For Android, Are Antivirus Applications Really Needed?

This guide covers for Android, are antivirus apps really needed? with practical context and easy-to-follow details. Use it to understand the subject and apply the information confidently.

Android Is Completely Safe

Android itself is a fairly secure operating system, a statement that has only received many approvals in the past few years. All Android phones have a bootloader locker (system startup and operating system) to prevent access to the system partition. By default, the sideload option of unapproved apps is disabled.

These two options (unlocking bootloader and sideload app) are the most common ways for Android devices to be infected with malware and both are blocked by default. In fact, most malware issues on Android are in these two ways because the specific default security features are turned off. That is what makes Android different from other competitors. You can freely do what you want with your phone.

Google even makes sideload safer with Android Oreo. Instead of this feature being a generic setting as before, simply allow or not allow the app to be installed from outside the Google Play Store, it works on a per-app basis. That means it can allow apps to be installed from a source other than Google Play Store like the Amazon Appstore. This is a smart way to handle this installation.

Simply put, if you do not intend to unlock the bootloader (not even on multiple phones) or sideload the app, you will be protected by the system.

Google Play Protect Scans Apps but Is Not Perfect

Google has an integrated system that can scan all apps in Google Play Store (and on the phone). It is called Google Play Protect, which is considered a program to protect devices from malware anytime, anywhere.

But like any malware scanner, it's not perfect. There are still things that get through the "eye" of this software and sometimes malware-infected apps have been downloaded thousands of times before they are discovered. These only make people think that Android is an unsafe operating system, infected with malware.

And this is an unfair description with Android. You probably already know the ways to avoid malware on Android but it's important to pay attention. You need to make sure the developer name is legitimate, read the description, see the screenshot and check the comments before downloading any apps.

• How to identify and avoid fake Android apps in Google Play Store

In short, be careful when installing apps, not only on Android and this doesn't take much time. With the apps you plan to install, it is legal that you won't have to worry about anything. Therefore, taking a few minutes to read the information before installing will make the difference between downloading legitimate apps and installing malware.

And, You Don't Need to Install an Antivirus App

Many antivirus companies have taken advantage of 'virus incidents' to release malware scanning apps on this platform. Of course you can install antivirus apps for Android if you want. However, it really didn't find anything that Google didn't know and protected more than Play Protect.

• Protect Android devices by sending unspecified apps to Google

Of course, most antivirus apps on Android also do other things like blocking spam phone calls, protecting your phone from theft and providing many other features. Those are additional benefits, but these features have been gradually built into Android.

Clearly, you can use antivirus apps if this makes you more secure but if you still download the app from an unclear source, allow third-party apps to use resources, do What the operating system does, this doesn't make sense. Therefore, you only need to pay a little attention to the apps installed from Google Play, everything is safe.