I use the official Webtoon app to read comics, and recently its ads have started opening other apps without me tapping anything. Today, an ad launched TikTok and seemed to open TikTok Shop before I closed it. Other users have reported similar behavior in the app's store reviews. My phone runs Android 11, with its last security update from 2022. Play Protect and the phone's built-in antivirus found nothing, but I'm still worried about malware. How can I check the phone more thoroughly, and should I stop using the app?
3 Answers
The bigger security concern is that Android 11 has not received security updates for years. A clean Play Protect scan is reassuring, but it cannot fix vulnerabilities in an unsupported operating system. If your phone supports a newer Android version, update it; otherwise, replacing the device is the safest long-term option. Until then, avoid installing APKs from outside the official store, keep apps updated, and don’t grant unusual permissions.
An ad opening another installed app is usually caused by an aggressive or poorly configured ad network using a deep link. By itself, that does not prove your phone is infected, especially since TikTok was already installed and the app has been reported to behave this way. Keep Play Protect enabled, check for unfamiliar recently installed apps, review which apps have accessibility, device administrator, notification access, or “install unknown apps” permissions, and uninstall anything suspicious. You can also try removing Webtoon temporarily and see whether the behavior stops.
I would stop using that app for now or use it only after disabling its personalized ads, if the app provides that setting. Report the behavior to the developer and the app store. You can run another scan in Safe Mode, but if there are no unknown apps, pop-ups outside the app, battery or data spikes, or suspicious permissions, a single ad redirect is more likely an ad problem than malware. A factory reset is unnecessary unless you find stronger signs of infection.
It only happens while using Webtoon, and other people have described the same thing in its app reviews, so I wasn’t sure whether it was just the ads or something worse.