Avast was in the new recently as there were reports that google apps were being flagged as malware, and to that effect, the apps were either being removed from devices or were no longer responsive. Users whose devices were running the Avast antivirus applications brought this issue to light and slowly, the update gained traction, to a point that Avast themselves had to intervene.
In a public apology announcement, Avast said that “its antivirus Software Development Kit (SDK) for Android was incorrectly flagging the Google Quick Search Box as malware on Huawei phones. This SDK delivers the antivirus component of Huawei’s Optimizer app.”
Now, what’s interesting is that Huawei devices were the only ones facing this issue, and China coincidentally has the maximum number of Huawei smartphone users. Avast was quick to act on this issue and released a patch on the 30th of October, that seemingly fixed the issue. To make things clearer, the google search bar widget that is available in most android phones, was being flagged as a trojan horse, and as such, users were not able to use it for their daily use.
When Google was approached with this, the tech giant quickly responded by saying that they had nothing to do with these warnings. Their apps are consistent across the ecosystem, and that affected users should take up the issue with the developer of the concerned app.
It is good to see that the matter itself has been resolved and that the apps are now running fine on all devices.
Were you affected by this bug, and what was the experience like? Let us know in the comment section below.
