As I started to get to work today I placed my phone on the charger. Upon reaching to unlock it, I noticed a different lock screen with blatant ads on it as seen above. There were only few a options to slide to access the real lock screen or a settings button with the lone option for “Charging LockScreen: Turn it on for faster charging speed!” Upon research of this issue it was difficult to pinpoint initially but a little digging revealed a few popular Android app developers sneaking ads on your lock screen– in this particular case the culprit app has nothing to do with lock screen functionality. It’s a photo editing app.

My initial instinct was to hunt down the nuisance by seeing what apps were running in the background. Oddly, I spotted Photo Editor Pro running when I hadn’t opened but was recently auto-updated. Once I stopped the app from running in the background the issue stopped. I do not even recommend you disable the feature… I recommend uninstalling and removing the app completely. Overzealous developers should be taught not to betray the trust of their users in order to make a buck from rogue advertising methods. I would also suggest you voice your opinion in Google Play with rating and commentary to ensure this ends.

A few months back there were a few reports on Reddit pointing to these popular apps:

• ES File Explorer and ES App Locker
• Photo Editor Pro
• Xender
• Touchpal
• Amber Weather
• GO Weather Forecast & Widgets (and most apps related to GO)
• Z Camera
• Kitty Play

I’m not sure which part is worst; the fact that the culprit in this case was from a picture editing app, or that this is one of many popular app developers slyly placing this adware update in their apps, or that they implicitly hide who installs this crap onto devices in a “feature update”, or that you cannot opt into this- it’s simply dumped with the latest update without mention in the update notes.

The origin of the adware traces back to Du Apps Studio peddling their ad network to developers. I’ve come to find that users should avoid all of their products as we have plenty of sad testimonies from peeved unsuspecting customers erasing all of their precious photos using their speed booster app. They claim this lock screen will boost charging speed but it’s clearly a monetization play using adware. Again, I implore you to report this behavior in Google Play to put an end to it.