360 Security App Review

Why I Deleted 360 Security

At first, I could handle the ads, but then they took over my phone and I deleted it a while back.

Did Ads Kill the 360 Security app?

I am now getting search traffic for the term “360 security app annoying ads”. So looks like it has been annoying a few other people too. However, it looks like the app itself has self-destructed. When you try to download the app now, it doesn’t exist:

360 security – gone

Did 360 Security Actually Deliver Security?

In April 2018, many apps were flagged and removed from Google Play for giving users a false sense of security. While “com.qihoo.security” is not on the list, maybe that’s what happened. I don’t see any news online explaining its disappearance.

What was 360 Security?

360 Security was Free Security Protection for Android Phones, “Trusted by 200 million users, 360 Security is the #1 all-in-one power cleaner, smart speed booster and antivirus app that optimizes your background apps, memory storage, junk files & battery power, keeping your device safe from virus and trojan.”

Was 360 Security Safe?

With 16,465,267 people rating it 4.6 in Google Play store… it seemed like the app was rocking it given there were very few bad scores on this chart.

 

360 Security App Review: What I Liked

Well, I’m a bit of an app junkie, so my phone gets cluttered, like a lot. This app helped me clean things up on an ongoing basis. One other thing I liked was the easy-access bar it adds to my phone for “Torch” which allows me to use my phone as a LED flashlight without another app. I also couldn’t figure out a way to do this on my own using the prepacked setup on my unlocked Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4.

360 Security App Review: What I Didn’t Like

Well, there are ads… and they INCREASED, and…

At one point, the app updated and created an issue that drove me nuts for a week or so.

In the house, we kept hearing a seemingly random, loud-pitched, beeping noise. Sounded like a smoke-detector low battery warning.

Finally, I narrowed it down to a 100% charged beep notification coming out of my Samsung Galaxy S4.

Then I figured out this loud beep was being generated by the app.

 

360 Security Android: How to stop the Madness

Not sure when they added this functionality, but here is how I got rid of it. This super-annoying notification is hiding way down in the 360 Security App Settings menu (bottom):

Next step is to move the Full charge notification alarm setting Off (to the Left) to stop the daily semi-random annoyance:

At least they were nice enough to silence the thing for certain time periods, I just want it off ALL the time!

Final Verdict

This app has been cleaned off my phone, so now I need a new cleaner (or a new phone).