When someone talks about third party file explorers, our mind goes back to the time when old flavours of Androids such as KitKat and Lollipop were latest versions. While Google has introduced file explorers on the stock interfaces starting from Marshmallow upgrade, there are a considerable number of users who are consuming these third-party file explorers.

The main reason for these apps still in circulation is that most brands take time to update their handsets with latest Android flavours. So, they haven’t got any choice regarding using a stock explorer. Talking about the main issue, ES Explorer, which is synonymous with word file explorer is a widely popular app on Google Play Store.

The Estrongs owned app is suspected of installing adware without smartphone users permission. The issue came into highlight when posted on Reddit by a concerned user, who reportedly has been using ES Explorer for years. But feels the company is violating permissions on user’s smartphones. The Nexus 6P user by name andrewbi posted that after he plugged in the device for charging, the ES Explorer app installed a third-party app called DU charge booster automatically. It also replaced the home screen with ads that were earlier not visible.

One of the most recent instances that was reported by one of our readers sharing two screenshots where you can clearly see popup ads being displayed on top of other apps. Wouldn’t you get irritated by some random advert popping up in between your conversation on WhatsApp or any other app for that matter? The ES Explorer icon can be seen stating Apps Secretly Downloading files!

Apparently, it is not the first time that ES Explorer has behaved like this. The explicit behaviour dates back to last year when the Charging Screensaver was persistently appearing and miraculously claiming to increase charging time by 20%. If you’re on an older version of Android and looking for a third-party File Explorer on your device, then we recommend trying some other apps like Solid Explorer or use your default explorer on the device.

Thanks to our reader Krupesh Raval for screenshots.

Note: We had earlier wrongly reported that the ES File Explorer app was from Cheetah Mobile, but the fact is that its owned by estrongs that was recently acquired by Baidu.