How to remove WhatsApp malware from your Android device

Some Android users have gotten the WhatsApp malware and are now dealing with advertisements that pop up when they open the app. Online reports suggest that around 25 million Android phones are infected with various kinds of malware that often serve up adverts. But we don’t know what those hackers can do to your device that’s infected with their virus. If your phone, no matter the model or brand, starts to pop up advertisements here and there or when you open apps like WhatsApp and other popular applications, it’s probably infected. Only modified WhatsApp application from third-party sources is infected. The one from the Play Store is not. 

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If you’ve also downloaded apps from 9apps.com, there’s always a chance that your device is infected. As we all know, Google has been cracking down apps that aren’t useful but were created for advertisements purposes. While there are still applications from the Play Store that are also shady, at least, they’re not the same as hacked applications. But don’t worry, there’s always something you can do about it. 

How to Remove WhatsApp Malware

More often, the malware could only be triggered by the app where its code is bound. So, it’s actually easy to get rid of it. In this post, we’ll take WhatsApp malware as the example. Here’s what you need to do: 

First solution: Uninstall shady apps first

This includes applications you sideloaded–or installed manually–including WhatsApp. This is the best way to prevent malware from running and this is how you do it: 

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen to pull the notification panel down. 
  2. Tap the Settings icon on the upper-right corner. 
  3. Scroll to and then tap Apps. 
  4. Find and tap WhatsApp. 
  5. Tap Storage. 
  6. Touch Clear data and tap OK to confirm.
  7. Tap the back key once and then touch Uninstall. 
  8. Confirm that you want to remove the app from your phone.  

This will remove WhatsApp malware right away but you only have to uninstall other shady apps you sideloaded. 

Second solution: Remove Google Updater, Google Installer, etc

Other malware are also installed on your phone but doesn’t leave an icon on the app drawer like any normal application would do. Most of the time, these services run in the background and masked as one of Google apps as they’re often named as Google Updater, Google Installer, Google Powers and Google Installer for U. Here’s how you uninstall those services…

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen to pull the notification panel down. 
  2. Tap the Settings icon on the upper-right corner. 
  3. Scroll to and then tap Apps. 
  4. Find Google Updater (or its different names) and tap on it. . 
  5. Touch Uninstall. 
  6. Confirm that you want to remove the app from your phone.  

This, too, would remove the WhatsApp malware from  your phone. However, if other apps have also been infected already, then it’s best to do the next procedure. 

Third solution: Factory reset your phone

A factory reset can, of course, get rid of any sort of malware in your phone. However, make sure to create a backup of your important files and data first as they will be deleted. After the backup, remove your Google account from your phone so that you won’t be locked out and then follow these steps to reset your device: 

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When logo shows, release all three keys.
  4. Your phone will continue to boot up into the Recovery Mode. Once you see a black screen with blue and yellow texts, proceed to the next step. 
  5. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
  6. Press Power button to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes’ is highlighted.
  8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

The best way to prevent malware is to NOT download or install apps from third-party sources especially hacked applications. Only install apps from the Google Play Store. 

I hope that we’ve been able to help you get rid of the WhatsApp malware from your Android device. We would appreciate it if you helped us spread the word so please share this post if you found it helpful. Thank you so much for reading!

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