Best antivirus for android phones free download

It also has GPS services to track your phone from another device and follow its location. Not only can you track your phone in real-time, but you can also wipe your data from your phone from another device when someone else has access to it. McAfee provides you with an anti-theft alarm which you can trigger from another device in case your phone is stolen and alert nearby onlookers. McAfee also provides features such as real-time malware protection , Wi-Fi network scanning , device optimization tools , and an app privacy scanner.

Similar to Avira, McAfee also has paid versions that include more features that can help safeguard your phone. Its McAfee Mobile Security Standard includes anti-phishing protection, app locking tools, and file backup tools.

McAfee includes fewer features than Avira in its free versions. Bullguard is known best for its anti-theft protection tools. It also has a loud anti-theft alarm you can trigger from your PC or secondary device. As for malware protection, Bullguard has WiFi scanning tools that protect your phone from malicious downloads, as well as data backups to keep your information available to you in case your phone is stolen or hacked and you are unable to access it.

This app can be used by parents who wish to take advantage of its control features. However, these controls are only available once you pay for their premium package. The Total AV Android app is another excellent antivirus that provides useful security features for your device. It has excellent anti-phishing protection and device optimization tools.

Read our full Kaspersky Mobile Antivirus review. Lookout Mobile Security, now rebranded as Lookout Security and Antivirus or Lookout Personal, was one of the first Android antivirus apps, and for a long time the best. Its ease of use, clean interface and lack of ads explain its continued popularity.

But Lookout's costs can rack up quickly. The free tier is bare-bones; it just scans for malware and locates lost phones. An unlimited VPN and a data-breach notification service make the premium price worthwhile. It might well be worth the expense.

The trouble is that Lookout doesn't often submit its app to third-partly lab evaluations, so we don't really know how well Lookout protects against malware. Its active scans are also slow and heavy. Like Avast, McAfee offers or used to offer a ton of useful features, but its free version is also full of ads and upsell suggestions.

The malware protection is decent, if not fantastic. It's not really clear why this was done, other than to "adjust our product portfolio. You'll get some good stuff with the free version of McAfee Mobile Security, such as a way to track each app's data usage and a Wi-Fi security scanner. You can get one of the best VPN services to cover all your devices for less. Read our full McAfee Mobile Security review. Google Play Protect comes built into every Android device that runs Google Play, and it would be great if it worked well.

Unfortunately, Google Play Protect's dismal malware detection makes the strongest possible argument for using a third-party Android antivirus app. We did like that Google Play Protect's interface is minimal, there are no ads and the system impact is light.

Some of Android's other built-in features, including Find My Device and Chrome Safe Browsing, mirror what third-party antivirus apps do on the side.

Google Play Protect's best feature is that Google can use it to remotely disable dangerous apps. This stays the case whether you're running third-party antivirus software or not.

We recommend you not disable Google Play Protect. But overall, Google Play Protect is awful at protecting you from malicious apps. For your own sake, please use something else. Read our full Google Play Protect review.

Ideally, to keep your Android device safe, you should keep its software updated. Each new version of Android is more secure than the one before, and each monthly Android security update fixes newly found flaws. But unless you've got a Google Pixel or Android One phone, you won't get those updates and upgrades right away. Most device makers need time to make sure changes to Android don't break their devices or software.

That lag time can be a couple of weeks, or it can be many months. Worse, some Android phone models stop getting Android OS upgrades after two years, and a few never get monthly security patches at all. That's where the best Android antivirus apps come in. They stop attacks that try to get around Android's built-in defenses, especially those that Google has patched but which your device doesn't yet or never will have.

They also stop new attacks that Google Play Protect won't catch, even on Pixel phones. Freemium apps let you choose between getting a limited set of features for free or paying to get a premium version that gives you all the possible features, similar to fully paid apps.

Apps that offer a lot of features for free may also show you a lot of ads. Such features might include anti-theft mechanisms, an "advisor" to help you examine and choose apps, a Wi-Fi network security scanners, or an app lock that requires a passcode to open specific apps. Some tack on a super-premium tier that gives you unlimited VPN service or an identity-protection-service, often at a pretty good price.

But the most important factor in deciding which Android antivirus app to use is malware protection. Norton and Bitdefender lead in this category, and Kaspersky is not far behind. Avast is good but not great, while the built-in Google Play Protect is terrible. We're not sure about Lookout and Security because they haven't submitted their apps to recent lab tests.

To gauge the security protection of the best Android antivirus apps, we used the latest bimonthly test results from AV-TEST , an independent lab in Germany that measures how well major Android security apps detect zero-day malware and other threats.

Because some apps' scores are inconsistent from one test to the next, we also looked back at the previous two years of results. We also used some results from AV-Comparatives , a lab in Austria that once a year tests nearly all the Android antivirus apps in Google Play, even those that don't cooperate with testing labs.

In most cases, Android smartphones and tablets do not need installing the antivirus. However, it is equally valid that Android viruses exist and the antivirus with useful features can add an extra layer of security. Performance: Kill tasks and processes that can slow down your phone or tablet. Clean unnecessary files and free up storage space. Check Wi-Fi download and upload speed. Protect your Android phone from viruses and get many more safety features to keep your mobile device and personal data secure.

Download Antivirus Mobile apk for Android.