Why You Should Never Download Apps from 3rd Party Providers

What’s a smartphone with no applications? Cell phone users have grown extremely attached to the wonderful opportunities Google Play has to offer. From Angry Birds to Pokemon GO, these apps have quite the tendency to cause a pop culture craze. It has gotten to the point where third party applications have opened so you can search for a wider range of apps.

Why use third party app providers?

There are certainly some benefits to using browsers other than Google Play to shop for your apps. For instance, some of these third party providers offer promotions and have a free app of the day. Some of them also create lists that are tailored to your interests, so you can easily identify which apps you want to download. The stores also offer some applications that only cater to specific countries, so you wouldn’t see a lot of these apps in Google Play.

So what’s the problem?

While these search engines can offer more of a variety of apps, there are certainly some dangers to take into account before downloading some of the material. Specifically, Trend Micro did an independent security study and found over 1,150 Android apps with malware, all from four different third party search apps. They were called “Aptoide,” “Mobogenie,” “mobile9,” and “9apps.”

It is safer to peruse Google Play for your applications because the app takes the time to filter through the malware applications, and it only allows legitimate apps to show up on the browser. While this technology is not perfect and they sometimes allow bad apps in, it is certainly far safer than many of the other third party search applications out there that are plagued with dangerous malware.

Safe Alternative to Google Play

Sick of Google Play? There are a few third party app stores that have been deemed safe by several users. Specifically, Amazon offers a variety of apps, and offers promotions to some of its users. There are several Kindle books on sale, along with games that are not included in Google Play. While the selection is much smaller than Google Play’s, it still serves as a quality alternative.