Many of these apps also have value beyond preventing viruses. Indeed, a number of them come with bonus features like anti-theft controls. These allow you to locate and track misplaced phones as well remotely lock and delete their contents. Some apps also provide phone and message filters, letting you add unknown (and unwanted) numbers to a blacklist.
Additionally, you’ll discover many options that offer network and web monitoring. Hence the app will alert you whenever you’re on a suspect site or risky Wi-Fi network. It’s also possible to find programs that backup your data as well. And a handful of applications are even designed with alarms and flashlights. Finally, we should note that many companies offer both free and paid versions of their apps.
We know that all of the above sounds great. But there are some drawbacks to downloading Top & Best Android Antivirus in 2020 apps. These applications often take up a decent amount of space and consume battery life. They can also impede your processing speed and barrage you with irritating notifications. Moreover, some Android enthusiasts argue that if you simply stick to downloading apps from Google Play, your phone should be fine.
Stay Safe on All of Your Devices
So, which one should you choose? It depends on just what you need to protect, but we assume you want a suite that at least installs on your Windows and Android devices. McAfee Antivirus Plus is an Editors’ Choice antivirus, with protection for unlimited devices. Kaspersky Security Cloud is an Editors’ Choice security suite and gets great lab scores both on Windows and Android. Bitdefender Total Security likewise pulls in top lab scores and offers a cornucopia of features on Windows; with Kaspersky Security Cloud, it’s an Editor’s Choice for security mega-suite. You won’t go wrong with one of these three, but the others have their own merits. Click through the links, read the full reviews, and make your choice.
Qihoo 360 Security
Qihoo’s 360 Security gives you everything for free, but the catch is that you’ll be overwhelmed by ads, ads, and more ads. Trading up to the ad-free version would be more compelling if we had a better idea of how well 360 Security protected against malware, and if it didn’t slow system functions to a crawl during scans. As of now, we can’t recommend 360 Security, free or paid.
Sophos Mobile Security
In the past, Sophos has been a winner of the AV-TEST awards – an Independent IT-Security Institute. It is an excellent free security app for Android, which does not display any ads and is feature-rich. In addition to proper malware protection, you can have access to features like loss and theft protection, app locker, security adviser that gives you advice on how to improve device security, call blocker, authenticator, etc. The antivirus app has more than 1 million downloads on the Play Store and does the job of protection against malware, viruses, and trojans that could hamper the performance of your smartphone.
McAfee Mobile Security
Like Avast, McAfee offers a ton of features, and a free version full of ads and upsell suggestions. The malware protection is decent, and a useful “Guest” feature lets other people safely use your phone for a short time. You’ll get some good stuff without paying, such as anti-theft features and a Wi-Fi security scanner. But the paid app is a bit pricey at $30 per year, and the VPN client costs even more.