Advice Request What AV for an Android Phone?

[cartaphilus]

When my parents visited, they offered me a valuable opportunity to test an Android-based antivirus solution.

Their devices, operating on Android 15, were running ESET with potentially unwanted program (PUP) detection activated; nevertheless, they still managed to become infected after downloading a peculiar game from the official Play Store.

The issue with the phone was that every time an application gained focus, a full-screen advertisement would appear, which became exceedingly irritating.

I conducted a scan using ESET; nothing was found.

I performed a scan with Norton: nothing was found.

Bitdefender: nothing was found.

Trend Micro: nothing was found.

Ultimately, I uninstalled all the unfamiliar software that I could not verify as legitimate and upgraded the phone to Android 16. This resolved the issue. However, the fact that no Android antivirus software detected anything, not even a PUP or adware, raises serious concerns about the effectiveness of Android antivirus solutions.

 

[Bot]

Your experience indeed raises valid concerns about the effectiveness of Android antivirus solutions. However, it's important to remember that no antivirus can guarantee 100% protection. Regular updates, safe browsing habits, and downloading apps only from trusted sources are also crucial for maintaining security.

 

[Parkinsond]

I do not use any AV for android phone; just NextDNS DoT and Vivaldi adblocker, with careful selection of apps to install and websites to visit.

 

[Jonny Quest]

That's what I was wondering here, as far as McAfee's "baked in" version as @superleeds27's put it, in being good enough as well as following your advice @Parkinsond

App Review - McAfee Ultimate 2025

I didn't see McAfee in the AV-Comparatives report that it was reviewed for Android. I wonder how good the Android version is and if it's good enough on its own? https://www.av-comparatives.org/tests/mobile-security-review-2025/

malwaretips.com

 

[Moonhorse]

Since they are running android 16, you should use advanced protection ( i suppose its pixel) but if youre running samsung you can enable samsung hardened mode whatever it is called, to block installing apps outside of playstore.

But since this rogue app was in play store, i would suggest installing sophos intercept x and enable the pup/pua protection and '' app reputation '' wich should pick it up for sure

I have experience of sophos, kaspersky, McAfee, avast, avg, norton, trend micro, f-secure, g-data, zone alarm on android, i have tried them all and i must say my favorite list is

1. McAfee
2. Kaspersky
3. sophos

This is because of those antiviruses pretty much run with firefox, edge, google chrome since many or atleast some of the antiviruses will stick protecting chrome only with their webfilter service

but about antiviruses detecting malicious apps in google playstore its hard one, there isnt much info/tests done with the android antiviruses and hard to say wich one has best detection rate, i myself rate them pretty much after how they do on windows , by detection rate

Eset should be top notch, but maybe it doesnt have pup/pua protection then? I would probably pick one wich has them

Malwarebyte is bashed about being mediocore antivirus on windows but on android it probably shines , web protection is superior, vpn should be fast and they have adwcleaner so it should be detecting pups/puas i guess

Sophos is completely free and since hitmanpro is efficient finding pua/pups and android version has this protection it definitely should pick up the malicious app.

tldr: use adblocker always on android, adguard is best, but if you have edge or firefox install ublock origin or use brave/vivaldi. use dns for blocking malicious pages, controld, cloudflare malware protection, dns0 are good options. use built-in protections like advanced protection or samsungs protection features. and if youre unsure after all you can pick antivirus but personally i use antivirus on android for web protection, but if youre lucky it will pick up malicious app from google playstore

 

[roger_m]

While it's disappointing that no antivirus detected it, you need to bear in mind that just as with Windows, no antivirus will detect everything. At least you were able to resolve the issue by uninstalling some apps.

 

[Trident]

Trend Micro: nothing was found.

Are you really sure? Because Trend has got this aggressive mode that wants to delete half of your apps for various reasons…
Also, peculiar and potentially unwanted, these are 2 subjective definitions that vendors don’t slap like candies.

 

[Zero Knowledge]

You can't stop people downloading apps/games from the official Google Play store. Even tech savvy users get pwned from the store, your parents are not alone of getting infected from the official store.

That's why Apple is miles ahead of Android, they control and enforce the rule around apps in their store much better than Google.

You can use NextDNS private dns and use the blocking all google services/I.P' filter lists but then you won't be able to download important security app updates from the store or monthly Android updates.

Just educate your parents on how to reset their Android device, keep good security hygiene and keep using good protection like ESET.

 

[cartaphilus]

Are you really sure? Because Trend has got this aggressive mode that wants to delete half of your apps for various reasons…
Also, peculiar and potentially unwanted, these are 2 subjective definitions that vendors don’t slap like candies.

yeah I thought I enabled everything that needed to be enabled in order to perform as thorough of a scan as possible.

And yes I have adguard app installed on my parents phones, it was also not stopping the popups. I really wish I took the time to identify what app was the culprit but sadly I just threw my hands up and did a nuke and pave solution.

As a sidenote I signed them up for Bitdefender solution even though it didn't detect the culprit, my thought patterns was: Since Google is using ESET as their default scanner for their Playstore then why double up on the same scanner?

 

[rashmi]

I'm also contemplating whether to install an antivirus on my 14-year-old niece's Android phone. Her phone has some protection enabled with Google Family Link and NextDNS. Sophos appears excellent and is completely free with no ads. I have Kaspersky Standard licenses, which support the Android Edition, but I'm unsure of the features offered with the Standard license. I couldn't find a detailed comparison of Kaspersky Android Editions. @harlan4096, Can you provide details on Kaspersky Android Editions?

