Does Anti-Theft not even offer rooted option for auto turning on GPS any more?

[REDACTED]

Hi

I got a new phone and installed Anti-Theft
It never asked for root permissions and will not turn on GPS.

I read another post from 3 years ago saying if you un-install and install from apk file instead of from play store, then you will then be asked to update to a different file in the play store for rooted devices, but the link to play store for the rooted version is gone.

If anyone has an info on this, I would really appreciate it.
I don't understand why a working and very useful feature would be removed.

Thank you.

[Asyn]

See: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=180261.0

[Lisandro]

Google removed the API interface that allows app to do that.
It's not Avast only. Any app cannot do it anymore.

[REDACTED]

Google removed the API interface that allows app to do that.
It's not Avast only. Any app cannot do it anymore.

This is incorrect.
On my rooted phone (android v6), I put Avast Anti-Theft and Cerberus.
I moved both to be system apps.
When I send a locate command via Avast, it does not turn on GPS.
When I send a locate command via Cerberus, it does turn on GPS (and turns it off when you send a locate-stop command).
So the capability is definitely there and the problem lies in Avast, not android.

It is a shame. Until now, Avast was by far my favourite anti-theft app. It is the one app that never failed to work whenever I tested it out from time to time.

[REDACTED]

By the way, there are a few apps that still can turn on GPS in Android 6 (Cerberus, Secure Settings, AndroidLost - to name a few).
The main thing seems to be simply requesting root access - which Avast used to do, but for some reason removed.

Is it possible to request that Avast put root permissions back in for those of us who have chosen to root our phone to gain extra functionality such as precisely this?

[Asyn]

Is it possible to request that Avast put root permissions back in for those of us who have chosen to root our phone to gain extra functionality such as precisely this?

Sure you can request it, but the final decision is up to the devs.