Do I need an antivirus?

Those two kinda do different things .. at least, on a PC. I'd suggest you do what I do with my PC and pick one (Avast) to keep running and occassionally re-enable (or re-install) the other one (Malwarebytes) and run a quick scan.

Having said that, I've never used AV on my phone. I'm reasonably careful what I do on it - like never opening attachments unless they're things I'm expecting to receive - plus I avoid doing anything very sensitive like internet banking on my phone.

 

Dealer's choice

If you use the forum search you will see that some people never use an anti-virus with Android.Myself I just use Avast as well on all my devices including windows.It has a very small resource footprint and is free so,"Why Not"
Also the app version has other nice features like being able to track your phone if stolen and the ability to hide the program from a would-be thief.Also,unlike some bloated AVs I've never had a lock-up or crash with Avast since winXP or before.

My 10 Penn'th cguru:

 

I use Kaspersky mostly because it came with my PC and laptop dubscriptions and it has anti-theft functions on both my tablet and phone.

 

"Live Wallpapers" may look nice but they can be a big battery drain.Just a thought

 

I dont think we need antivirus apps tbh but if like me youre lazy about reading app permissions, its good to have an app that warns you about ads or possibly harmful permissions while the app downloads and before installation. (I use Appbrain Ad Detector)

As for live wallpapers, they only use CPU/battery while youre on homescreen so dont worry about battery unless you spend a lot of time staring at it, in which case its probably worth the battery drain

 

That scan isn't always 100% accurate. Apps still sneak by.

 

I'm a little late, but still.. I use AVG. I like it, because it is not just an antivirus and a tracking app if your phone gets stolen, but you can also lock apps, blaclist, tracks your phones preformance and scans every app right when you download it....

 

Thats true. Am i right in thinking there was a popular keyboard app that was a key-logger? Or was that a cracked version outside of Play?
whatever it was though, antivirus apps didnt flag it and i wouldnt really call it a virus. More malware that had been installed by choice by the user(?)

 

I'm sure you've gotten the answer you needed but here is my 0.02 cents worth. I run Avast on my phone just for precautionary stakes. I only download from the play store. I also run Addon Detector for push adds that the antivirus doesn't stop. To me this is the biggest "Virus" Android has is stuff like push adds and other types of advertisement. I generally purchase all my apps so that I can get add free versions and support the developer. There are a few free apps though that I use quite a bit that do not offer a "Pay" version but no adds have been associated with them as far as I can tell.

So the question is do you need Anti-virus well the real answer to that is dependent upon how you use your device and how you obtain apps. How you download attachments and from who.

 

Well .. not legally

 

For Android I do not think it is necessary to install an antivirus. I have installed AVG in my phone but so far it hasn't found any viruses (which makes me wonder if it really works). If you have a powerful device you can leave installed a free antivirus