Take a picture

Avast Mobile Apps Avast Anti-Theft for Android
1

Hello,
Firstly I would like to thanks Reinhard and his team (if he has one !) for all the work they’ve done. This is truly one of the best anti theft app on the market !

1 -
Now I think TA really needs a “take a picture” feature. I think this should be implemented in two ways :

  • when an untrusted sim card is used, a photo should be taken right after the phone boots up.
  • when initiated by the owner (by sms or the new web portal), a strange message should pop on the screen (like ‘Low memory’ or “Settings updated” or smth) then when you press ok a picture with the front camera is taken.

2 -
Another feature that could really be helpful to recover a phone would be to take a screenshot when the user browses facebook. Many people use facebook now and many people are using it with their real names. I don’t think there is a better way to get the name of the thief (or the guy that bought the phone from the thief). On my phone you cannot find my family name anywhere except on facebook or my gmail account.

3 -
Last thing, is it normal that on the web portal I cannot get some information :
Phone number: N/A

Last Update: N/A
Last Known IP Address: N/A
Last Communication: N/A

My IMEI and operator are ok though.

I hope this will help you to make TA the best of the best anti theft app. Once again thanks for your work.

Tobias.

2

hi, the take picture function is coming up, stay tuned.
regarding screenshot: 3rd party apps can not take screenshots on Android phones (at least without root and superuser access message)
regarding the information: did you set a phone number when adding your account? last update/IP/communication is normal, it only applies to desktop antivirus.

3

Hey thanks for taking your time to answer.

Good news, I hope you had some good ideas to make it work efficiently.

I thought some other anti theft app was doing the screenshot thing, hmm. Another solution would be to scan for current or past URLs browsed, then send all of them or only those containing facebook. As far as I know the whole name of your facebook account is in the url. Is it technically doable ?

I don’t think I entered any phone number while registering on avast but I thought it could get it from my phone.

One last thing, you should warn your users about the fact that if their registered e-mail is synced with their device and they choose not to lock the device on sim change, the potential thief will see the e-mail about the sim change notification. I realized that a few weeks ago.

Thanks again !

4

you’re right but we already show so much text - and honestly, nobody reads it :frowning: its good to have a second email address for this.

5

True. Maybe instead of explaining what all the setings do you should have something like :
What are the best settings to protect my phone ?

and
My phone has been stolen. What should I do now ?

6

there is a F.A.Q. - but the users dont read it most of the times. I can just talk out of experience. There is even users just anonymously posting a QUESTION as comment on Google Play and expect a reply :wink: get it?