actually help us fix the problems you have (virus scanner and battery drain), rather than to pronounce as doomed and leave. If you want to help, let me know and I'll tell you how to send us the information we need. We're aware of the Virus scanner issue, but so far we weren't able to reproduce it ourselves.

Thanks,

Ondra

[Erebus]

Thanks Ondra, and sorry that you have misunderstood me. I will just bow out gracefully. I cannot explain myself any other way than I already have.

[poke]

Hi,

we haven't added anything that would cause such battery drain. If you're sure it's AMS, try to disable the App shield and App Locking.

About the Premium features - what was free, stays free, only the new features are paid + there's a whole new product (avast! Backup). I think it's pretty understandable that a company must pay its employees and for that, needs some kind of revenue.


Ondra

What about sms hadling? That used to be in the free version so you saying that everything that was free still is bs. You took features OUT of the ANTI-THEFT and now are part of the "premium app".
I pay for two copies of avast internet security, and loved the mobile app. Now you want me to pay again? THAT is what my problem is. If that is the way you do business, then count me out. I will wait till my contract is up and switch to something else. Greed is a horrible thing and you are going to lose business over it. you may make some money off the mobile app in the short term, but as soon as all your paying customers that are upset whose contracts have run out, then leave, i think you will see that was a bad idea.
 i have been part of your revenue "paying your employees" for over 4-5 years now. I'm upset. I will leave. Bad press spreads a LOT farther than good.

Also you last update is broke....keeps telling me to update when I already have. More bad press.

[Ondra Cermak]

SMS/Call filter is still in the free version. Look to the side navigation (either swipe it from the left, or press the logo on the dashboard). Like I said, everything that was free, stays free. Anti-Theft features are still free, only new features (picture taking, password check, geofencing) are paid.

I understand that you're upset about paying for PC and now mobile, but what about people who want only mobile protection? They are two different products. I'm not responsible for pricing and such, but I'm imagining it like if Microsoft would be giving people its Office for free, because they already bought Windows, or Adobe giving Acrobat for free because people already bought Photoshop. It could happen in the future, that there will be some kind of bundle license (PC + Mobile) with some discount, but I like I said, I'm not responsible for this and know nothing about it. I'm just speculating.

[poke]

It could happen in the future, that there will be some kind of bundle license (PC + Mobile) with some discount, but I like I said, I'm not responsible for this and know nothing about it. I'm just speculating.

Ya, kaspersky has a nice bundle...... pc+mobile. Just checked.

[poke]

Also i was not refering to the sms filter...... I was talking about the ability to forward sms to another phone when mine has been lost or stolen. This (and several other features)
,like i said, are now missing from the ANTI THEFT section. Dont try and tell me that you guys didnt remove this...... you are dancing around the fact that you removed features from the anti theft.....now if those features aren't part of the premium package, then can you please tell me why they were removed? such as the ability to forward sms AND calls to another phone when mine has been lost or stolen.....

[svehlak]

This is simply not true. SMS and call forwarding is still free and present in Antitheft. Please check first before you start to offending other people.

[Erebus]

Updated my Galaxy Tab with the latest version, and whilst it's a slight improvement, it is still nowhere near as good or as fast as the earlier version before Premium was added, IMO. The slow scanning I can live with on the tablet, but I would still like to see the GUI restored to how it was, with the Settings tab back on the main menu. This is particularly important for small phone screens, although because of the backward step of these latest versions, I have not installed on my phones, but I can see it would be a problem accessing the slide-out or drop down menu on smaller screens. Just seems logical to me to have the Settings back where it was, but there you go.

Would also like to see the GUI optimised for tablets as it used to be in the earlier versions, instead of just small blocks of text or menu options in the middle of the screen, especially in landscape mode. That was one of the things I loved about the previous versions. It was always laid out well on the 10.1 tablet screen regardless of rotation. Now it's just a mess of course. Are you sure you guys aren't Google in disguise? They have a habit of killing their apps lately as well.

Anyway, thanks for at least this latest partial fix. Hopefully more are to come.

How long can I use the excellent older version before I will need to update it on my phones, or can I leave it indefinitely with definitions updates and protection remaining  the same?