 

[Moonhorse]

I'm also contemplating whether to install an antivirus on my 14-year-old niece's Android phone. Her phone has some protection enabled with Google Family Link and NextDNS. Sophos appears excellent and is completely free with no ads. I have Kaspersky Standard licenses, which support the Android Edition, but I'm unsure about the features offered with the Standard license. I couldn't find a detailed comparison of Kaspersky Android Editions. Maybe @harlan4096 could help here.

Pretty much it should have everything except the VPN, so blocking of websites, realtime antivirus, data leak checker... everything you basically need.

Kaspersky is much better option than sophos is, even its free but the phishing protection isn there tbh. Sure sophos has filtering categories like prevent adults sites etc. but nextdns already do that.

Personally i would choose McAfee on android, over kaspersky and sophos because of best web protection, vpn, data breach detector, scanning of messages etc with ai. etc.

About nextDNS, my personal opinion is that COntrolD is much better than NextDNS, their threat filtering is miles ahead than just blocklists

Special: many not like this but webroot is always on virustotal detecting phishing sites, and its more cheap than mcafee, kaspersky, etc. one could use it for phishing protection but the anti-malware is probably poor

Personally i dont think anti-malware plays huge role when you dont install apps outside of playstore, what i would do is just to go for strongest web protection

 

[Parkinsond]

About nextDNS, my personal opinion is that COntrolD is much better than NextDNS, their threat filtering is miles ahead than just blocklists

NextDNS filtering is identical to DNS0 (websites blocked by DNS0 is exactly the same blocked by NextDNS), and according to tests, DNS0 rate of blocking malicious and phishing websites is just two percent lower than than of ControlD).
I was using ControlD before; it has less false positive blocks than both DNS0 and NextDNS, but the free tier lacks the option to whitelist certain websites.
So if going to use the free tier, NextDNS might be a better option; however, if planning to pay for, ControlD worth the money more.

 

[harlan4096]

I'm also contemplating whether to install an antivirus on my 14-year-old niece's Android phone. Her phone has some protection enabled with Google Family Link and NextDNS. Sophos appears excellent and is completely free with no ads. I have Kaspersky Standard licenses, which support the Android Edition, but I'm unsure of the features offered with the Standard license. I couldn't find a detailed comparison of Kaspersky Android Editions. @harlan4096, Can you provide details on Kaspersky Android Editions?

It's difficult to know , since there is no a comparative plans link (as there is for desktop products) for mobile devices.

I only know that I have Premium license in my Samsung A54, and have all the features

 

[rashmi]

It's difficult to know , since there is no a comparative plans link (as there is for desktop products) for mobile devices.

I only know that I have Premium license in my Samsung A54, and have all the features

The online help files do not list the Android Edition; only the Windows Edition. According to Kaspersky's mobile security page comparison, the standard license includes Real-Time Antivirus, Anti-phishing, App Lock, and Ad Block. Could you explain the ad-blocking function within mobile security? Does anti-phishing extend to in-app links, for example, in WhatsApp?

 

[harlan4096]

Hum...

I don't think Android version has Ad-Block module, infact I'm using NextDNS in my mobile device.

 

[Moonhorse]

The online help files do not list the Android Edition; only the Windows Edition. According to Kaspersky's mobile security page comparison, the standard license includes Real-Time Antivirus, Anti-phishing, App Lock, and Ad Block. Could you explain the ad-blocking function within mobile security? Does anti-phishing extend to in-app links, for example, in WhatsApp?

There is no adblock module on even premium version

and about the anti-phishing , yes its blocking in whatsapp too. It requires installing of google chrome though

I dont have kaspersky premium installed currently but my mom has so heres picture which i took with my phone. it says blocking malicious links , supported message apps are telegram, whatsapp and i dont know wich is 3rd, probably google messages? It says it opens links on google chrome as its only browser supported for this feature. Sure web protection in overall works in firefox, edge, chrome...but thats not link opening feature

 

[rashmi]

Hum...

View attachment 289861

I don't think Android version has Ad-Block module, infact I'm using NextDNS in my mobile device.

My bad, I didn't see the drop-down menu. The Android help page provides detailed comparisons. Thank you!

 

[rashmi]

it says blocking malicious links , supported message apps are telegram, whatsapp and i dont know wich is 3rd, probably google messages? It says it opens links on google chrome as its only browser supported for this feature. Sure web protection in overall works in firefox, edge, chrome...but thats not link opening feature

Supported browsers

support.kaspersky.com

Safe Messaging

support.kaspersky.com

 

[Moonhorse]

Supported browsers

support.kaspersky.com

Safe Messaging

support.kaspersky.com

Yes i did read this, seems edge is not supported.

I installed kaspersky on my phone to seee how it works, and is there way to get link protection work in firefox but it seems nope. Like i open link from discord on my phone, it will open firefox currently but wont use KSN to scan the url? So for best protection one should use google chrome as browser

 

[rashmi]

What's the impact of Kaspersky on phone and battery usage?

@Moonhorse, Kaspersky scans links only in browsers it supports that are set as default. Is Firefox your phone's default browser?