Airpush SDK detected as virus

Monetizing, Advertising & Marketing Advertising Networks
1

Hi all,
I like Airpush and use it in my apps.

My problem is that my apps receives bad comments says my apps are contains virus.
I investigated the problem I found Airpush SDK detected as virus.

Please, How can I solve this problem?

Regards,

2

Don’t use Airpush then because the antivirus apps consider airpush and the other push ad networks as viruses to the Android ecosystem. It’s unfortunate but it true! They will not change their position on this!

3

Yes its unfortunate but true…some antivirus apps flag ad networks as Viruses. Leadbolt’s SDK also is flagged as a virus/malware. There is a previous thread about this.
This really sucks as this will affect user ratings but I think users are more aware nowadays that these SDKs from ad networks are being flagged as viruses even though they do not contain anything malicious.

4

You can do one thing
Avast and Kasper sky does not mark Airpush , so you can post a screen shot in the play store showing that there is no virus using avast or kasper sky

5

Thank all one.

It is clear that I should leave Airpush or Airpush should find solution for their problem.

6

i thought airpush has a workaround for this. they use custom package names to cheat antivirus. but it seems it’s not working for you. i have the same problem with startapp. there is an app which i only use startapp. all negative reviews due to antivirus warnings.

7

Hi androiddev,
from your reply, I understand that Airpush use custom package names to cheat antivirus.
Where can I get this custom package?
Do you mean that it is embedded in Airpush SDK?

8

yes it’s their SDK. but unlike other ad networks, their package name is unique for each developer.

9

That only bypasses the basic scanners. Most have been updated to scan other methods besides packagenames.

10

I’m getting sick of these virus comments. They seem to happen with any ad network that uses push ads/icon ads these days and a significant amount of people use these Anti-virus apps.
The main problem is that these SDKs are NOT viruses. At the worst they can be considered ad-ware, but that can be applied to any apps with ads in, which is most apps.
Most users that see these generic alerts from their anti-virus app just see it as a threat and a dangerous one at that, when they can easily opt-out or even decline the SDK in some cases (EULA upon app launches, although Airpush cannot be rejected through that process).

I’ve got a few effective countermeasures that are worth trying:

  1. If you have access to multiple Google Play accounts (I have 15 test devices), then you can go through to your app’s page and mark these virus comments as spam. Once a comment/review is marked as spam enough times, it seems like they are removed, including the star rating that came with them. Admittedly this could be time-consuming, especially if you have a very popular app.

  2. Try to get more positive ratings for your app, so that it outweighs the negative comments to a greater extent.
    -You could get friends/family to help.
    -If you don’t already, put some sort of prompt in the app to rate the app (after a few uses of the app, so that only people who like the app will see the prompt).
    -If you’re desperate you could even try one of those “pay for ratings” campaigns, although I’d be careful about that.

  3. We try to get mass word out to these anti-virus app developers/our ad networks that something needs to be done about this for the reasons I listed above.

11

thanks for the tips. do you have 15 physical test devices or are you using emulators like bluestacks?

12

Physical devices. Gone through a few phones myself, bought a Tablet, got a few devices off friends and got a grant for some others. It’s great for testing!