Can ad malware that is accidentally downloaded from playstore app have a delayed onset?

[Android Central Question]

My homescreen on note 8 was showing a homescreen with pop-up advertising that overplayed my original homescreen. I would have to swipe thru the advertising to get to screen where I could unlock phone. I found culprit app, but I had installed app from playstore two weeks ago. The popup ads started today. Is delayed onset a way to avoid detection on playstore?

 

[SpookDroid]

They can, unfortunately, if the app updated itself. Some apps (from shady devs) do that... enable/re-enable the lockscreen option with every update. Unless it's an app you HAVE to have, I'd uninstall and leave a bad review so others know what to expect when using this.

 

[Javier P]

... The popup ads started today. Is delayed onset a way to avoid detection on playstore?

Welcome to the forums. Exactly, that's one of the tricks they use to avoid being easily detected. A couple of months ago I wrote a guide about those full screen ads and I "infected" my backup phone with two apps that cause them. It took more than a week for the first ad to show up and there wasn't an update on that period.