Do you really need an antivirus app on your Android?

The short answer is probably not, but it depends on how you use your device.

The heyday of third-party antivirus software has been and gone as the dominance of the PC era has ended. Names like Norton, McAfee and Avast were once familiar to PC users across the world, but unlike those Windows PCs of old, we aren't rushing en masse to install antivirus software on our phones. The reason is simple: modern Android smartphones don't really need it.

That's not to say that your device is impenetrable to malware, but protecting it isn't left entirely up to you these days. All modern operating systems, including those on mobile like Android, ship with some level of security out-of-the-box. That security might just be good enough, but it'll depend on the type of user you are, as there are some situations where extra protection for your Android smartphone might make sense.

Android isn't immune to infection. It can suffer from viruses and malware and security breaches, just like all software. It also faces attacks that are (mostly) unique to mobile, like malicious push notifications, which a 2025 Gen threat report found had tripled in the space of just three months. Spyware, too, continues to be an invasive and growing problem on mobile devices, according to this later Gen Threat report .

Luckily for the average user, Android has features and settings that are designed to try and automatically protect your phone from these threats. Google Play Protect is one of the biggest, acting as the first line of defense to keep harmful apps away from your phone. Google says it blocked 27 million new malicious apps from the Play Store in 2025 alone. It regularly scans your apps, both at the point of installation and afterwards, for threats. If they're detected, it may disable the app, or remote it automatically, depending on the level of risk.

Android also uses built-in sandboxing to isolate each app. It gives each app a secure user ID, running them in a way that prevents them from interacting with any of the other apps on your phone. Meanwhile, modern Android smartphones receive regular security updates to patch vulnerabilities, while the permissions system is designed to be proactive and opt-in so that your files, contacts and surroundings are protected. Google Play Protect helps with this, too, by alerting you to apps requesting access to sensitive data, as well as automatically resetting permissions for apps that you haven't used for a while.

Android's protection continues to evolve, too, and AI is playing its part. It's looking to introduce phone call spoofing protection to block scammers impersonating high risk calls, like those from a bank, for instance. It's also expanding its live threat detection functionality to detect suspicious actions made by apps, like SMS forwarding, which forwards messages to another number. Google has also changed its policy for Android app sideloading , and will soon only allow apps that bypass the protection of the Play Store to be installed only by "experienced users," with an initial 24-hour cooldown and mandatory ID checks for developers.

We've not moved to a virus-free world, but to a world with a number of other attack vectors that pose just as great a risk to your security. Some of the more common dangers to Android aren't a virus you'll install, but are threats designed to manipulate you into exposing your data yourself.